Just as it would be wrong for Malta to depend entirely on Europe for its food supply, it would be even more wrong for Europe to depend on the US if a free-trade agreement between the two went ahead, according to pig breeders.
“Unless we drop our standards and increase subsidies, or convince the US to do the opposite, the European farmer does not stand a chance in the food-price race,” Oliver Frendo, from the Pig Breeders’ Cooperative insisted yesterday at a press conference about the threats of the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
Since neither of these eventualities was even remotely likely, the future of European agriculture post-TTIP was bleak.
“As a union we risk losing countless jobs and considerable income. Worse still, we may lose the ability to dictate our own food standards and eventually even to feed our own people,” he added.
Dr Frendo was speaking next to an eight-metre inflatable ‘Trojan horse’ towering over buyers at the Farmers’ Market in Ta’ Qali.
Organised by Friends of the Earth Malta and their allies in the Front against TTIP (Malta) the event was the last in a series, held mainly in Valletta this week, urging people to sign an EU-wide petition calling for an end to this “sinister deal” that would lower the standard of produce and actually kill off some sectors because of higher competition.
The next stop on the horse’s itinerary is Belgium, where activists there will work to top up the 2.5 million signatures collected so far.
Throughout the morning, buyers and farmers stopped by the horse, asking about the implications of the proposal for the bilateral trade agreement believed to be the largest in history.
Friends of the Earth spokeswoman Elena Portelli said farmers in Malta have voiced their concern that increased competition from large EU producers had already led to a decrease in their profits. Removing tariffs on US produce would increase imports into the EU and American products are much cheaper because of the lower standards of production. This would result in unfair competition.
The US allows practices in animal farming that are so far strictly banned in the EU, such as growth-promoting hormones in dairy animals, hormone-disrupting chemicals in pork and chlorine-rinsing of poultry.
Meanwhile, the EU also has strict control over the use of Genetically Modified Organisms and pesticides.
Allowing the importation of these products increases consumers’ health risks and would change the agricultural landscape. Joseph Portelli, from the Malta Organic Agriculture Movement said American producers were not even obliged to notify consumers that the products were GMOs.
Those who have not signed the petition yet can do so on https://stop-ttip.org/