The Corkman

ICMSA praise for France’s Mercosur call

-

ICMSA President Pat McCormack has saluted the French Government’s decision to not ratify the Mercosur trade agreement until the South American nations within Mercosur provide “solid and verifiable” guarantees to protect the environmen­t and health.

Mr McCormack said that France was right to demand this from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

“Not for the first time, we see France having the courage to insist that conditions and standards that are unhesitati­ngly asked of, and imposed upon, its farmers are at least met by the farmers of those nations wishing to trade with it,” he said. “Other EU Member States now need to publicly endorse the French position and indicate, too, that they will be unwilling to even consider progressin­g the draft trade agreement until such time as solid and verifiable guarantees are supplied and verificati­on procedures – to be independen­tly carried out – are agreed.”

Mr McCormack feels that the idea that there would be no implicatio­ns for forestry clearance to produce the level of South American beef required for export to the EU was “delusional” and said the consequenc­es have been dire for biodiversi­ty and indigenous people.

“We already know that the current levels of beef production in South America are impacting on global efforts to manage climate change and the idea that farmers in Ireland – who already produce sustainabl­e beef – and who are being asked to embark on the arduous and expensive transition to lower emissions could do that at exactly the same time as wholly unregulate­d South American beef began flooding into our traditiona­l markets was always just contradict­ory nonsense”, he added.

Edward Hayden is a chef and food writer and is very well-known to audiences from his weekly cookery slots on Virgin Media’s Ireland AM. He also presents a weekly radio show, ‘The Saturday Show with Edward Hayden’, every Saturday morning on KCLR96fm

Edward works as a culinary lecturer in Waterford Institute of Technology, where he is course leader of the

Higher Certificat­e in Culinary Arts Programme. He also is the chef and proprietor of The Edward Hayden School of Cookery’ in his native Graiguenam­angh which boasts a large selection of recreation­al cookery classes for both the novice and experience home cook.

Edward has published three cookery books ‘Edward Entertains’, ‘Food to Love’ with O’Brien Press (which was awarded the prestigiou­s Kerry Food Book of the Year) and ‘Food for Friends’ with O’Brien Press. He is currently putting the finishing touches to his next book, due for release next year.

Edward regularly features recipes in many regional and national publicatio­ns including ‘Food & Wine Magazine’, ‘Woman’s Way’ and ‘Irish Independen­t Weekend Magazine. Edward demonstrat­es all around the country at both a local and national level in a wide range of cookery demonstrat­ions for local fundraisin­g activities, food festivals, agricultur­al shows.

Follow the ‘Chef Edward Hayden’ page on Facebook for more delicious recipies.

W: www.edwardente­rtains.com

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Ireland