The  Consumer Right to Know Bill,  which would have ensured that consumers would know more about the food they are eating lost its first vote in Parliament with both Labour and National voting against it.

NZF, United, Act, Maori Party and the Alliance all supported the bill which was aimed at providing people with more information about the food they eat.

Green MP and food safety spokesperson, Sue Kedgley said the Bill had overwhelming support from the vast majority of New Zealanders, who wanted better labelling of their food.

NZ Food Safe - Labour           Labour's Maryan Street said the Bill was not needed because New Zealand's food was safe, while for National, Dr Paul Hutchinson said it would impose overwhelming compliance costs on industry.

Ms Kedgley said GE ingredients have never undergone any safety testing, so it was not known whether or not they were safe. On the matter of compoiance costs, she said the GE labelling provisions would apply to only the dozen or so food producers in New Zealand who had not already removed GE ingredients from their food. There would be virtually no cost to install country-of-origin labelling or to provide labelling on egg cartons

Go here to find out more about Labour and National's reasons for voting against the bill.

Range of info sought      The Bill would have required a range of new labelling measures aimed mandatory country of origin labelling; all GE ingredients in food to be declared on a label; egg cartons to identify whether eggs have been produced from free range, barn raised or caged hens; and fish, to identify whether it is wild caught or farmed. It would established a traceability system for foods containing GE ingredients so they copuld be traced throughout the food production and distribution system. Another provision was to guarantee full public access to government information on residues of pesticides and other chemicals in food.

At present consumers often cannot figure out whether a tomato has been grown in New Zealand or imported from Australia (and therefore dipped in a highly toxic insecticide called dimethoate) said Ms Kedgley.

Nor can people tell whether garlic on sale in NZ supermarkets comes from New Zealand or has been transported ten thousand miles from China.   She said 80% of Chinese waterways are polluted and garlic from there may be contaminated with a virus that could decimate NZ’s onion industry.

Thousands of tonnes of pork, beef, lamb and other meat are imported into New Zealand each year – 27 thousand tonnes of pork was imported into New Zealand last year for example – but no supermarket meat is labelled so that consumers can make a choice – of concern given the likes of BSE and Avian influenza, she said.

Research backs consumer choice                According to consumer research, consumers want to know where their food comes from for a variety of reasons, she said.

In an independent poll carried out by Consumer Link 84% of respondents said they wanted all GE ingredients in food declared on a label; 81% want food labels to tell them whether a product is imported or not and 71% want egg cartons to declare whether or not hens have been kept in battery cages.

Ms Kedgley said some want to support local producers, others are concerned about food miles – the environmental cost of transporting food from the other side of the world and some are concerned about the lack of quality control standards in some countries NZ imports food from.

GE labelling            GE derived ingredients have been subjected to “a phoney assessment process” only.

Producers should declare whether there are GE ingredients in their food or not, so that consumers can avoid buying it if they wish.

“The vast majority of GE ingredients in food do not have to be declared on a label so it is impossible for consumers to work out which foods contain GE ingredients and which do not.”

Proper labelling of GE would also give credit to the majority of businesses which have already eliminated GE derived ingredients from their products, and would require the GE industry to stand by its products “instead of sneaking it into our food” without a label, said Ms Kedgley.

Traceability              The traceability provisions in the Bill would ensure the government can trace any direct or indirect unforeseen effects of GE food on human health or the environment, and help protect our reputation as a quality producer of clean, safe food.

Hen welfare           “If we are going to allow hens to be kept in cruel cages that violate the Animal Welfare Act, surely we should at least require producers to declare on a label that eggs have come from hens that have been kept in cages.”

SAFE this week presented to Parliament a 51 thousand-signature petition calling for mandatory labelling of egg cartons.

Organisations in favour          She said 25 organisations – ranging from the SPCA, Parents Centre, Greenpeace, the Breast Cancer Network to GE free New Zealand – had supported the Bill. There were also 4000 emails sent in support of it. 

Producer boards backing               Major producer boards such as Horticulture New Zealand – representing all fruit and vegetable growers in New Zealand --and the Pork Industry Board had written in support of the country of origin labelling provisions of the bill.

Other countries already have it           Europe and many other countries already have the labelling provisions in the Bill.  Europe requires all GE ingredients in food to be declared on a label and most of NZ’s trading countries already had country of origin labelling.