Hilary Benn’s Food Without Thought
HILARY Benn is talking about how British is best and if we all buy British then it will all be alright. And if it’s more expensive than inported stuff, then all the better. More good debt.
“I want British agriculture to produce as much food as possible. No ifs, no buts.
“We could produce more fruit and vegetables here in the UK – the market is there, so what’s holding us back?
“If there’s demand then production should follow. So the answer is to buy more British and eat more British.”
Eat more British. Eat more British on benefits, he means, and so increase efficiency.
“Under current European regulations, a pork pie processed in Britain from Danish pork can legitimately be labelled as a British pie. That’s a nonsense and it needs to change.”
As the EU press release says:
As is currently the case, the draft Regulation proposes to keep country of origin or place of provenance labelling on food voluntary, unless its absence could mislead consumers. However, certain criteria are laid down for producers who do wish to put the country of origin or place of provenance on the label of their products. In line with international standards (WTO and Codex), the country of origin should be determined in accordance with the Community Custom Code. The country of origin or place of provenance of the main ingredients must also be listed if those ingredients originate from a different place than the finished product. For example, butter churned in Belgium from Danish milk could be labelled as “produced in Belgium from Danish milk”. Producers may, if they wish to, put a “made in the EU” label on their foodstuffs, provided the food was produced in the EU. Alternatively, they can choose to indicate the Member State.
So change it:
Under existing EU legislation country of origin or place of provenance labelling is voluntary; national authorities can only make it mandatory under certain conditions. In addition, they must notify the Commission before introducing any national legislation on origin labelling for food, as it can potentially be used as a barrier to trade. The new proposal requires that when Member States notify such measures, they need to bring evidence of requests from consumers for such origin labelling, showing that information on the country of origin or place of provenance of the product will influence purchasing choices on the basis of certain qualities of the food.
But we were already asked for our opinion, Mr Benn:
An online consultation, open to all interested parties, was carried out between March and June 2006. The Commission received 175 responses to this survey, which can be found at:
http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/labellingnutrition/betterregulation/index_en.htm
Wow, as many as that.
File under: How politics works and what is the point of Hilary Benn?.
Posted: 6th, January 2009 | In: Politicians Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
