Sierra Club Backs
EU Ban On U.S. Beef

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As if there were ever any question about its attitude toward ranching and the cattle business, the Sierra Club has joined with overseas trade protectionists in supporting the European Union’s thinly disguised ban on U.S. beef.

Sierra’s "Legal Defense Fund" submitted comments to the World Trade Organization endorsing the ban on beef produced with growth promotants in response to a formal protest against the EU filed by the United States.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association termed Sierra’s comments a "flagrant misrepresentation of science."

WTO’s dispute resolution panel is considering the issue.

"The Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund is attempting to expand its activism from land-based environmental issues to food safety and international trade, and in so doing, once again grossly misrepresents the available scientific information," said NCBA International Markets Committee Chairman Mark Armentrout, Alpharetta, Ga.

The fund promotes environmental litigation on behalf of the Sierra Club and other environmental activist groups. Its comments on the beef ban were presented on behalf of Public Citizen, an activist group founded by Ralph Nader; the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, a group with strong ties to Greenpeace; and the Cancer Prevention Coalition, a front group representing the personal convictions of an environmental medicine professor.

"In particular, the Fund's comments fail to recognize the scientific data used by the Food and Drug Administration in its approval of growth promotant use," said Armentrout. FDA approved the promotants based on a comprehensive analysis of human safety, animal safety, and product efficacy. That approval has been confirmed by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the body which standardizes international food trade, and scientists around the world have declared the growth promotants safe.