11 / 24
11
TTIP talks: What’s cooking?
- Perspectives on Food & Farming
Proceedings of the Conference
There is progress happening at state and local levels, there
is progress led by civil society organisation and in state
legislature. We are very concerned that
TTIP can undermine
these fragile gains
.”
Karen Hansen-Kuhn, Institute for Agriculture
and Trade Policy (IATP)
Karen Hansen-Kuhn
, (Director International Strategies at Institute for Agricul-
ture and Trade Policy - IATP) highlighted the problems in relation to the US
food system and real reasons to be concerned about hormones in beef and
chlorine rinses. There is progress at local and state levels, but there are con-
cerns that TTIP could undermine these fragile gains.
Change is happening in the USA. One of the first building blocks is the
right to know what is in food. A New York Times poll showed that 90% of
Americans want GMO labelling
7
, and there are campaigns
8
in many states.
Three US states already have legislation to require GMO labelling laws and 20
states are considering legislation requiring labelling foods that contain GMOs.
There are also campaigns to ban toxic chemicals in our food system. Neo-
nicotinoids are a group of pesticides associated with bee colony collapse.
There are already restrictions in place in New York, Minnesota and Oregon.
There are local restrictions on Endocrine Disruptors in 12 states and in each
of these cases local and state regulation are the building blocks to work
towards broader policy change at federal level.
Karen Hansen-Kuhn highlighted that the good food and farming movement
is not just about keeping bad food out, but bringing good food in. A big part
of this work has been through public procurement programmes, particularly
farm-to-school programmes. These programmes give procurement
preferences for healthy, locally produced foods. There are farm-to-school
programmes in all 50 states. It is not only about bringing healthy local foods
into schools, but to build ties between farmers and communities, to create
jobs and to strengthen rural economies. There are genuine concerns that
these gains are at risk
9
in TTIP
10
.
In conclusion, experiences
with TTIP and other free
trade agreements such
as NAFTA
11
,
will lead to
further intensification and
dramatic increases in market
concentration in the food
and farming sector.
IATP has
expressed its concerns about
how TTIP and free trade
agreements will affect efforts
to build more sustainable
food systems, how regulatory
convergence will make it
more difficult to regulate
toxic chemicals and how the
EU’s push to open US public
procurement at local state
level will affect efforts to
strengthen rural economies.
All of these concerns have not
received any answers yet. This
short sided approach should
be opposed.