Originally published January 8 2006
EU ban on tallow as an energy source stirs controversy among European farmers
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The European Waste Incineration Directive will ban the use of tallow, or animal fat, as an energy source, which baffles many farmers who say that tallow is a much cleaner fuel and that it figures largely in the cleaning of slaughterhouses.
FARMERS and the meat trade continue to protest as a European ban on the use of tallow as an energy source creeps closer.
The ban on tallow - animal fat from rendered carcasses - as a fuel is due to start on 1 January, 2006, under the European Waste Incineration Directive (WID).
Protests have been made ever since the directive was approved in Brussels earlier this year.
Protesters' main argument is that the majority of slaughterhouses use tallow as fuel to sterilise and clean their premises - a good example of recycling and environmental friendliness.
They also argue that if the directive is implemented in the UK tallow will change from a positive value of �130 per tonne to a negative of �25 per tonne, with costs passed back to farmers.
Tallow is produced in all EU member states, an estimated total of 2.5 million tonnes.
The UK produces about 250,000 tonnes, with almost half of that used in slaughterhouses.
David Richardson, chairman of the United Kingdom Renderers' Association, said: "Renderers, abattoirs and power generation plants have been burning tallow since 1992.
It is a green fuel with almost the same energy value as heavy oil, but it is carbon neutral and has much lower emissions."
Farmers and the meat trade see hope in the likely decision of most of the EU's 25 member states to ignore the directive.
However, that does not mean the UK will follow suit.
John Kinnaird, NFU Scotland president, said: "The UK position flies in the face of commitments not to gold-plate EU legislation.
Bizarrely, if this decision goes ahead, we will see rendering plants switching from a renewable fuel source to burning fossil fuels just two weeks after the government announced plans to do the opposite."
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