Friday, March 29, 2024

ALTERNATIVE VIEW: Our food needs to be CoOL man

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I remain confused why New Zealand doesn’t have mandatory Country of Origin Labelling (CoOL) on food.
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The first responsibility of a government, any government, is the welfare of its citizens and CoOL does just that.

It is also logical.

We have a right to know where our food comes from. We should also have the option of being able to support our local producers.

Without CoOL we can’t do that.

The situation is somewhat ridiculous as that law dictates that I know where my clothing and footwear comes from but not my food.

In addition, 70% of Kiwis want Country of Origin Labelling. Only 9%, an extremely small number, don’t.

So, my question is to ask why we have had so much obfuscation from the Government on CoOL and for so long.

I can remember when the normally up front Nikki Kaye was minister. She told us it wasn’t needed because we basically had a de facto CoOL.

Sorry Ms Kaye, we don’t.

It seems to me we have an entrenched bureaucracy lambasting politicians that CoOl is a barrier to trade and affects our WTO obligations. They have never offered me a detailed explanation why that is but it seems to have become a mantra of the grey cardy brigade.

Sadly, it seems, politicians haven’t been willing or able to stand up to those faceless leaders of the establishment and growers, supermarkets and consumers are suffering for it.

Why they don’t ask the simple questions as to how CoOL is a barrier to trade and why it will affect any WTO obligations is beyond me.

They could ask why labelling clothing and footwear isn’t a barrier to trade but labelling food is.

After all, the vast majority of our trading partners and certainly all of the significant players have mandatory food labelling.

The arguments against just don’t stand up and it is an indictment on our politicians that they haven’t harshly questioned the bureaucracy’s position.

For example, Canada started country of origin labelling back in 1990, followed by the United States in 2002.

Australia and the European Union have had labelling for some considerable time as have India, China Japan and Russia. A total of 47 countries have country of origin labelling and that includes all of our major trading partners.

That New Zealand doesn’t label puts us in the company of Estonia, Guatemala and Latvia, which is ridiculous.

I’m sure we’d like to think that we’re a little better than third world when it comes to food safety but in this instance we’re not.

It is important because in 2010 we imported $3 billion worth of food.

A large portion of the pork sold here is imported, which is why I will buy it only from the Masterton butcher who sources it locally.

In addition, we imported $31 million of fish, which I have a real issue with.

If you’re in Australia fish is labelled as coming from Vietnam, Ghana, Nigeria and the like so you can make an informed choice. Here, we can’t.

A simple question is to ask “Why can’t we?”

We have some hope in the form of a private members bill from Green MP Steffan Browning, the Consumers Right to Know Country of Origin Food Bill.

Why we needed a private members bill is beyond me but Browning is to be congratulated for pushing the cause.

So where to from here?

In the past we’ve had vitriolic opposition from the Food and Grocery Council and lately they’ve been quiet.

Their argument about increased costs has been largely dispelled by their membership.

Federated Farmers have also opposed CoOL in the past but with their current board I would anticipate a more enlightened approach.

The Greens will obviously support it. Labour has promoted CoOL for some years.

That leaves National, NZ First, Act, the Maori Party and United Future.

NZ First is supporting the Bill as is the Maori Party.

To get over the line it needs one more vote, either from Act or United Future.

I would hope a centrist like Peter Dunne would support it.

My further hope is that National would bite the bullet, ignore the weeping and wailing from the Food and Grocery Council and support the Bill to a select committee.

With 70% of the nation supporting Country of Origin Labelling I would have thought they would be stupid not to, especially in an election year.

In addition, it is the right thing to do – if that is important in any political debate.

We deserve to know where our food comes from.

It is to Browning’s credit that he has persevered to get the legislation thus far. Here’s sincerely hoping it goes the whole way.

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