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ARLINGTON, VA – The Consortium for Common Food Names (CCFN) praised Chairman GT Thompson and the House Agriculture Committee for including the Safeguarding American Food and Export Trade Yields (SAFETY) Act in its Farm Bill legislative text released today.

Co-sponsored in the House by Reps. Dusty Johnson, R-SD, Jim Costa, D-CA, Michelle Fischbach, R-MN, and Jimmy Panetta, D-CA, and in the Senate by Sens. John Thune, R-SD, Tammy Baldwin, D-WI, Roger Marshall, R-KS, and Tina Smith, D-MN, the bipartisan SAFETY Act would establish a long-term policy directive for USDA to partner with the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to prioritize the protection of common names like “parmesan” and “bologna” in international trade negotiations. Enactment of the SAFETY Act would offer an important complement to the Administration’s decisive actions over the past year to protect U.S. exporters’ rights to use common food names.

“For too long, the European Union has weaponized geographical indication policies to tilt the playing field against U.S. producers,” said Jaime Castaneda, executive director of CCFN. “Recent trade negotiations have finally reversed that trend. The Farm Bill language ensures that this policy continues to be a priority for the U.S. government for years to come. We appreciate Chairman Thompson, the House Agriculture Committee and our bipartisan Congressional champions of the SAFETY Act for their leadership in sending a clear signal that the United States needs to establish a lasting policy ensuring our producers do not lose market access and opportunities in the future.”

Since 2009, the European Union has leveraged trade negotiations and its geographical indication (GI) system to claim widely used food names for the exclusive benefit of its own producers—effectively restricting competition and monopolizing certain products in key markets. For American farmers and manufacturers, this has meant lost export opportunities abroad and costly legal and commercial disputes at home. In recent years, the EU has intensified these efforts by pressuring third-party countries to adopt EU-style GI protections as part of their trade agreements, further limiting the ability of U.S. producers to compete globally.

Castaneda continued, “When foreign governments adopt restrictive GI policies under EU pressure, American producers pay the price. The SAFETY Act is about supporting current efforts to establish a clear U.S. government policy focused on ensuring that widely used food names remain available to those who have earned the right to use them.”