Opinion

Senate approves ‘boiadinhas’ project that allows private inspection of agribusiness

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The Senate approved this Thursday (23) the bill that exempts the State from the responsibility for sanitary inspection of agribusiness and allows such activity to be carried out by the private sector.

The text is part of the package dubbed by environmentalists and parliamentarians as “boiadinha”, a group of environmental impact matters that advance in the Senate without the obstruction or even with the complacency of the president of the House, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG)

Some of these proposals, including this one, evade the Environment Committee.

The proposal for self-control was only voted on by the CRA (Commission on Agriculture and Agrarian Reform) and in a final form — which means that it is already approved even without going through the plenary of the House or other thematic committees, in case there is no objection in the next few days. .

Requests can still be submitted for the project to be sent to the plenary — this needs to happen within the next five days and with at least ten signatures.

Otherwise, the project, which has already passed through the Chamber, goes on to be sanctioned by the Presidency – which was the initial proposer of the theme.

The approved text allows the private initiative to inspect agricultural activity, for example meat slaughterhouses, an activity that is now the responsibility of the State.

In its justification, the government claims that it currently does not have the necessary resources to carry out the inspection.

Luis Carlos Heinze (PP-RS), rapporteur on the topic, argued in the session that currently small producers are prevented from entering the market, as health agencies do not have the capacity to verify their production.

“It is a very important project for Brazilian agriculture, we will have growth not only in large companies,” he said.

Critics of the proposal say, on the contrary, that the project benefits large producers, who are those who will have the financial capacity to pay for the hiring of inspection companies.

They also say that the project exempts the State from the sanitary inspection for which it should be responsible.

“We need to increase the technical capacity of inspection and control bodies, not [pegar] everything in which the State lacks supervision and privatizes”, countered Senator Zenaide Maia (Pros-RN).

A note from the National Union of Federal Agricultural Tax Auditors also points out that the project impacts the production of any type of food and can reduce the safety of animals against mistreatment.

The communiqué also criticizes the fact that the companies themselves will be responsible for supervising compliance with health regulations and reporting possible failures to the Ministry of Agriculture.

In addition to this project, the CRA’s agenda was also to vote on the bill that amends the Forest Code and makes the construction of water reservoirs in APPs (Permanent Preservation Areas) more flexible.

The vote did not take place because Senator Paulo Rocha (PT-PA) asked for a view.

The main proposal of the “boiadinhas” package is the so-called PL do Veneno, which removes decision-making power from Ibama and Anvisa and makes a series of rules related to pesticides more flexible.

He is also at the CRA and was debated for nearly three hours on Monday. After the discussion, which included members of Greenpeace and researchers, the rapporteur and chairman of the commission, Acir Gurgacz (PDT-PR), decided to withdraw the report he had produced for review — a document necessary for a matter to be voted on.

agribusinessanvisabolsonaro governmentChamber of Deputiesenvironmenthealthhealth surveillanceIbamaleafministry of healthNational CongressRodrigo Pachecosenate

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