Food labelling
...pful tools, such as listening of ingredients and special labelling for GM food. In general he is against GM food and he would like to see, and also demands in the last paragraph, that the Canadians handle GM food as in the Old World. 8. Whom does the author admire, and why? The author admires the British and the whole EU because they have achieved a ban on GM food and all imports from the US as well. The author thinks it would be good for the Canadians to do it like the EU has already done and he also finds it unwarrantable for the customer to eat such modified, unnatural food. Activities: 9. Write a letter to Health Minister Allan Rock and tell him your views on the subject of food labelling and GM foods Mister Allan Rock Odd-street 666/999 Minister of Health 11.11.04 Weirdo-street 9 Dear Mr. Rock The heated debate about the labelling and rejection of GM foods has reached a new climax so I thought about writing you a few lines to help you with you further decisions, if help is needed. First of all, I just want to say, that it is very unjustifiable that since GM foods have come into usage no labelling or special signs are used to warn or protect the customer. Also, all these articles about this subject are saying that something has to be done in the near future to guarantee the best possible service for the public. When you are going through any market there is no information on their products and also the lists of ingredients are very patch and a mystery as well. Who can know that such long and probably Latin words could mean fat for example? The main thing I am considering is the consequences that could arise from playing God. Is it intelligent and responsible to redesign Nature? Where are our boundaries and how far should mankind go? Even this problem with the mad cow syndrome stemming GM fodder showed us that we should not try to control naturally developed processes. If we think we can handle Nature, but lose control what then? We probably have the technical support to darn some volitional faults from Mother Nature’s blueprints but this first imagined frictionless revolution could develop itself into a big problem where the consequences could be so dreadful that modern life standards could decrease dramatically. On the edge of Reason? Let’s jump into future for a while, where GM food harms you and diseases were caused by this rubbish nutrition. What are we going to do? I know we could do it like all people in the US are handling it every day: we could sue the companies because they are polluting us with their food. What a great idea, that is the best solution for all problems, isn’t it? Yes, why not? Let’s sue the bastards and then everything will be fine again when those bad guys are bleeding white and then the public will be satisfied for a couple of minutes. We can’t handle our future and the future of the following generations like this. We should take some precautions to prevent such a fate and also to protect our own health and if all else fails, then we can sue the bastards! With best regards, Dr.Strangelove Discussion: 10. Do you think food labelling is important? Why, why not? Food labelling is a very important thing to show the customer, which ingredients are in a certain product. With a labelled list on the package the consumer is given the chance to decide what product he would like to buy. Also, a very important point is that everything is controlled and the chance of minimizing the possible objectionable contaminants is given. Labelling is also a part of the consumer protection and should be established in the whole world and standardised norms. 11. Have there been any food scares in your country similar to the one in the UK? In Austria has not such a grave scandal as in the UK but also some apophysis of the BSE syndrome hit mentally Austria and now every single piece of meet that is going in stock and on the market is controlled and labelled. Through these scandals the government has been warned and has demonstrated how important it is to supervise the big groups and to forbid certain methods, if it is necessary, to guarantee the optimum for the consumer and national health standards. 12. Why do you think governments have been slow to enforce food labelling? The late enforcement of food labelling can be explained with the typical affliction that is infecting nearly every government: why change something when everything is running frictionless until now? Governments are changing something only if it is really necessary or to prevent inevitable shipwrecking of a certain sector. With food labelling the case was probably the same but not only the sumptuary law of the governments blocked the reformation because the big lobbies had their fingers in the pie as well and retained the advances. 13. Do people have enough knowledge to make decisions about food matters, or should we leave them to the government experts? Normally the average knowledge of the consumer is as high as the knowledge of slug because nobody really cares about what he is eating during the whole day. The government should be responsible for the food matters in schools and teach the pupils what is something that should be consumed everyday and what good should be only eaten on some rare occasions. Also they should inform the customer about risks and dangerous eating habits, like the obesity in America probably caused by the Fast Food vendors. But nothing has been done till now and in t...