The idea
The beef labelling scheme was brought in as a panic reaction to BSE. It is optional, but if you want to make any claims about your beef – eg the breed, you have to enter into the whole scheme and for small producers in particular such as farm shops the cost of audit is disproportionately high. Small producers in any case are less likely to be importing strange foreign carcasses. It is outdated unnecessary and adds nothing to traceability or quality
Why is it important?
It is another unnecessary overhead for small artisan businesses who want to bring good products to market and tell their customers about them. The only beneficiaries are the hordes of auditors enforcing it. There is no public benefit in the scheme.