Southern Agricultural Council asks FAO to be heard in recommendations on agriculture

The Southern Agricultural Council (CAS) intends to debate with FAO – the United Nations (UN) agency for food and agriculture – information related to agriculture before publishing decisions related to the sector. The position of the CAS, made up of ministers from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, is a response to the FAO recommendation to reduce beef consumption to avoid the effects of gases released into the atmosphere by livestock farming. The CAS document was prepared at the request of Minister Blairo Maggi (Agriculture, Livestock and Supply) and will be sent to FAO.

The statement to the UN agency was approved on Thursday (3), during the meeting of ministers. In the document, they ask the FAO to consider the nutritional importance of meat. They also highlight that the body must evaluate new livestock farming practices, disregarded in the studies that led it to issue the recommendation on reducing the consumption of cattle meat.

The region's ministers also approved declarations on food security and the use of biotechnology in food production. At the end of the meeting, Mapa's Secretary of International Agribusiness Relations, Odilson Ribeiro, asked for support to implement a resolution from the Inter-American Board of Agriculture (JIA) that creates, in conjunction with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), a working group to improve the capacity of countries in the Americas to assess sanitary and phytosanitary risks.