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Looks like the Danes are getting it right-- Label it and let the consumer decide.....

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LABELING COULD SETTLE HORMONE DISPUTE



Chris Harris, Editor

Bryan Salvage, Editorial Director

Meat News

September 15, 2006



DENMARK: Agriculture Commissioner says that labeling hormone treated beef could resolve long-running dispute between U.S. and E.U.

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American hormone-treated beef could be allowed onto the European market if it is labeled.



Speaking to MeatNews at the Foss Meat Conference in Billund, Denmark, European agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said that labeling could be the answer to the long-running dispute between the E.U., U.S., and Canada.



The dispute between the two sides over the safety of hormone-treated beef is to be heard by the World Trade Organisation Disputes panel later this month and next.



Mrs. Fischer Boel, who was speaking at the meat conference in Denmark, told MeatNews that although the question was not covered by her department, her personal view was that labeling U.S. beef as having been reared using hormones was a way out of the dilemma, if the disputes panel decision went against the E.U.



She said that the original dispute had been over the use of six different hormones, and one had already been declared unsafe and had been withdrawn.



“The decision of the disputes panel has to be based on science,” Mrs. Fischer Boel said. “Should we be forced to accept the imports, we could then have a labeling system. Labeling is the only possible way to inform the consumer, but it is a possible way.”





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