Beef over beef. On CETA and the history of the European growth hormone ban

In the wake of controversies over the Dutch ratification of the CETA trade deal between Canada and the EU, Koen van Zon asks where concerns over hormone-raised beef originated. This blog goes back to the events leading up to the European Community’s ban on growth hormones in the meat industry in 1985. Koen shows that the debate, which involved a variety of actors across the Community, was fuelled by sentiments which made the question of regulating food safety a highly sensitive affair – and not just within Europe.