Farmers push for better labelling
Published Thursday August 21st, 2008
A group representing family farmers in New Brunswick says the province should introduce new labelling practices to help consumers who want to support local farmers make informed choices.
Barbara Somerville, a Juniper dairy farmer, and Jean-Eudes Chiasson, a Rogersville hog farmer, are with the National Farmers Union in New Brunswick.
They've seen it all in supermarkets: garlic from China, pork from Uruguay, even "local" strawberries that came from out of province.
"It doesn't make sense to us," Somerville said.
They say better labelling is needed to let consumers make the choice.
They're calling on the province of New Brunswick to review labelling practices in the province. The union said labelling and advertising should clearly indicate that a product is from New Brunswick. And ideally, labelling would indicate the farm the food came from, Chiasson said.
With so much concern about the distance food travels before it ends up on a plate, growing practices in other countries and the presence of genetically-modified ingredients, there's a clear upside to better labelling.
"You know it's safe. You know it's not from the other side of the world," said Somerville. "Our food's quality speaks for itself."
Reports chronicle the demise of the family farm, Chiasson said. He said instilling pride in local products will help consumers make the decision about whether they want to stem that tide.
The main hurdle is being able to show people what is local.
"We think there are a lot of people who, given the choice, will buy local," Somerville said.
Chiasson points to the Quebec cheese industry as a prime example.
Quebecers have the sense that the cheese they buy from their province is of similar, if not better, quality than those imported from Europe, he said.
Go into a Quebec grocery store, and you're likely to find plenty of cheeses produced in the province, and even locally made cheese.
It's so well marketed, that you'd feel guilty facing the cashier with anything but Quebec cheese, Chiasson said.
In some parts of Europe, a picture of the farm or the farmer is featured on packaging and in advertising, letting the consumer know who their food comes from, he said.
Communications officer Paul Harpelle said the issue was raised at a summit meeting Agriculture Minister Ronald Ouellette hosted in April.
"The issue of the local market was identified and raised," Harpelle said, including issues of labelling requirements and advertising.
The creation of several task groups to look at agriculture issues is to be announced soon, Harpelle said.
One of them will look at labelling requirements, local markets, export markets and advertising, he said.
"This is something he (the minister) is moving quickly on," he said.
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