Sack Cracknell, says Farmers for Action

29 May 1998

‘Sack Cracknell’, says Farmers for Action

RICHARD Cracknell should resign or be removed from the board of Assured British Meat because of his call for meat and bonemeal to be re-introduced to UK animal feed, says Mike Hart, spokesman for Farmers for Action.

“The whole point of setting up Assured British Meat was to reassure the public our meat is safe. Many members of the public still believe BSE was caused by farmers feeding ground-up dead animals to cows to increase their profits. So Mr Cracknells speech claiming that the UK must go back to using MBM in order to remain competitive will just reinforce those beliefs.”

It would be far better, Mr Hart says, to promote the fact that UK meat is produced without feeding any MBM, something which cannot be claimed for much of the imported meats. “Many believe we were the only farmers in the world using MBM. We should be correcting that false impression. Richard Cracknell must be told to go [as an ABM director] so the public sees that we farmers are not prepared to risk food safety in pursuit of money.”

Farmers for Action is campaigning for three things:

• A single farm-assurance scheme to accredit the whole farm and all its products;
• A single logo for British Food; and
• Work with consumer groups to get clearer labelling of foods, particularly country of origin.