Consumer Right To Know (Food Information) Bill - 1st Reading

Go to Sue's final speech on this subject.

This bill should be supported by every party in this House because it is a bill about the basic democratic right of every New Zealander to know what is in the food they eat and where it comes from.

It is a simple bill that is based on the simple proposition that New Zealand consumers have a right to have sufficient information on a label so they can make informed choices about the food they purchase. Surely all political parties would support that.

It is a simple bill that recognises that people are becoming more and more concerned about what is in their food and where it comes from, and want better and more informative food labels. Surely all political parties would support that.

The bill would require 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 will also establish a traceability system for foods containing GE ingredients so that they can be traced throughout the food production and distribution system, and it will also guarantee full public access to government information on residues of pesticides and other chemicals in food.

At present consumers do not have this information. We did a survey of 450 items in a local supermarket and found there were no GE ingredients declared on any label; no indication of where most fresh items like meat came from, and many labels are misleading or confusing.

This means that consumers cannot figure out whether a tomato like this has been grown in New Zealand or imported from Australia and therefore has been dipped in a highly toxic insecticide called dimethoate. Nor can they figure out whether most of the garlic on sale in our supermarkets comes from New Zealand or has been transported ten thousand miles from China ---a country where 80% of the waterways are polluted and where garlic may be contaminated with a virus that could decimate our onion industry. Surely consumers have a right to know that.

In a world awash with BSE and Avian influenza, surely consumers have a right to know where their meat comes from. Unbeknownst to most New Zealanders, 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 there is no way consumers can figure out where all this imported meat ends up because there is no label on any meat in the supermarket to indicate which country it has been imported from. Surely consumers have a right to know that.

Consumer research has demonstrated that consumers want to know where their food comes from for a variety of reasons. Some just want to support local producers. Others are concerned about food miles — the environmental cost of transporting food from the other side of the world. Others are concerned about the lack of quality control standards in some countries we import food from.

GE derived ingredients in our food supply have not undergone any safety testing — only through a phoney assessment process. Surely, if we do not even require that GE ingredients be safety tested we should at least require producers to declare whether there are GE ingredients in their food or not, so that consumers can avoid buying it if they wish. But under our woefully inadequate labelling laws 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.

And 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.

And surely all parties in this House would support the traceability provisions in this bill which will ensure that 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.

Madam Speaker, there is overwhelming support amongst consumers for the labelling provisions in this bill. 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.

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

As well 21 organisations — ranging from the SPCA, Parents Centre, Greenpeace, the Breast Cancer Network, GE free New Zealand — have written to me supporting this bill. And so too have major producer boards such as Horticulture New Zealand — representing all fruit and vegetable growers in New Zealand --and the Pork Industry Board which support the country of origin labelling provisions of the bill.

There is nothing radical or controversial in this bill. Europe and many other countries already have the labelling provisions in this bill and its time we had them too. Europe requires all GE ingredients in food to be declared on a label and most of our trading countries already have country of origin labelling so that consumers can figure out where their food comes from.

Nor does this bill impose onerous compliance costs on industry. There are no additional compliance costs in providing in-store labelling of fruit, vegetables, meat and fish. The country of origin provisions for processed food are based on the FSANZ standard which is in effect in Australia and are not onerous either. Nor is there any cost to putting a label on an egg carton saying that eggs come from caged hens.

The new requirement to label GE ingredients would only apply to the dozen or so companies that have not removed GE ingredients in their products. And there would be a two-year phase in period for those businesses to comply.

Furthermore, the need for accurate, truthful and meaningful food labelling is recognised by all major national and international standard setting agencies including the WHO, Food Standards Australia New Zealand, our own Food Safety Authority and our own food laws.

Madam Speaker, this bill is about freedom of choice and personal responsibility — something that parties like the National Party and Act say are their core values. Any Party that is genuinely committed to freedom of choice would support this bill.

We should already have mandatory country of origin labelling — and would have had it, if the government had not unilaterally pulled out of a FSANZ standard on country of origin labelling, without consulting any Member of this House, or allowing Parliament to debate it.

If there are segments of the bill which political parties have difficulty with, then let's thrash those issues out in select committee.

Madam speaker, consumers are watching closely how political parties vote on this bill. I urge you to support it.