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Missy Shelton reports from Europe on a journalism study tour funded by the German Marshall Fund, a nonpartisan American Public Policy and grantmaking institution, that promotes trans-Atlantic relations. She's among eleven journalists taking part in an agriculture study tour. In this installment of KSMU's European Agriculture Study Tour series, Missy Shelton examines the European Union's attitudes toward genetically modified crops and hormones in livestock, two major issues that impact the exports of US farmers.
On the Dutch dairy farm of Nils den Besten, his 70 cows graze once a day, get milked twice a day and never received growth hormones.
The public doesn't accept the use of growth hormones and the European Union doesn't allow it. Before taking over his parent's farm in Holland, Nils den Besten worked on a Wisconsin dairy farm. He says the time he spent on the US dairy farm taught him that hormones can be useful but they also can be abused.
While there are certainly American farmers who agree and reject hormones, many American farmers embrace their use.
Hormones in livestock is just one issue that's a sticking point between the U-S and E-U agriculture interests in trade negotiations.
Another sticking point? Genetically modified crops.
U-S farmers make use of bio-tech crops that are touted as being more disease resistant.
But the vast majority of consumers in the European Union opposes these kinds of products and has even labeled them "frankenfood." They believe these products are unsafe and unhealthy.
Anson Elliott is the Agriculture Department Head at Missouri State University.
Changing the minds of the European consumer is quite a hurdle for US farmers to overcome. European farmers are following the demand of their consumers.
Pekka Pesonen is Secretary General of COPA/COGECA, a group that represents the interests of farmers and cooperatives in the E-U.
He says E-U farmers couldn't turn the tide of public sentiment, even if they wanted to do that.
But the opposition continues to be strong from both the public and politicians.
Missouri State University's Anson Elliott says he believes the opposition to genetically modified crops and the use of hormones is not based on scientific research but reaction to past food safety snafus like bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow disease.
Even if the doors were open, it would take a lot to convince European consumers to buy and eat genetically modified products and meats containing hormones.
