The European Union and the U.S. continue to talk about what it will take to get a trade deal done. However, the U.S. and the EU have stark differences in their policies toward food production, which continues to be a stumbling block. Outgoing Deputy Ag Secretary Stephen Censky recently pointed out the biggest difference at the Ag Outlook Forum.

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“Whereas under the U.S. approach, we want, welcome, and want to bring on innovation and new technologies; in the EU, their strategy is about taking technologies away from farmers; about taking crop-protection products away from farmers; about taking animal therapy drugs away from farmers. We really think that’s going to have disastrous results, and we think a far better way to go is to welcome technology.”

Censky added the EU policy toward food production makes it very difficult to do business with them.

“If EU farmers don’t have access to technologies, as Secretary Perdue has said, they’re more likely to want to have trade protection because they won’t be able to compete. Even worse than that, the EU has a history of exporting their beliefs, or imposing them on those that want to do business with them. Think about the impacts in the Middle East and Africa and Southeast Asia, of denying farmers access to technologies.”

Critics of the EU’s food policy add will make it difficult to feed a rapidly growing population around the world.

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