From: Brett Paatsch (paatschb@optusnet.com.au)
Date: Mon Jun 23 2003 - 06:53:08 MDT
Alfio Puglisi write:
> On Mon, 23 Jun 2003, Damien Broderick wrote:
>
> >
> >>Chanting, banging drums and carrying signs that read
> >>"We Don't Want to Eat Their Corporate Creations,"
> >
> >Why don't they fuck off and eat something else, then?
>
> The problem is that it's very difficult to know if some
> packaged food you found in the supermarket is made
> with GM food or not. I'm totally in favor of clear
> labels and such. This way I can skip the "natural"
> ones and go for an all-GM diet :-))
>
> Here's a real-world example from a similar problem:
> in the EU, different countries produce (and consume)
> different kinds of chocolate. The percentage of cocoa
> varies between 20% and 60%, with most products
> averaging 25%. In most of the EU, a small fraction
> of the product (say 5%) is replaced with "filler"
> additives that have different tastes too. As you can
> imagine, here in Italy we DON'T use additives, and
> there's a minimum cocoa percentage before something
> can be (legally) called "chocolate".
>
> Now, the EU is trying to bring the different food
> standards in a common one. For chocolate, they
> ruled that up to 5% of the total weight can be
> replaced with filler additives with different taste.
> Something that no one here wants to eat.
>
> What's the problem, you'll ask? Just don't buy them.
> But, the problem is that, up to the 5% limit, the
> producer is not required to write it on the label,
> and the consumer has NO way to know. And a
> big collective "fuck you" came from the entire
> country, addressed to Bruxelles. I don't know
> the final result yet :-)
>
> What will happen? Pure-cocoa brands will have
> to invent their new denomination (e.g. "pure
> chocolate" and so on), probably raising prices,
> and causing great confusion on the market. All
> because someone up there does not want to tell
> people what they are eating.
>
> I'm a GM supporter, but I can understand very
> well people protesting the "smuggling" of GM
> products without proper labels and such. Shouldn't
> consumers be informed for a free market to work?
Some very good points made here. Chocolate clearly
should not be messed with.
Producers *should* respect the informational needs of
their targeted consumer group.
Perhaps:
"Genes in this product are less randomly modified
by nature. Contains fewer weevil derivatives.
For best results: Ingest orally "
- Brett Paatsch
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