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[THREAD] Tune in here for all the action from today's #AgricultureBill debate in the House of Lords, where peers are voting on the key issue of food standards among other things...
Farmers are rightly worried that allowing food of low standards onto our supermarket shelves will cause a domestic race to the bottom, where they, the public, and nature will all suffer. Check this out from @herdyshepherd1 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8701521/JAMES-REBANKS-warns-against-toxic-horror-American-farming.html
The government promised to uphold food and farming standards in their 2019 general election manifesto, but have since resisted attempts to put this commitment into law, including by @neil_parish & @Simon4NDorset https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/farm-policy/agriculture-bill-which-mps-fought-for-uk-farmers
Lord Grantchester kicks things off for @LabourLordsUK, linking the produce we import to our environmental footprint, public health, and the living conditions of livestock. His amendment would require food imported through trade deals to match UK standards...
He points to Conservative, supermarket, and farming community support for enshrining a safeguard on standards in law, outlines how this would be consistent with WTO law
Lord Krebs, former chair of the Food Standards Association, is up next. He pokes holes in the way food will be deemed safe from January and questions why ministers can deviate from official advice
Baroness Boycott, former chair of London Food, says missing the opportunity to safeguard standards in the bill risks failing to tackle our nutrition and animal welfare crises, if we don't save our current standards "we haven't got a prayer"
@AnneCMcIntosh, former Defra minister, taps into the notion of sovereignty in calling for a transparent, independent commission to scrutinise agri-food chapters in all trade deals
Baroness Henig makes an important point on standards, the US and EU are both asking us to harmonise our food standards with theirs. It is therefore a choice, stick to our current standards or drop them, putting UK farms in direct competition with US mega-farms
Viscount Trenchard, who has tabled amendments effectively neutralising the standards amendments. He accuses other peers of protectionism, when in reality the UK's standards are there to safeguard the public and nature...
He goes on to say people don't have to buy lower standard food if they don't want to. But trading partners such as the US are demanding we scrap our labelling measures so people wouldn't be able to tell the difference...
@PurvisTweed says a similar protections for standards in a previous government's bill (Theresa May's Trade Bill that did not make it through Parliament) received high praise from the Lords Trade Minister. He asks what has changed since?
@youngb48 points to a recent discovery that government have deleted hundreds of antibiotic standards for the need to safeguard them in UK primary legislation. Read the story here https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8631683/Restrictions-use-antibiotics-UK-farm-animals-watered-help-trade-deal.html
Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville points out that excessive antibiotic use in livestock in other countries is necessitated by squalid living conditions. Indeed, according to the NFU, the UK is the 5th lowest antibiotic user in the EU https://www.nfuonline.com/nfu-online/news/nfu-reports/british-farming-setting-the-standard/
Lord Gardiner responding for the government: 'peers will only be convinced standards are upheld once trad deals are complete'. So why not put such a commitment in law? Says gov will consult on labelling next year, but will not prejudge any outcomes...
He adds that continuity agreements give a track record of upholding standards. But key deals with the USA, Australia and India, all of who want the UK to lower standards, are yet to be completed
Food Standards Scotland are said to have a role in determining entry of products to UK markets. But the new UK Internal Market Bill contains provisions that mean if a low standard product is green-lighted for sale in one part of the UK, it must be allowed for sale in the whole UK
The minister clarifies that any future changes to standards will be subject to a 'negative resolution SI' process. This means Parliament will not vote on such changes before they become law...
Crucially, the minister says these amendments, if passed, would make it "more difficult", but not impossible, to ensure future trade deals are WTO compliant
Lord Grantchester pushes his amendments to a vote, saying they are pivotal to ensuring British farming "remains among the best in the world"
Breaking Peers pass amendments to the #AgricultureBill safeguarding UK food import standards with a 95 (!) majority. This is a huge win for nature and poses a serious challenge to UK government to put their manifesto commitment into law
PS- as @LabourLordsUK note, peers passing an amendment that depends on another means the other is automatically passed
