It’s almost 20 years since the Irish Farmers Journal and Irish Farmers Association (IFA) visited Brazil as part of an investigation into what was happening on Brazilian beef farms in 2007. The report highlighted inadequate foot and mouth controls, non-existent traceability and movement controls, deforestation and hormone use.

The investigation had far-reaching implications, with a ban being implemented on general Brazilian beef imports in early 2008. While the problem of foot and mouth has gone away, with Brazil being officially declared free of the disease in May 2025, little else has changed in the last 20 years.

Earlier this month, the Irish Farmers Journal visited Brazil in a joint investigation with the IFA. Thomas Burke, director of Livestock with the IFA and Philip Doyle, picture editor with the Irish Farmers Journal and myself, Adam Woods visited four states in Brazil, travelling almost 3,000km, visiting farms, livestock marts and agricultural supply stores.

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On that journey, we purchased prescription-only, critically important antibiotics without speaking the Portuguese language, any proof of requirement or prescription, herd number or animal identification. The widespread illegal sale of antibiotics calls into real question Brazil’s ability to meet European standards.

Listening to policymakers and trade negotiators in the European Commission, you would be forgiven for thinking Brazil has turned a corner.

For months now, animal traceability issues, animal welfare concerns, deforestation and hormone use have all been cast aside as issues of the past. Our investigation shows that these problems of old remain and our findings confirmed that Brazil is a long way off being on a level playing field with European farmers.

After visiting Brazil and speaking to farmers, it’s clear that the Mercosur trade deal is a big deal for big business both in Europe and Brazil. Some farmers were against the Mercosur trade deal citing higher regulation and controls not being worth the hassle for such a small part of their beef exports.

It’s ironic that over the next two weeks Irish farmers will have to deal with further restrictions on the purchase of worm dosing products, while Brazil moves in the opposite direction.

It’s also ironic that we publish some of the findings from the trip to Brazil on World Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Awareness week, which takes place from 18 to 24 November.

Antimicrobial resistance occurs when micro-organisms no longer respond to treatment with antimicrobial medicines. Because of growing resistance, the world is running out of effective antibiotics.

Infections become harder or impossible to treat, and other medical procedures and treatments, such as surgery or cancer chemotherapy, become much riskier to the patient being treated according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The WHO has forecast that globally more people will die as a result of AMR than cancer by 2050.

Europe has put in place stringent rules and regulations to govern the use of antibiotics in both human and veterinary health settings, and is actively engaging with health professionals in the global fight against AMR. Brazil on the other hand has no database for monitoring sale, no animal database for recording usage and more importantly, no mechanism for ensuring that antibiotic residue doesn’t enter their own food chain. This isn’t equivalent standards.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, AMR expert Professor Martin Cormican said: “To be able to purchase and use critically important antibiotics without prescription is contrary to everything that we’ve tried to achieve in the European Union in the last 20 years”.

Serious questions must now be asked about the European Commission’s due diligence on the Mercosur trade deal and whether standards are being sacrificed to push through the deal. European farmers and elected politicians need to stand up and be counted. Otherwise Irish farmers will be left producing to strict EU rules while competing in the market place with imported product produced with very few rules.