Chlorinated chicken, hormone meats, and new GMOs. These are the goals of U.S. food exports to Europe to restore balance in the trade balance between the two sides of the Atlantic. Are you all right? An understatement.
TTIP and the precautionary principle
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue is on a European mission these days. Must facilitate the TTIP negotiations,
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
and remove their main ‘obstacle’ from Washington’s perspective. The so-called precautionary principle, on which EU policy and legislation is still based. (1)
‘TheUnion’s environmentalpolicy contributes to the following objectives:
– Preservation, protection and improvement of the quality of the environment,
– Protection of human health,
– Shrewd and rational utilization of natural resources,
– promotion at the international level of measures designed to solve regional or global environmental problems and, in particular, to combat climate change‘ (TFEU, Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Article 191.1).
The primary objective of European and member state policy and legislation – in the areas of agriculture, food and the environment, among others – is to ensure ‘a high level of protection, taking into account the diversity of situations in different regions of the Union. It is based on the principles of precaution and preventive action, the principle of correcting, as a priority at the source, damage caused to the environment, and the ‘polluter pays’ principle (TFEU, 191.2).
The precautionary principle entails, in European food law, the use of risk analysis as the basis for all regulatory and administrative decisions. Its application implies that:
– Where, based on a scientific risk assessment, a phenomenon, product or process may have potentially hazardous effects (to human and animal health or the environment), and
– the assessment does not allow the risk to be determined (and/or controlled) with sufficient certainty,
– precautionary measures (e.g., restrictions, bans, and other safeguards) need to be taken.
Precaution justifies prior authorization systems for the deliberate release of old and new GMOs into the environment(as reaffirmed on 25.7.18 by the EU Court of Justice), theuse of agrotoxics in agriculture, the administration of veterinary drugs, etc. (2)
US-EU tug-of-war over food security
Donald Trump’s deputy says that Europe should accept current U.S. food production methods-though banned by it, based on the precautionary principle-as a condition for concluding free trade negotiations. As ordered in Davos by the U.S. president to the chairwoman of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the most loyal heads of state to the Atlantic alliance. With the stick of tariffs on imports of their most valuable goods.
The European Union has already agreed to the import of 35 thousand tons/year of beef from the United States, 2.8.19. Officials in Brussels and Washington are also working on removing bureaucratic obstacles to imports of U.S. oysters and other shellfish into the EU, as well as sales of European apples and pears to the U.S.
Sonny Perdue wants to up his game, however, to liberalize trade on the Old Continent in both GMO seeds and agricultural commodities(already out of control, across the Atlantic) and meat and animal products inflated with hormones and antibiotics. As well as chicken washed with disinfectant chemicals. (3)
Chlorinated chicken and animal welfare
Chlorine in chicken has gone out of fashion, in fact, as the poultry industry in the U.S. now also uses another substance, peracetic acid (PAA). ‘Essentially vinegar,’ according to Sonny Perdue. PAA, on the other hand, is a powerful biocide (hydrogen peroxide + acetic acid), on par with Amplon (sulfuric acid + sodium sulfate). (4) Substances cleared by theFood and Drug Administration (FDA) as being considered safe until proven otherwise(Generally Recognized As Safe, GRAS).
Carcass washing with biocides is a practice adopted in the U.S. to sanitize postmortem the meat of diseased living animals. As a last resort to remedy the serious hygienic deficiencies of overcrowded farms where animal mistreatment is the rule. Even in farms declared ‘sustainable’, such as those of Whole Foods (Amazon) suppliers.
In Europe, on the other hand, this practice is banned, although lobbying by merchant countries tried unsuccessfully to have it admitted during political consideration of the ‘Hygiene 2’ regulation. (5) Precisely because animal welfare is a crucial issue, not only for ethical reasons but also as a safeguard to ensure food safety. According to the One Health approach, shared within theWorld Health Organization (WHO). (6)
Chlorinated chicken, hormones, antibiotics, and food safety
Food safety in the EU is therefore ensured through strict rules based on risk analysis and self-control. According to a principle of integrated supply chain responsibility where all operators-from farm to fork and from stable to table-must scrupulously adopt best hygienic practices (GAP, GMP) and HACCP (starting from the first stage after agricultural production). For the specific purpose of ensuring food hygiene and safety at each stage of each process.
The use of growth hormones in Europe has been banned for more than two decades, and the use of veterinary medicines is subject to strict limits. Prevention is the cornerstone of food safety, which is critical, among other things- globally, at this moment in history-due in part to the phenomenon of antibiotic resistance. (7) And it is thanks to the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards developed in recent decades that the European Union has achieved a level of food safety unparalleled in the world, as the most recent data show.
Food security in the U.S.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-the U.S. government’s disease control and prevention agency-estimates that foodborne illness affects 48 million people each year, 1 in 6, with 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. (8) Coronavirus, by comparison, looks like a commonplace cold. And the management of food safety crisis alerts is as opaque as it is inefficient, as seen in the case of the most serious recall quietly executed in 2018.
In 2019 alone, according to the report just released by the U.S. Education Fund PIRG, ‘high-profile recalls and outbreaks of foodborne illness linked to flour, chicken and romaine lettuce reveal that further action is needed to protect public health.’ (9)
‘The most dangerous meat and poultry (Class I) recalls nearly doubled [in 2019, ed,] up 85% since 2013, with a slight increase from 2018. Total meat and poultry recalls have increased by 65 percent since 2013. While the number of poultry recalls was similar to previous years, the 7.7 thousand tons of poultry and egg products recalled last year more than tripled the average for the previous six years‘. (9)
TTIP? No thanks
The TTIP thus looms large. For food security, public health and democracy. With the additional risks, which we have already reported, arising from:
– The power of arbitration tribunals to declare ‘unlawful’ rules established in the EU and its member states for the protection of public health, food safety and animal welfare, SMEs and workers, human rights, ecosystems, (10)
– liability indemnification clauses of corporations for damage caused by their activities to populations and ecosystems.
#TTIP, no thanks!
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) Cf.
Communication from the Commission on the precautionary principle.
(COM (2000) 1 final). See also https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/IT/TXT/?uri=LEGISSUM%3Al32042
(2) For more details see the author’s ebooks.
– ‘Food safety, mandatory rules and voluntary standards’, and
– ‘
GMOs, the Big Scam
‘,
(3) Alan Beattle.
US wants chemical-washed chicken on EU trade menu.
. Financial Times, 27.1.20
(4) Sun Ae Kim et al. (2017). Assessment of Chicken Carcass Microbiome Responses During Processing in the Presence of Commercial Antimicrobials Using a Next Generation Sequencing Approach. Sci Rep. 2017; 7: 43354. doi: 10.1038/srep43354
(5) See reg. EC 853/04, which lays down specific hygiene rules for food of animal origin. See footnote 2
(6) The EU rules on animal welfare are summarized in the article above
(7) The global public health emergency related to AMR(Anti-Microbial Resistance) is well described in the WHO – WHO report ‘No time to wait‘, 29.4.19,
(8) Cf. CDC,
Estimate of foodborne illness in the United States.
,
(9) US Pirg – Consumer Watchdog (2020). How safe is our food? Food recall trends through 2019,
(10) Cf. EU Court of Justice, Opinion 1/17 (Full Court), 30.4.19 (ECLI:EU:C:2019:341)
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
