TPP would allow milk from cows receiving hormones into Canada

As dairy imports from the United States appear set to increase under the terms of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, Canadian consumers concerned about drinking milk from cows receiving hormones will need to read their labels more carefully.

In the agreement in principle reached Oct. 5,Canada conceded an additional 3.25 per cent of its dairy market to imports from the 11 otherPacific Rim countries signing on, most notably the U.S., New Zealand and Australia.

That amount may not seemsignificant, but untilrecently, Canada's supply-managed dairy sectoroffered only the stingiest of tariff-free market access to its trading partners, on specific terms such as the cheese deal struck with the European Union in 2013.

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Small levels ofimports are possible while maintainingsupply management, if they are managed carefully. The ultimate impact of the TPP on the dairy industrymightdepend on details not yet available onwhat kindsof products andin whatamountsmake up that 3.25 per cent.

Unique to the TPPis the prospect of fluid milk crossing the border from the U.S. The terms of the agreement made public earlier this month specify that 85 per cent of fluid milk imports must beprocessed in Canada before hitting store shelves.

At the initial briefing offered to journalists, TPP negotiators saidCanadian health and safety regulations would apply.

"The TPP fully protects Canada's right to maintain and implement measures to ensure food safety for consumers, as well as to protect animal or plant life or health," a trade department spokesman wroteCBC News.

But further clarification recently revealedthat doesn't mean dairy producersoutside Canada have to follow the same rules Canadian farms do.

Most notably, it's illegal in Canadato administer bovine growth hormone (rBST) to boost milk production in dairy cattle. But there's no such restriction inthe U.S.

No new certification or inspection regime appears settoscreenmilk destined forimport into Canada.It's also unclear whether U.S. milk would be segregatedat Canadian processing facilities, or simply mixed withCanadian product.

'Incoherent' approach

Yves Leduc from the Dairy Farmers of Canadasays this "double standard"concerns farmers because it creates confusion.

"It seems incoherent to restrict the use of rBSTin Canada, when products made with the hormone can still enter the Canadian market," he wrote to CBC News.

Health Canada banned bovine growth hormone because of animal welfareconcerns. Itfound no evidence of adverse health effects in humans who consumed dairy productsoriginating withrBST-receivingcows.

But some consumersmay have concerns about the changing content of dairy products on their shelves.

In an email to CBC News, a Canadian trade department spokesmancited asurvey conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculturein 2007 that foundrBSTused on approximately 17 per cent of cows in the U.S.

The hormoneis not used inthe European Union, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, whichshare Canada's view of theanimal health concerns.

The Dairy Farmers of Canada saysthat when regulators reviewedrBSTinCanada, neither farmers nor consumers wanted it.

Canadian farmers use improvednutrition andveterinarymonitoring to maximizemilk production instead.

Green Party opposes imports

On Friday, Green Party Leader Elizabeth Maywho lobbied against the use ofbovine growth hormone when she representedthe Sierra Club of Canada said that milk that includes hormones must be kept out of Canada.

"In 1999, Health Canada banned bovine growth hormones (rBST)because of animal welfare concerns, including an increased risk of mastitis a painful bacteria inflection that affects the uddersa 50 percent increased risk of clinical lamenessand shorter lifespans for cows," she said in a written statement.

"We really do not know the effects of this hormone on humans, which is one of the reasons why Europe has already banned rBST. The International Agency for Research in Cancer has concerns that rBST increases cancer in humans," she said.

In 1999, aSenate committee called witnesses to probeHealth Canada's drug approval process with respect tobovine growth hormones andfound "contradictory evidence on human safety aspects of rBST."

The National Farmers Union also issued a press release earlier this month expressing concern that the TPP gives countries thatuseveterinary drugs not approved in Canada access to our markets.

Labelling push

A familiar bluedairy cow logo already appears on some100percentCanadian dairy products as a marketing initiative. Consumer education campaignsrefer to Canada's "hormone-free" milkas a selling point.

While fluid milk imports haven't been crossing the border, other ingredients derived from milk already are imported: some food processors use alimited amount of things like U.S. cheese forfrozen pizzas, for example.

When "modified milk ingredients" appearon a processed food label, thegeographical origin is unspecified.

If the TPP is ratified and imports from the U.S. increase, the dairy industry wants more attention paid tolabelling.

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If the origin of milk ingredients is clearly labelled, shopperscanavoid non-Canadian dairy if that's important to them.

During the 2015 federal election, dairy farmers alsolobbied candidates to proposefood labellingchanges that wouldidentifythe percentage of each ingredient, soconsumers cancompare not justwhat but how much each product contains.

The Dairy Farmers of Canada believesconsumers are on its side.

In late July, it commissioned a nationalsurveyfrom Environics Researchthat suggests:

• 85 per cent of respondents either strongly or somewhat agreed with thestatement they "didn't mind paying more for Canadian dairy products because they are hormone-free."
• 78 per cent said it was "very important" that the milk products they use are Canadian, with a further 13 per cent saying it was "somewhat important."
• 87 per cent were either very or somewhat concerned about the TPP lowering Canadian food safety and quality standards.

The interactive voice recognition (IVR) telephone survey of 1,707Canadians aged 18 and olderwas conducted July 24-28, 2015, and has amargin of error of2.4 percentage points, with a 95 per cent confidence level.