Today's order: Grande Non-Fat, Extra-Hot Tazo Chai Latte
I am proudly Canadian, and anyone who's been reading my blog for awhile probably already knows that. I believe in supporting Canadian industry and the economy in general, so I have long made an effort to purchase products that are made in Canada. In particular, when I go to the grocery store, I try to read labels and make choices that support the Canadian food industry. If I see the words "Made in Canada", I believe I am making a choice that supports my country and the people who make it work every day.
So, I was dismayed to discover a few years ago that some of those products that I believed were "Made in Canada" might not have been so Canadian after all... It turns out that the rules said that any product for which at least 51% of the production cost was incurred in Canada, and for which the last substantial transformation of the product occurred in Canada could legally be labelled "Made in Canada".
What does that legal mumbo-jumbo mean in real terms? Well, that bottle of apple juice in my fridge just might be made from apples grown in China, even though the label says "Made in Canada", as long as the apples were brought to this country, processed and packaged here. Crazy, huh? (Particularly because there are thousands of orchards in Canada producing beautiful apples. Apples that I thought I was consuming, silly me.)
Well, apparently the government has finally woken up and realized that maybe, just maybe, there's something wrong with that picture. It was announced today that the government plans to amend the rules around the labelling of food products. Soon (very soon, I hope) companies that produce food products in this country will have to be more transparent about the source of their ingredients. And when something says "Made in Canada", it will have to mean it. Start to finish.
There will be an allowance, however, for companies to produce a finished product that states "Made in Canada from _____ from another country". In other words, for products we can't actually grow here (say, pineapples, for example), we can still produce them as a Canadian product as long as the label indicates where the pineapples were grown.
It's not very often that I want to stand up and applaud when my government makes an announcement. Today, however, I was delighted. I was proud. I was glad (for one day, anyway) that Stephen Harper was my Prime Minister. Tomorrow I can go back to rolling my eyes whenever his mug graces my tv screen.
Want to know more? Find the announcement here. Or watch this fantastic episode of the CBC program Marketplace that did an expose on this subject last fall. It will take a few minutes of your time, but it's pretty revealing.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
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9 comments:
Did you do a Vulcan Mind Meld on me? YOU DID, DIDN'T YOU? I am watching this on the news right this very second. If you're going to get all in my brain, sister, the least you could do is make out with me *this* much.
I'm like that black goo in Spider Man 3... oh, and I'll make out with you any day, sister. *mwah*
Not being Canadian, I don't have the pride thing going on when I read this post. But here's what I do like very much about this change: there will be an actual logical relationship between the label and the contents of the container. That little innovation is something I think a whole lot of products -- heck, a whole lot of people -- could stand a little more of.
Also? *Make-out envy*
i heard someone was making out over here?
the thing i worry about? if this new, totally legit labeling will be another excuse for grocers and distributors to jack prices even higher. at this point, our mostly gluten/dairy free, heavy organic produce and protein diets are costing literally about a seventh of our income.
Yay Canada!! WOO!
Labels are so confusing.
My trip to the store takes me over an hour right now. Labels should be fool proof. Kudos to Canada.
Sounds like we could learn something from your labeling system...
I don't know about foodstuffs but I know a lot of other products here say something like, Assembled in Mexico from parts made in the USA or Made in USA from imported parts or somesuch. Politicians are so sneaky with wording, good for them for cleaning things up.
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