The Beef Plan Movement has recently issued a letter to three of the major retailers in the UK seeking to organise meetings with representatives from each.
A statement on the letter from Beef Plan outlined the purpose of the meetings will be to “highlight the benefits of Irish grass-fed beef and how it would far outweigh any benefit from age restrictions”.
A copy of the letter was issued to: Sainsbury’s; Asda; and Tesco.
The ‘British Retail Consortium (BRC) Global Standards’ received a letter also.
The letter – seen by AgriLand – contained three questions on current beef specifications in Ireland.
The questions were as follows:
- As a retailer, would you accept beef from cattle that are over 30 months and, if so, what age limit would you be prepared to accept?
- As a retailer, would you accept beef from cattle that have more than four residency’s and, if so, how many are you prepared to accept?
- As a retailer, would you accept beef from cattle that have spent an accumulative 60 days on a quality assured farm regardless of how many farms they have moved from and provided they are all quality assured as per Bord Bia guidance?
Continuing, the Beef Plan statement explained: “We want to secure the future of the individual family farm model of cattle rearing in Ireland. Irish beef is produced to the very highest standards.
We want to see Irish farmers having more flexibility and choice to rear and finish cattle on grass as possible and not be forced to meet unnecessary age specifications.
Continuing, the statement explained that Beef Plan is “opposed to restrictions which could limit the amount of beef which is finished off grass”.
“We want to give farmers more options to reduce input costs. There is also greater health benefits from grass-fed beef,” which the Beef Plan outlined it wants to further highlight.
Concluding, Beef Plan noted it is investigating the carbon efficiency of grass-fed beef and said: “We believe it holds a more efficient footprint than grain-fed beef.”
