Food safety and the WTO: The interplay of culture, science and technology

Food is a cultural statement, as well as a biological necessity. Many existing laws, regulations and governmental practices---as well as habits of citizens---reflect the cultural, as well as the moral, beliefs of people. Food is commerce also. Technology has made it possible to grow foods in abundance and for faraway markets, with ever changing methods of production like genetic modification. The conflict between food as culture and food as commerce was reflected in Beef Hormones, the dispute before the World Trade Organization (WTO) between the European Community and the United States regarding trade in cattle that had been fed certain growth hormones. Beef Hormones was the first ruling to interpret the 1995 WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement), which strikes a balance in favor of food as commerce by mandating that all food safety measures have a scientific justification.;The science-based approach of the SPS Agreement followed the on-going dispute about the use of growth hormones. It intersected with the "mad cow disease" and variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease scares in Europe and with the application of genetic engineering to the food supply. Many vocal Europeans were uncomfortable with science (the SPS Agreement) as a substitute for time (precaution). In part as a reaction to these concerns Europe failed to implement the Beef Hormones ruling and argues for a "precautionary principle" in food safety decisionmaking.;To address the democratic and cultural issues presented by the balance in favor of food as commerce, the author argues for flexible interpretations of the SPS Agreement and an amendment to the compensation (implementation) provision of the WTO Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes.