Delay will allow deforestation law to be revisited – ICMSA

Commenting on the decision of the EU Commission to effectively delay the implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation until January 1, 2026, the Chairperson of ICMSA’s Livestock Committee, Michael O’Connell said that, while the decision was welcome and made practical sense against the threat of particularly South American beef imports, the regulation would have to be re-visited to allow the use of existing data sources to verify the requirements of the Directive.

“Across the EU, the LPIS system - which effectively specifies the use of land - has been in place for many years and farmers have been actually submitting Area Aid maps on their land usage since 1994. Instead of implementing a ‘new’ system at EU level and based on GPS, we should simply utilise the system that is already in place whereby farmers submit their land usage on an annual basis and that usage is monitored by satellite.

“Why would we even contemplate yet another new system – with all the GPS and due diligence ‘palaver’ – when the existing Area Aid maps already provide the exact same information? It’s just ridiculous and adds yet another layer of useless and expensive bureaucracy to what is already a system that is groaning under the weight of superfluous regulation and processing,” said Mr O’Connell.

The ICMSA Livestock Committee Chairperson said the regulation was a textbook example of how a straightforward and sensible idea was run into what he termed “mindless regulatory repetition”.

“A directive that should ensure that food products from deforested areas would not reach the EU consumer has been turned on its head and is now being repurposed into yet another administrative burden for Irish farmers - who already farm to one of the highest standards globally. The reality is that Irish food is being produced on land that is demonstrably not under the Deforestation requirements and we should not be required to implement a new expensive and burdensome system to verify this. The regulation should allow for our current LPIS system to verify compliance with no burden on the farmer or the meat processor. There is a simple and practical solution to this issue and – for once - the regulators should take it,” observed Mr O’Connell.

On the wider issue and what should be the real target of this Directive, Mr O’Connell said that it is essential that the EU specifies how third country imports will have to meet these requirements and how - on a practical level – the EU will ensure beef does not come from deforested areas of south America undermining sustainably produced EU beef.

“This is where the focus of the Directive should be rather than imposing rules and regulations on people to whom the Directive has no relevance and for whom it was never intended,” he concluded.