Unhealthy Horse Trading

[unhappycamper]

http://watchingamerica.com/News/230906/unhealthy-horse-trading/

Will we soon get hormone steaks and schnitzel, chlorine chicken and Gentec breakfast cereal in Europe, too? If the United States gets its way, the U.S.-EU free trade agreement will force us to accept all sorts of genetically altered food in the European Union. That's too high a price to pay for making it easier for Germany to export cars to America.

Unhealthy Horse Trading
Frankfurter Rundschau, Germany
By Stephan Börnecke
Translated By Ron Argentati
17 January 2014
Edited by Lau­rence Bouvard

Chancellor Merkel reassures us and the European Union appeases us. Lower our consumer, animal and environmental protection standards just because somebody on the other side of the Atlantic wants to produce and export more genetically modified steak, schnitzel, chlorine-saturated chicken and genetically altered cornflakes to Europe? Not with us. “We won't simply lower our standards,” promises the chancellor in one of her podcasts. But then comes the kicker that sets the world on fire: “Both sides must make acceptable compromises.”

~snip~

More or Less Just Waved Through

Then you discover that the U.S. Monsanto Corporation's retreat out of Europe last summer takes on a new meaning: Pretend that you've accepted being rebuffed by the European consumer so that you can return via the back door. That comes about because with a trade agreement, the production standards of both partners are placed on an equal footing.

What Ends Up on the European Dinner Plate

If everything goes as planned, then a newly developed genetically modified corn, resistant to every possible weed killer and pesticide, would need only be approved for sale in the United States and to be just waved across European borders automatically, whether it comes in as cornflakes or seed corn. There are many more little doors: Genetically modified peanuts could wind up in European supermarkets without the necessity of even labeling them as being genetically modified. Or companies could argue that exclusion or labeling of products constitute an illegal restraint of trade by the EU. It could be that during the negotiating process, the European Union will be talked out of its precautionary principles if it tries to erect such barriers.

A Horror for the Enlightened European Consumer

At least, that's what worries critics who will attend Berlin's fourth “Green Week” this coming Saturday to express their concerns. For them, it's no longer just about the excesses of domestic agriculture, such as giving antibiotics to animals or the use of toxins on the fields; it's now also about warning of the Americanization of European agriculture.

[Nihil]

1. K&R for yet another way that corporations are trying to kill people. (n/t)