TTIP stands for Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. It is a trade agreement currently being negotiated between the EU and the US, and negotiators want to conclude the talks this year.
This treaty represents a serious threat to food safety, human health and the environment. Some of the concerns are that it will decrease or eliminate EU restrictions on GMOs and food additives, challenge food labelling laws, and undermine the EU’s food safety standards. There is a push by big food and biotech companies to removing the barriers for trade between EU and US and “converge” regulatory measures.
Trade harmonization rules further entrench a massive industrial agriculture system, making it more difficult for small-scale, locally based, and agro-ecological approaches to compete.
However, given the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it’s clear that economic imperatives should aim to link local production mainly for local consumption and to localise energy sources. Such measures provide stable jobs and ensure viable economies, democratic participation, public health, and environmental integrity.
Food is one of the most important elements of our lives and through everyday choices of what we buy and consume we decide about the future of our food system. We, YFoEE, want every citizen to have the right to be informed and able to decide about the products they buy and in that way support local, environmentally friendly, high quality, healthy and tasty food.
The TTIP treaty being negotiated puts at risk the freedom of choice and forces into our system the harmful agricultural practices we have long resisted. This is a major crossroads for our food system.
We, YFoEE, want to support the transition to a sustainable food and agriculture system and that’s why we want to act against TTIP being signed. For more detail about our vision of food and agriculture system, read our manifesto.
You can join this fight to stop TTIP by signing the petiton, or you can contact us to help you organise an action in your city. Why not try one of our action ideas?
