Food Law Items of Interest in This Month’s ISBA Central Community

Food Law Section Council member and our former chair, Lynne Ostfeld, has posted a number of very relevant and interesting posts in the ISBA’s Central Community.

This was just announced in GAIN (Global Agricultural Information Network):

1. European Union: European Commission Authorizes Two GE Crops for Import

On February 22, 2022, the European Commission (EC) approved two genetically engineered (GE) crops (1 soybean and 1 oilseed rape) for food and animal feed. The two authorizations were published in the European Union's Official Journal on February 24, 2022, and they remain valid for 10 years.
European Union: US Beef Imports into the EU High Quality Beef Quota Increased in 2022

U.S. beef exports under the EU High Quality Beef (HQB) quota increased by over 2,000 metric tons (MT) in 2022, to 13,438 MT. The quota usage rate increased to 52.9 percent, up from 50.1 percent in 2021, despite an increase in the quota from 23,000 MT in 2021 to 25,400 MT in 2022.
The US won the "war" that the EU must allow the importing of American beef but the primary marketplace is still the restaurant and hotel. The average French consumer is still a bit hesitant about importing American beef due to concerns about the hormone content/additions.

2. Food Safety Magazine is sponsoring a Food Safety Summit May 8-11, 2023 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont (on the NW edge of Chicago and close to O'Hare Airport). For more info, contact them at: FoodSafetySummit@events-bnp.com.
3. A group of Illinois ag organizations is launching a campaign to show people that 96% of the farms in Illinois are run by family farmers. The video, part of which was shown at the Super Bowl, is at this link-www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e3dMPt49r4.
4. Attached is the link to an interesting, nay mesmerizing, video about how a great variety of food around the world is harvested (today, not at the beginning of agriculture production when Egypt created the plow)-www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
5. Magdalena Zielinska-Kuc, a Polish lawyer who participated in the recent UIA webinar about the effect of sanctions on Russia made some interesting comments about the effect on ag and food, which are not directly sanctioned: both Russia and Ukraine are key global suppliers of cereals and sunflower oil. "Every 3rd portion of French fries in the EU is fried in Ukrainian oil". In 2021 Russia and Ukraine were responsible for 25% of global wheat exports (FAO, 2022). FAO also reported that Sunflower oil exports from both countries was 72% of global exports in 2021. The main Ukrainian commodities account for substantial imports by other countries in the region: (wheat) 80% by Lebanon, 46% by Pakistan, 44% by Libya, 42% by Tunisia; (corn) 55% by China, 32% by the EU, 32% by Turkey, 26% by Egypt; (Sunflower Oil) 75% by India, 74% by Iraq, 62% by the EU, 59% by China. If the item itself is not directly sanctioned, the loss to the world is due to transportation problems with Russia trying to block shipment by boat. These problems raise the cost of insurance on the boat and the cargo. Attorneys for buyers and sellers are trying to figure out how to deal with contracts rendered difficult, more expensive or simply impossible. Emergency substitutions of a raw ingredient into a transformed product raises legal issues in the food labeling sector.
6. There have been a number of stories the past few days of interest to farmers:

Mexico is still talking about not allowing the import of GMO corn; News Nation did a whole segment with a NE farmer who talked about the financial impact, given that he has bought all his seed and inputs, and the effect that this will have on the world's food supply if we have to go back to using a lot more chemicals, not to mention the effect on the environment. Many states are looking to block the sale of farmland to China and others. China owns less than 5% I believe but has increased its ownership by 50% the past year; a big worry is the closeness to US military bases; the other worry is that they need to raise their food here for shipment to China, which has not as much arable land as one would think.

The price of eggs is astronomical in Calif, according to the WSJ, because of its laws requiring laying hens to be cage free, possibly twice as high as in the Midwest. There is a bit about the differential between white and brown eggs (my mother raised on a farm said that there is no difference, it depends on either the hen or the feed). They want a "humanly" raised egg. I twice asked my Harvard educated farmer uncle about free range eggs. He asked who felt better - me or the hen? Then Consumer Reports did an article that eggs from free range hens were not necessarily healthier because hens eat where they defecate. That is likely why my great-aunts buried pottery shards in the chicken coop yard - to get the hens to move around and scratch.

7. News Nation had an extensive segment this morning about Mexico planning to not allow the import of GMO corn. The anchor interviewed a farmer in NE with a large farm about the effect on farmers. He pointed out that GMO corn saves on chemical applications and allows for a greater profit for the farmer. It is more climate and soil friendly. He talked about how this affects not just corn eaten or feed to animals but downstream products. He pointed out that he has already bought his seed and chemicals for the year. Not having this market, which is considerable, will affect thousands of workers and cost the US economy billions. What will we all do with the corn grown and harvested?

There is a mistaken assumption that GMO corn has been created by adding a chemical or more. The French have periodically fought it on the basis that not enough time has been spent studying it. Years ago NPR reported a study which found that the earliest known GMO was 8,000 years ago when an earthworm changed the construct of a sweet potato.  Ag Sec'y Vilkas (sp ?) has this problem on the top of his list of things to be resolved.

8. Laws to implement labeling of products grown/raised in the US have been bouncing around, particularly since the mid 1990's and Mad Cow Disease. Country of Origin Labeling has been in effect, voided, resurrected..... One purpose was to protect American raised beef which was not fed anything which might cause or spread Mad Cow disease.
9. The latest iteration is contained in an article from Farm Journal's AgWeb discussing the USDA wanting to limit use of "Product of USA" to only items fully grown/raised in the US. Canada and Mexico may fight this because of the treaty we have with them to not discriminate against their products (tho Mexico wants to ignore this re GMO crops). The other issue is that there are feed lots in Canada used by farmers in the northern states, particularly those near cities where residents think that they should not have to smell manure. For more info, read: www.agweb.com/news/livestock/beef/...