NMPF Touts Dairy’s Sustainability Story to Head Off Trade Problems
January 5, 2023
NMPF executive vice president for policy development & strategy Jaime Castaneda highlighted U.S. dairy’s strong sustainability commitments in Brussels Dec. 5-7 while meeting with American and European agriculture stakeholders under the U.S.-EU Collaboration Platform on Agriculture, a position reinforced in U.S. meetings later in the month.
The collaboration, launched by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and European Union Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski in November 2021, created a new forum for representatives from both the United States and the European Union to better collaborate and address common issues affecting agriculture, in key part to head off future trade conflicts.
Castaneda participated in the conference’s first panel. Castaneda also met with the Directorate-General (DG) Office for Health and Food Safety while in Europe to discuss the EU’s changing dairy import certificate requirements and the importance of smoothly implementing any new requirements. Following the conference, Castaneda joined the DG Office of Agriculture’s Unit Head and Deputy Director for the Americas to discuss ongoing trade issues, including the EU’s continued abuse of geographical indications to monopolize common cheese names around the world.
On Dec. 15, Shawna Morris, NMPF’s senior vice president for trade policy, joined Castaneda and Nick Gardner, senior vice president for sustainability and multilateral affairs with the U.S. Dairy Export Council to present to approximately two dozen European embassy officials on the progress U.S. dairy sector has made on sustainability in the past 15 years. Morris underscored the importance of a trade-friendly, incentive-based approach to new policies the EU is exploring in this space. The presentation also highlighted the sector’s goals and strategies and reinforced U.S. dairy’s reputation as a global trailblazer on climate and sustainability in agriculture.