By Robin Emmott and Tom Körkemeier
BRUSSELS, July 14 (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel once said she wished “for nothing more than a free-trade agreement between the USA and the EU”.
To the dismay of many in Brussels and Washington, Germans are now taking a very different view. That is putting Europe’s biggest exporter in the unusual situation of becoming one of the most vocal opponents of the world’s biggest trade deal.
A transatlantic pact would create a market of 800 million people and allow Germany to sell more of its luxury cars, trains and chemicals in the United States, an attractive proposition for an economy that has faltered in recent months.
But in a twist that few officials expected, European concerns about the threat to food and the environment have found their strongest voice in Germany, amplified by the country’s influential Green party and anger at reports of U.S. spying.
The difficulty of selling the benefits of a deal, which could generate $100 billion a year in economic growth for both the EU and the United States, is a sign of the challenge for governments seeking to contain a growing hostility to the talks.
“We do not want this sort of agreement,” said Ska Keller, a 32-year-old German Green who gained prominence at home during European elections in May by putting the trade deal at the center of her campaign. “I don’t expect anything positive to come out of the negotiations,” she told Reuters.
Even before the latest reports of U.S. spying in Germany, the idea that the U.S. technique of disinfecting chicken with chlorine might be introduced in Europe has alarmed Germans and highlights their wider suspicions about an EU-U.S. accord.
The phrase “Chlorhuehnchen”, or chlorine chicken, has entered the parlance of everyone from taxi drivers to housewives since trade negotiations began a year ago.
An Internet search for the term generates thousands of results, bringing up cartoons of animals dumped in vats of chemicals and stabbed with needles.
A majority of Germans believe chlorine-washed chicken is a danger to human health despite its successful use in the United States to kill bacteria, according to survey by pollster Forsa.
In the European Union, antibiotics are used. Brussels says there will be no change in policy even with a U.S. deal.

‘ALIEN’ ACCORD
Chancellor Merkel was instrumental in getting EU leaders to agree to negotiations with the United States towards the so-called Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP.
A deal would strengthen a transatlantic trade relationship already worth $3 billion a day, remove barriers to business and strengthen the West’s power over China to shape world trade.
Negotiators meeting in Brussels for a sixth round of talks this week hope to reach an agreement sometime next year. But they are struggling to raise awareness beyond vocal labor and consumer groups who largely oppose an accord.
The EU’s trade chief, Karel De Gucht, has warned that many Europeans think the TTIP “is an extraterrestrial.”
Public support is crucial because the U.S. Congress and the European Parliament must ratify the pact. Germany has the largest contingent of lawmakers in the parliament.
Unlike some of their EU counterparts, Germans are aware of the negotiations. Barely a week goes by without the topic being raised on TV talk shows, in magazines, newspapers and on the radio. Unfortunately for proponents of a deal, much of the commentary is negative.
“It is easier to win an argument with fear than with facts,” said a German businessman in the chemical industry. “Chlorine chicken … genetically modified foods – these are out of the agreement, but it is hard to get the message across.”

“PAYDAY FOR VULTURES”
And it’s not just about food.
Plans to allow companies to bring claims against a country if it breaches the trade treaty have created a furore in Germany, even though Berlin uses the dispute mechanism in other trade accords and is credited with having invented it in the 1950s.
“Payday For Vultures” ran a headline about the issue in German weekly Der Spiegel on March 10.
German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel has said he sees the mechanism as unnecessary, as both the EU and the United States have strong enough legal systems to protect investors.
The United States is unlikely to accept a trade agreement without the dispute mechanism. But to make matters worse, the new chairman of the European Parliament’s influential trade committee, Germany’s Bernd Lange, is strongly against it.
The U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Anthony Gardner, has expressed concern.
“I have never met Mr. Lange, but perhaps is important to explain to him the history of this mechanism,” Gardner told reporters this month. “It was indeed invented in Germany.”
For now, EU and U.S. officials say they are on the front foot in their campaign to sell the benefits of the deal.
The EU’s De Gucht is one of the most active, visiting German universities and giving speeches to Germany’s upper house of parliament. But there no sign yet that Germany is convinced.
“There’s a delusion that somehow Germany has the same attitude to free trade that Britain does, and that is just not true,” said Phillippe Legrain, a former advisor to the president of the European Commission.
“Being a big exporter doesn’t mean that you like opening your markets,” he said. (Additional reporting by Annika Breidthardt in Berlin and Francesco Guarascio in Brussels; Editing by Larry King and John Stonestreet)

As people streamed out of the Kara Walker installation “A Subtlety” on a recent Sunday afternoon to buy an ice cream cone from one of the trucks idling outside the old Domino Sugar Factory on the Williamsburg waterfront, I wondered how many thought abo…

Fear not, cupcake fans: Crumbs Bake Shop could live to see another day.

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QUEENSBURY, N.Y. (AP) — Some car owners are raising a stink after driving a road littered with meat in upstate New York.

Dozens of chunks of meat were on the road in front of a mall Thursday in Queensbury, The Post-Star (http://bit.ly/TZFYWZ) of Glens Falls said Saturday in reporting on the meat mystery in the town about 60 miles north of Albany.

Police believe meat fell off a truck that might have been heading from a farm or slaughterhouse to a rendering plant, but no one has come forward to claim it.

The state Department of Transportation cleaned the meat up, but driver James Teele and other motorists were still dealing with the aftermath Friday.

Teele said he immediately took his SUV to a car wash after driving through the mess en route home Thursday, “but it was too late.” He told the Post-Star: “My vehicle still smells like rotting meat” and flies are swarming around it.

