Between BSE and foot-and-mouth disease, beef has come under fire in recent times - but now it's back in favour, writes Paul Cullen

Beef, grass-fed and blood-red, has been engrained in the Irish psyche since the mythological days of the Táin Bó Cuailnge. As Irish as Guinness stout or Gaelic football, it has sustained us through good times and bad.

But for how much longer? Are Ireland's 100,000 beef farmers a dying breed, soon to be routed by the forces of trade liberalisation and the demand for cheap food? Is there a future for high-quality Irish beef in the global village in the face of cheaper rivals from the developing world? And what will cheap imports mean for the consumer?

At first glance, it seems the industry should be on a roll. The beef tribunal, which uncovered a series of murky practices in the industry, has been consigned to the past. BSE likewise is a fading memory, and the controls put in place as a result of both events have helped restore consumer confidence. The efficiency with which the foot-and-mouth outbreak of 2001 was dealt with served to boost the image of the product further.

Irish consumers spend almost €400 million a year on beef, according to Bord Bia, even though just 13 per cent of production stays at home. Even after all the scares, 94 per cent of Irish people eat beef every week.

The beef sector has been "to hell and back" over the past decade, according to Gerard Brickley, manager of the board's meat division.

The industry was in decline even before the BSE crisis hit in 1996, with concerns over practices in the industry, cholesterol in red meat and a belief that beef was an inconvenient food. "There were practices that no one could condone," Brickley admits, "but BSE put the kibosh on that."

Since then, the pendulum of health advice has swung back in beef's favour, with Brickley attributing the recovery of the market to a "rebalancing of misinformation" about the role of beef in the human diet. "There was a negative perception about beef, that it made you fat, even before BSE came along. Now it is regarded as healthy; it certainly is one of the most regulated products on the market."

Cattle are more regulated than humans now, he claims, with their every movement recorded and more stringent controls in place in meat plants than you would find in hospitals. All of this has helped to boost consumer confidence.

Producers are hopeful new "heat and serve" technology developed in the US will make beef more of a convenience food by allowing for rapid cooking of various cuts. They also believe their grass-fed beef contains cancer-inhibiting agents that might, if the claim is substantiated, add to the product's healthy reputation.

"It's funny how the wheel turns," Brickley reflects, "beef is no longer just beef now."

Angela Kennedy, chairwoman of Bord Bia, believes the Irish beef industry can build a prosperous future through further product innovation and branding. "Consumption of beef is strong in Europe, having fully recovered from the negative publicity during BSE. This is a credit to the enormous level of controls put in place in the industry, but it is ultimately a testament to consumer preference for the distinctive taste of beef."

The dark cloud on the horizon is market liberalisation, and the threat of a flood of imported beef. South American beef selling for half the price of the Irish product could undercut the market both at home and in key European markets.

Brickley claims Brazil has excellent standards at processing stage but "zero standards" in its farms, with no disease control or traceability. "Europe has invested heavily in animal health and welfare, which costs money. If you then allow in imported produce without controls, that's not a level playing pitch." The Irish Farmers' Association has taken up the cudgels against beef imports, arguing that Irish farmers subject to stringent checks and controls are facing unfair competition. In particular, the IFA has targeted Brazil, claiming its foot-and-mouth controls are completely inadequate, with traceability and movement controls on cattle non-existent.

"I was shocked by what I saw," says John Bryan, the IFA livestock chairman, of his recent visit to cattle farms in Brazil. "No controls, virtual slave labour, no environmental standards . . . they didn't come within light years of our standards. It would take generations for them to put in place the kind of regulations we have in place and to educate people to enforce them." Bryan visited 11 farms, and says 10 of them had no traceability apart from a hot brand applied to the cattle-hide. Foot-and-mouth disease is endemic in parts of Brazil and Paraguay, he says, and the part-vaccination of some herds is helping spread the disease because vaccinated cattle can still act as carriers.

LAST YEAR, THE EU imported 500,000 tons of beef from South America, of which 350,000 tons came from Brazil. Over the next seven years, however, this quota is set to rise to 1.3 million tons for South America, according to John Bryan, the IFA livestock chairman.

By way of comparison, Ireland produces about 500,000 tons of beef a year, of which almost 90 per cent is exported.

Further liberalisation may be on the way, depending on the outcome of world trade talks.

Bryan claims an area of rainforest three times the size of Europe will have to be cleared to enable Brazil produce the extra beef in its quota, with the benefits going to "slash and burn" ranchers rather than local peasants.

"There isn't a farmer I know who doesn't deeply resent that he has to jump through so many hurdles and then he sees low-standard beef coming in to supermarkets from Brazil. Either the controls we operate are justified - for everyone - or they're not." He claims the growth in imports will mean that consumers are presented with beef "of dubious origin" as well as increasing the chances of foot and mouth arriving here.

THE DEPARTMENT OF Agriculture is dismissive of the IFA's arguments.

Meat can be imported only from approved third countries outside the EU and it can come only from approved processing plants within those countries, says Joe Shortall of the department's food safety liaison division.

The meat must arrive at approved border inspection posts and EU vets regularly audit facilities in third countries, he adds. The EU has banned imports from Brazilian provinces affected with foot-and-mouth disease while allowing them from other provinces, just as exports were permitted from most of Ireland during the outbreak of the disease in Co Louth, once it was shown the problem was confined to that area.

While the Irish beef we buy in the shop is fully traceable to a particular herd and animal, up until recently similar protections did not apply in the catering trade. This has changed with new regulations requiring restaurants and other businesses serving food to indicate on the menu where their product originates. With surveys showing that Irish consumers are prepared to pay a bit more for home-produced beef, they will at last get the chance to put their mouth where their money is.