American Factory Farms Threatened As EU Sets Higher Meat Standards

As fellow blogger Sarah Parsons recently lamented, the European Union (EU) has maintained much better standards for their food than the U.S. for some time now, much to the chagrin of the American agribusinesses hampered from selling their wares across the pond. American meat in particular has been increasingly viewed with suspicion by European consumers.

The most notable trade barrier has been the European ban on chlorine-bathed poultry. U.S. poultry producers frequently rely on a tasty chlorine rinse to kill the pathogens that, thanks to unsanitary slaughterhouse standards, regularly pervade our chicken. The EU — and until recently, Russia — has labeled such poultry unfit to eat, resulting in the American poultry industry losing an estimated $300 million in potential sales. American poultry producers have been outraged by this "injustice" for years, and earlier this year they urged the World Trade Organization to pursue legal action against the EU for losses incurred by the ban. The EU seems unfazed; it has no plans whatsoever to change the policy, nor its ban on beef treated with hormones.

In fact, things seem poised to get even tougher for the American factory farmer with dreams of European expansion. The new Health and Consumer Policy Commissioner for the EU, John Dalli, promised in recent months to pursue more stringent animal welfare labeling for meat products sold in member nations. Once again, American producers are by and large unlikely to meet the higher standard, and European consumers are likely to shun products without a cruelty-free label. If such legislation does pass — and Dalli has indicated that he'd like that done by 2012 — Americans will either have to adopt the new welfare standards or risk being shut out of the European marketplace. Already the European Parliament has passed a law requiring a label on meat that has been slaughtered without stunning, and its passage has only renewed the call for universal animal welfare labeling in Europe.

If the chlorinated chicken spat is any indication, American factory farmers seem much more inclined to take what they see as a temporary profit loss and then fight regulation tooth and nail, rather than make common-sense changes to the way they operate. They are used to using their size and influence to get their way. It will likely take much more than an extra marketing hurdle in Europe to make companies like Tyson and Cargill consider actually changing the way they do business, but bit by bit they are starting to feel the pressure of consumers who are fed up with low quality, unsafe food. Hopefully someday soon American legislators will take a hint from the EU and start holding our food to the same higher standards that other countries do.

Photo credit: motiqua via Flickr