He said he believes the offending material was chicken fat.

Local car washes were busy with motorists trying to obliterate the meat smell. As many as 35 drivers flocked to Hoffman Car Wash, which started asking them to hose off their cars in a self-service area before going through the automatic wash, manager Matt Phillips said.

Still, the stench was tough to take.

“My guys had to step out for a while, it was so bad,” Phillips said.

Drivers were still coming in Friday trying to rout the odor.

“After a while, it will decay,” Phillips said. “But until then, when you turn the air (conditioning) on or air comes through the vents, watch out.”

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Information from: The Post-Star, http://www.poststar.com

Organic food really is better for your health than its conventional counterparts. At least, that’s the conclusion of a new study conducted by researchers at Newcastle University and published this week. But not everyone is convinced.

Specifically, the researchers said that organic fruits, vegetables and cereals contain significantly higher concentrations of antioxidants than conventionally grown crops. They added that organic produce and cereals were found to have lower levels of toxic metals and pesticides.

For the study — said to be the largest of its kind — the researchers analyzed more than 340 international, peer-reviewed studies that looked at compositional differences between organic and conventional crops.

According to the paper, researchers found that organically grown produce and cereals have between 19 and 69 percent higher concentrations of certain antioxidant compounds than conventionally grown crops.

“Many of these [antioxidant] compounds have previously been linked to a reduced risk of chronic diseases, including [cardiovascular] and neurodegenerative diseases and certain cancers, in dietary intervention and epidemiological studies,” the paper reads.

The researchers added that pesticide residues were four times more likely to be found in conventional crops than organic ones. Organic produce and cereals were also found to have significantly lower concentrations of cadmium, a toxic heavy metal.

“This study demonstrates that choosing food produced according to organic standards can lead to increased intake of nutritionally desirable antioxidants and reduced exposure to toxic heavy metals,” lead study author Carlo Leifert said, per a news release. “This constitutes an important addition to the information currently available to consumers which until now has been confusing and in many cases is conflicting.”

The question of whether or not organic food is really better nutritionally has plagued health-conscious foodies for years; but despite Leifert’s confidence, it doesn’t seem that his new study will put this debate to rest.

When it comes to antioxidants, for example, the jury is still out as to whether the compounds really have a substantial impact on health. In addition, as The Guardian notes, “the higher levels of cadmium and pesticides in the conventional produce [referenced in the study] were still well below regulatory limits.”

The BBC also pointed out that levels of proteins and amino acids “were lower in the organic crops sampled” in the study.

“You are not going to be better nourished if you eat organic food,” Tom Sanders, a professor of nutrition at King’s College London, told The Guardian this week. “What is most important is what you eat, not whether it’s organic or conventional. It’s whether you eat fruit and vegetables at all. People are buying into a lifestyle system. They get an assurance it is not being grown with chemicals and is not grown by big business.”

A number of earlier studies that have looked at the differences between organic and conventional crops seem to support Sanders’ comments.

In 2012, for instance, a large study conducted by Stanford researchers found that organic foods are, on average, “no more nutritious” than conventional ones, per The New York Times. A 2009 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition similarly concluded that there’s “no evidence of a difference in nutrient quality between organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs.”

But there are also studies that seem to support the idea that organic crops are indeed better for health. A 2010 study by Washington State University researchers found evidence that organic strawberries contained more vitamin C than conventional ones.

In addition, there is some scientific evidence to support the idea that consuming pesticides could be harmful to health.

Ultimately, it seems that more research still needs to be conducted to determine conclusively whether or not organic produce is really better for health.

Leifert himself acknowledges that his team’s study should only be used as a “starting point” and that more research needs to be done into the possible health benefits of organic food.

“We have shown without doubt there are composition differences between organic and conventional crops, now there is an urgent need to carry out well-controlled human dietary intervention and cohort studies specifically designed to identify and quantify the health impacts of switching to organic food,” he said, per a press release.

Leifert’s study, which was peer-reviewed, was published Friday in the British Journal of Nutrition. Read it here.

It’s a classic in summery fruit salads (not to mention one of our favorite year-round yogurt and oatmeal toppers), well known for its antioxidant prowess and low calorie count. But some of the blueberry’s health benefits and fun facts aren’t exactly common knowledge. Here are a few things to know about what just might be one of the most popular superfoods around.

1. Blueberries protect against memory loss.
A 2012 study suggested that eating at least one serving of blueberries a week slowed cognitive decline by several years. One possible explanation as to why came from a 2013 study in mice, which found that berries might protect the brain by clearing toxic proteins that accumulate there.

2. Maine produces more blueberries than anywhere else in the world.

At least, according to the University of Maine.

3. They can be used as a natural food dye.
And legend has it that early American colonists boiled them with milk to make gray paint, according to the Produce for Better Health Foundation’s Fruits & Veggies More Matters campaign.

4. The perfect blueberry should be “dusty” in color.

5. But don’t wash off that “dust” until you’re ready to dig in.
A rinse softens your blueberries, which can quicken spoiling, according to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

6. The blueberry bush is a relative of the rhododendron — and the azalea.

And along more intuitive lines, also the cranberry.

7. Many blueberry-flavored processed foods do not contain any real blueberries.
Products like bagels, cereals, breads and muffins from brands like Kellogg’s, Betty Crocker and General Mills were reported to use combos of sugar, corn syrup, starch, oil and artificial flavors and dyes to create their own mock blueberries, according to a 2011 Consumer Wellness Center investigation, the LA Times reported.