The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the proposed free trade agreement between the United States and the European Union, faces a number of tough hurdles before it can be finalized, Iowa Farm Bureau members learned last week in a study mission to Germany. And many of those hurdles are within Europe itself.

About 60 percent of German citizens are against TTIP negotiations for a variety of reasons, said Freidrich Wacker, director of international cooperation and global food policy for the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture in Berlin.

"We have a problem with the German public. They tend to be very critical toward TTIP," Wacker said.

The people of Germany are largely against the use of growth hormones in cattle production, the use of chlorine in the cleaning of chicken and genetically-modified...