Press Releases

Congresswoman Pingree with her colleagues Rosa Delauro and Louise Slaughter (2nd and 3rd from left, respectively) at a May 13, 2015, press conference in Washington

At a news conference in Washington today, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree joined Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY) in calling for the Obama Administration to release the provisions related to food safety that have been negotiated as part of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).
 
Pingree said that the demand for local, organic food is increasing and the TPP could hurt consumers' ability to buy more local food.
 
"This is completely counter to what the consumer is asking for.  It's counter to what would be a great opportunity for American farmers to move into a market where they arepaid a little better, they get to sell more food locally and change the environmental relationship with our food system," Pingree said.
 
Pingree also said that the terms of a trade agreement could weaken American food safety laws and cited examples of Chinese food safety issues such as tainted baby milk, rat meat sold as lamb and chicken fattened with illegal drugs.

According to some reports, the TPP will contain provisions that allow foreign corporations to challenge regulations like food safety standards in the U.S. if they feel the rules are a barrier to trade and profit.
 
The terms of the TPP are being kept secret from the public, although industry insiders from major corporations do have access to the negotiations. 
 
"We have very little knowledge about how it's going to be implemented and how to fight back on it," Pingree said.  "I want to join my colleagues in calling for transparency and insisting we have this information before it does someserious damage to our agriculture industry and our consumers' ability to get the healthy food they want."