Friday, July 25, 2014

US-EU TRADE DEAL THROWS FOOD SAFTEY AND PUBLIC HEALTH UNDER BUS

For Immediate Release

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Contact: 
Andrew Ranallo
Communications Associate, IATP
(612) 870-3456

Leaked Document Reveals US-EU Trade Agreement Threatens Public Health, Food Safety

WASHINGTON - A draft chapter of the U.S-EU trade agreement leaked today by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) reveals public health and food safety could be at risk, according to an accompanying analysis. The leaked chapter concerns Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) issues—those surrounding food safety and animal and plant health—in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) currently being negotiated. Only TTIP negotiators and security cleared advisors, mostly corporate representatives, can read and comment on draft negotiating texts.
According to the IATP analysis accompanying release of the leaked document, “This leaked draft TTIP chapter doesn’t tell us everything about where negotiations are headed on food safety, but it tells us enough to raise serious concerns.”
While key details have not been disclosed to the public or remain to be negotiated, the chapter clearly indicates negotiators continue to subordinate SPS regulations to the object of maximizing trade. The text, for example, supports the U.S. approach to not require port of entry food inspections and testing, meaning food contamination outbreaks will be harder to trace to their origin, and liability harder to assess—a win for U.S. meat and food companies that could jeopardize food safety for consumers. Further, the text indicates the trade agreement could make it more difficult to restrict imports from countries with animal or plant diseases, such as Mad Cow Disease or plant fungus outbreaks.
The leaked chapter does acknowledge animal welfare but lacks enforceable language, meaning a U.S. state or EU member state could pass mandatory laws or rules on agriculture animal welfare, but such mandatory measures could not be used to prevent import of products from abused animals. Alternatively, unenforceable trade policy could further the misguided “Right to Farm” legislation under consideration in several states.
“While many key details regarding things like GMOs are still hidden, it’s clear public health is losing out to corporate interests in a big way,” said IATP’s Dr. Steve Suppan, author of the analysis. “Moreover, it’s an affront to democracy that the public need rely on leaked documents to find out how these agreements could affect health and safety.”
The draft chapter would set up a Joint Management Committee to discuss concerns about U.S. and EU SPS regulations. But the draft provides very little information about how this committee or the yet to be negotiated TTIP Oversight Body, to which the Committee reports, would function if discussions did not resolve concerns about the effect of regulations on trade. It is not clear whether the Oversight Body would refer unresolved SPS concerns to the proposed and very controversial Investor State Dispute Settlement mechanism. The ISDS would have a private tribunal of trade lawyers, not a public court of law, decide whether U.S. or EU SPS rules, laws or enforcement measures violated TTIP. If the tribunal decided in favor of the complaining investor, the tribunal would determine the compensation that the EU member state or U.S. governments would have to pay investors for loss of anticipated benefits under TTIP.

Read the IATP analysis and the complete leaked chapter text for more information.

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IATP works locally and globally at the intersection of policy and practice to ensure fair and sustainable food, farm and trade systems.
SOURCE:   http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2014/07/24/leaked-document-reveals-us-eu-trade-agreement-threatens-public-health-food

MASSIVE PESTICIDE CONTAMINATION IN MIDWEST WATERWAYS

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Notorious 'Neonics' Pervasive in Midwest Waters: Study

Researchers from the USGS found the insecticides in waterways of nation's corn, soy region.
A cornfield in Nebraska. (Photo:  Richard Hurd)
A new study has added to mounting evidence against a class of insecticides called neonicotinoids, or "neonics."
Linked in numerous studies to bee declines, the new research looks at neonics' impacts on surface water.
Researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey looked at 9 rivers and streams in the U.S. Midwest—home to vast plantings of corn and soybeans as well as widespread use of neonics—in the 2013 growing season.
The researchers detected neonics in all the waterways, which included the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. One systemic pesticide, clothianidin, was found in 75 percent of the water samples.
“We noticed higher levels of these insecticides after rain storms during crop planting, which is similar to the spring flushing of herbicides that has been documented in Midwestern U.S. rivers and streams,” USGS scientist Michelle Hladick, the report’s lead author, said in a statement.
“In fact, the insecticides also were detected prior to their first use during the growing season, which indicates that they can persist from applications in prior years,” Hladick stated.
"Concentrations may frequently exceed chronic aquatic toxicity values during growing season," the study states.
"The fact that neonics are pervasively contaminating surface waters should be a wake-up call for state and federal regulators."
—Emily Marquez, Pesticide Action Network
Given the widespread use of neonicotinoid pesticides, their persistence in soil, and their high solubility in water, it's not surprising that neonics are ending up in Midwest waterways," said Emily Marquez, PhD, staff scientist at Pesticide Action Network.

"Researchers have recently documented the frequent detection of neonics at varying concentrations in surface waters in the U.S. and Canada," she continued. "The fact that neonics are pervasively contaminating surface waters should be a wake-up call for state and federal regulators, that must move more quickly to reduce and restrict use on farm fields."
The findings of the study, which the USGS touts as the first broad-scale investigation of neonics in the Midwest, were published in Environmental Pollution.
The USGS study comes on the heels of findings by researchers from the Netherlands who noted that concentrations of one neonic called imidacloprid were linked to declines in bird population, suggesting "the impact of neonicotinoids on the natural environment is even more substantial than has recently been reported."
And a global analysis out last month based on 800 peer-reviewed reports found "clear evidence" that neonics pose threats to bees, other pollinators and terrestrial invertebrates like earthworms, which are exposed to neonics through the soil, the treated plant itself and water.
"The global scientific community points to neonics as critical driver of bee declines. Officials should take water contamination as yet another sign that we must act now," Marquez stated.