Giovanni Alemanno, the new Farm Minister of Italy, told Reuters on Monday that his first action in office would be to repair the lives of those farmers devastated by BSE. The country has reported 15 cases of the disease since wide-scale testing began earlier this year, in accordance with EU regulations.
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He said: “My immediate task will be to confront mad cow disease. Mad cow disease has caused a lot of problems for our farmers that are not yet solved because of bureaucratic procedures in the European Union.”
The disease has had a crippling effect on consumer demand for beef products and many far has seen their earnings plummet.
A leader of the “social right” wing of the National Alliance party, Alemanno further commented that he will petition for increased EU aid for Italian farmers financially hurt by BSE. He is due to meet with senior European Commission officials in Brussels over the next few weeks.
Alemanno also told Reuters that his opinion of GM trials in Italian agriculture was “negative” because “food in a country like Italy should be free of genetic manipulation.” Elsewhere, however, he is not ideology opposed to GMOs.
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