IFA/Farmers Journal Investigation in Brazil

IFA and the Irish Farmers Journal have travelled 3,000km across four states in Brazil visiting farms, marts and agri stores to see what is happening on the ground.

What they found will appear in today’s Irish Farmers Journal across all channels.

Having viewed the findings, IFA President Francie Gorman said the EU Commission cannot stand over what is going on in Brazil from the viewpoint of the use of animal medicines and the lack of traceability. The Mercosur deal must be stopped.

The delegation consisted of IFA Senior Policy Officer Tomás Bourke, Irish Farmers Journal Deputy Editor Adam Woods and Irish Farmers Journal Picture Editor Phil Doyle.

The team were able to walk into over a dozen agri stores in Brazil and buy any amount of antibiotics without showing any prescription, ID or herd number and were not asked any questions whatsoever about why they needed the products.

IFA President Francie Gorman said this flies in the face of all EU protocols in the fight against anti-microbial resistance (AMR) in humans.

“It completely undermines arguments by the EU Commission that the Mercosur trade deal should be approved because there is an ‘equivalence of standards’ between the Mercosur countries and the EU.” 

“I am in Brussels today and I will be bringing the findings to the attention of our MEPs and key EU officials,” he said.  

The full story is this week’s Irish Farmers Journal, with more in next week’s edition.