labelling foods

[eve]

Thursday, 08/06/2006 - From today it is compulsory for retailers to identify the country of origin of fresh food. Fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts and seafood will have to be clearly labelled.

Mike Redmond from the Virginia Horticulture Centre in South Australia says the industry will now push for labelling of frozen, packaged and processed food.

"Look it's about giving the consumer the right to choose whether they're going to buy an Australian product and all the good things that go with that like all our food safety standards which are some of the most rigorous in the world, and they get to choose," Mr Redmond said.

Jolly good news!

[treehugga]

Excellent and lets hope this improves things for our local produce.

[moochbabe]

very cool eve! it's starting to get that way in the u.s., at least as far as produce goes. it's helping me to try to stick to my "100 mile radius" plan. honestly I don't understand the point of shipping organics all the way from mexico or guatemala it just seems counter-intuitive.

[eve]

I agree with you moochbabe, even when it comes to fair-trade - it doesn't make sense to me to buy, eg, fair-trade coffee that gets flown here from halfway round the world, when I can support the local coffee growers. Much easier on the environment too. I also refuse to buy the Chinese garlic that sells incredibly cheaply; I prefer to buy local garlic even though it's dearer.

[eve]

Not quite the same as labelling fruit & veg, but here the animal welfare code is being reviewed, especially in respect of pigs. Please check this out and object.
http://www.savebabe.com/take-action/...akeAction.html

[Smoothie]

lucky you guys. here in denmark the only thing we have in the winter is cabbage, potatoes and defferent kind of roots (beetroot, selleri and so on) - so i think i'd be in serious danger if i didn't eat imported foods (like beans, soya, and some imported veggies and fruits) but in the summer i try to stick with danish veggies (but still eat beans, soya and so on..)
i'd like to live in a country where you'd be able to get the nutrition you need as a vegan all year.

[StmpyElephant]

Fantastic news!

[eve]

lucky you guys. here in denmark the only thing we have in the winter is cabbage, potatoes and defferent kind of roots (beetroot, selleri and so on) - so i think i'd be in serious danger if i didn't eat imported foods (like beans, soya, and some imported veggies and fruits) but in the summer i try to stick with danish veggies (but still eat beans, soya and so on..)
i'd like to live in a country where you'd be able to get the nutrition you need as a vegan all year.

You are quite right, my posting was only from my own point of view. Yes we are lucky to have so many different foods available locally, though I guess that your imported foodstuffs come from other parts of Europe? Here we are so far away from Europe, that what imported foods I see come from China and Vietnam. Someone I was talking to today, told me that he and his wife eat fish that come from Indonesia and from Africa, and it doesn't taste too good. Oh well, if they will eat fish!

[Smoothie]

well, i think most of our foods come from italy, spain and so on. but you can get loads of food from africa, america and asia too. but i usually try to buy as local as possible, and then when something is not available from europe (for an example coffee) - i buy it fairtrade and organic..