Mr Chairman, it is a pleasure to commend to the Council the Meat Safety Bill which is before the House. I do regard this as quite an important Bill. The factors which normally drive agricultural policy in most of the countries of the world, and specifically in South Africa, are all present in this Bill before us, and perhaps one could look at them to get the broader context within which this Bill is functioning.
Firstly, in a country like South Africa we have a special driving factor and that is, of course, transformation and with it land reform, and transformational aspects are present in this Bill. The second factor which drives agricultural policy and legislation like this is, of course, internal budgetary pressures. Agricultural budgets all over the world, and even more so in South Africa, are under extreme budgetary pressure at the moment. The third factor I would like to mention is the challenges of growth in all sectors of agriculture, and also in this regard this Bill, we hope, will be positive for agricultural growth.
Another factor is the influence of agricultural globalism, with reference to the commitments and rules which we have under the World Trade Organisation. That is of extreme importance with regard to meat production, because of the sanitary and phytosanitary measures in that regard. Let me just mention the one that we all know about, and that is the factor of pressure from farming sectors and communities and their lobbies which have an influence on agricultural policy. But the one which is of the utmost importance, which perhaps is the basic driving force of this Bill before us, is the growing pressure from consumer groups and environmental groups over, firstly, the safety of food and, secondly, the sustainability of present agricultural patterns. That is the one which I would like to address in most of what I am going to say this evening.
What we have in this Bill is a group of measures which seek to promote meat safety and the safety of animal products. Of course, animal products are those obtained from the carcass, other than the meat, as defined in the Bill. The measures are there to establish and maintain essential national standards with regard to meat and other animal products and to regulate the importation and exportation, and to establish meat safety schemes.
We believe that the main object of the Bill, which is why this Bill comes before members as a section 76 Bill, is to protect consumers in so far as the consumption of meat is concerned. That is why it is called the Meat Safety Bill. In order to accomplish this, the Bill also seeks to establish and maintain essential national standards in respect of abattoirs. Consumer protection is a functional area of concurrent national and provincial legislative competence, as listed in Schedule 4 of the Constitution, as members know. That is why we deal with it in terms of the procedure described by section 76. Abattoirs, as hon members know, are listed in Schedule 5 of the Constitution.