MICE ARE coming to the rescue of the beef industry which has been hit hard by falling consumption across Europe because of the recession, young farmers meeting in Cork heard this weekend.
Joe Burke, a beef specialist with An Bord Bia, said mice were used in a major scientific survey on the health properties of grass-raised Irish beef compared with beef produced from continental feedlot systems.
The work, which he said was carried out by Teagasc laboratories in Ashtown, saw beef from the two systems fed to mice over a period of time and then the mice were slaughtered and their livers and other organs examined.
“The study showed the mice fed on Irish grass-raised beef were considerably healthier than the others fed on feedlot beef because of the higher levels of omega 3 and fatty acids,” said Mr Burke.
He said the findings were so significant the Irish Food Board is to mount a marketing campaign within weeks using the data to indicate the health-giving properties of Irish grass-fed beef.
He told the farmers attending the Macra na Feirme annual conference in the Westlodge Hotel in Bantry, that beef sales had fallen by as much as 8 per cent in the UK in the last four weeks.
He added there was also a 10 per cent decrease in beef consumption in France since the beginning of August, and across Europe, consumers were substituting cheaper cuts of meat, buying burgers rather than steak.
But, he said, things looked better in the long term as there would be a shortfall of one million tonnes of beef by 2015.
He told the farmers if a carbon tax was to be introduced by the EU, Ireland, with its grass-based system, was likely to face lower rates than non-grass-based systems.
He also revealed Irish beef in Britain is likely to be sold in one store under the label, “Beef From The British Isles”.
He said the board had reluctantly agreed to this because live Irish cattle exported to Britain and slaughtered there could not be sold as British beef as its “Red Tractor” quality assurance mark guaranteed the beef was raised and slaughtered in Britain.
He said there had been a huge increase in the number of cattle being exported live from Ireland this year and, to date, 280,000 animals had been shipped out of the country.