4hago 10.59 BST
Helena Horton
Helena Horton is a Guardian environment reporter.
US agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins finished a press conference in
London where she said she would like to see the UK and the US more aligned
on food standards regulation.
She also seemed to soften her stance on getting the UK to accept chlorine-
washed chicken and hormone-treated beef from last week when she said US
agriculture was being treated “very unfairly” by countries such as the UK and
that she wanted the UK to accept “all meat” from the US.
Rollins told reporters the market is beginning to move away from hormone-
treated beef, and that chlorine-washed chicken has almost entirely been
removed from the US supply chain.
![44 Our agriculture producers, our cattle producers etc, obviously are constantly
watching what the markets look like, and if the markets are calling for a specific
type, or they have more opportunity somewhere, then I think that we
potentially do see some movement in the market.
Rollins added that she wanted the US, UK and other countries to have more
regulatory alignment and similar standards for agriculture. She said:
M4 One thing ... I've taken from a lot of the discussions yesterday [when she met
Steve Reed, the enviroment secretary] and today is that the more our two
countries, and those who are aligned with our values, are regulatory aligned,
meaning that we don’t have all these different systems and structures - I think
that that is going to go a tremendously long way to supporting the agriculture
industry.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5eyzxq6litcyeva7et2xs6yt/bafkreicxkhrpl3apqlp72joofxcsouidw25pc5dk4r4vj2cdj2tkpr3avi)
44 Our agriculture producers, our cattle producers etc, obviously are constantly
watching what the markets look like, and if the markets are calling for a specific
type, or they have more opportunity somewhere, then I think that we
potentially do see some movement in the market.
Rollins added that she wanted the US, UK and other countries to have more
regulatory alignment and similar standards for agriculture. She said:
M4 One thing ... I've taken from a lot of the discussions yesterday [when she met
Steve Reed, the enviroment secretary] and today is that the more our two
countries, and those who are aligned with our values, are regulatory aligned,
meaning that we don’t have all these different systems and structures - I think
that that is going to go a tremendously long way to supporting the agriculture
industry.
Rollins also seemed to have softened her stance on asking the UK to accept
chlorine chicken. She said:
44 Only about 5% of our chicken in America is actually treated that way, with
the chlorine. So we have moved, over the last decade, completely away from the
‘chlorine chicken’. So that’s I think that’s a really important to dispel, and I'm
very grateful to do that.
She also said that, although pork and poultry weren't included in last week’s
US-UK trade deal, they are at the top of the list for further discussions.
Gilead is hoping to flood our food supply with toxic shit, and Starmer is going to help them.
See the Yanks try the Victimhood ploy, like that grotesque Rapist President of theirs "Oh you're nasty, you're being nasty to us, it's unfair, nasty..."
Go fuck […]
[Original post on mastodon.social]
![Reynolds also shared an anecdote about his first WhatsApp message to
Lutnick, which was sent shortly after he was confirmed as US commerce
secretary in February.
“Then begins what I can only describe as a cross-Whitehall process to write,
collectively with collective agreement, a WhatsApp message to the United
States. Now that was as bad as it sounds - literally something no human
being would send or be able to understand,” he said.
“The whole of the British state at its finest and most efficient way, gets
together, starts agreeing on every sentence, every word, and it comes
through to me. By this time, it’s about 10 o'clock at night, and Claire
[Reynolds] and 1 are driving back to Stalybridge together. I get the message,
and I think it needs a little bit of work ... but I go, the whole of the
government's been engaged in this so fair enough, we send it off.
“Howard just rings me straight back ... and he says: Johnny, I got your
message. I don’t know what it means?”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5eyzxq6litcyeva7et2xs6yt/bafkreidex7vpfi4a456k2dpad2tmf7y4xarqlqpii77nzptkzb4pgxlvce)
![The Drax plant accounts for around 6% of the UK’s electricity supply but it
had its subsidies halved last year, and it was directed by government to only
use sustainable wood. Last year, Drax was forced to pay £25m to the energy
regulator Ofgem after it was found to have submitted inaccurate data on the
sourcing of its wood pellets. There have been reports some of the pellets
used in the power station have been from rare forests.
Rollins said:
44 We are 100% confident that [the wood pellets] does meet your sustainability
requirements here in this country yesterday. That was one of the key things that
Ispoke to [Miliband and energy minister Michael Shanks] about. And they
agreed.
Idon’t want to get ahead of them, but in that meeting they felt fully assured
that what we are doing in America does meet your sustainability requirements.
In fact, we could potentially be opening up more markets for our wood pellets
into the UK, as other countries that you’re importing here into this country are
clearly not meeting those marks.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5eyzxq6litcyeva7et2xs6yt/bafkreiabtejijzi73rjtkfxwcp7br2vesfqigmi4cgxlr2ojpk4eayz3ni)
