I thought my dreams of transparency of provenance in the food systems had come true: ThePigsite.com carried a story, last Friday, suggesting that the EU agriculture directorate was proposing that all agricultural products be labelled with the “place of farming”:
With one fell swoop Brussels may be about to solve the labelling problems that have dogged the British pig industry. In the latest draft of its Agricultural Product Quality paper, the agriculture directorate says all European Union agricultural products should carry a compulsory “place of farming” label. [Emphasis added]
To me, “place of farming” means a farm. Could we really be on the verge of seeing details of the farm of origin on all agricultural products? A looser interpretation of “place of farming” might be the county, region or country of production. Even that would be a big step forward.
I turned to the EU’s Agricultural Product Quality Green Paper for the detail of the proposal. It was all too good to be true: the EU isn’t proposing that we be told the farm, region or even country where our food has been produced. No, all they’re asking (the Green Paper is a consultation document) is whether agricultural products should carry a compulsory indication of whether it’s EU or non-EU:
Question 1: How could the requirements and standards met by farmers that go beyond product hygiene and safety be made better known?
What would be the advantages and disadvantages of [...] having an obligatory indication of the place of production of primary products (EU/non EU)? [Emphasis added]
I suppose it’s something, but it’s not much.
But it turns out it’s still too much to ask of most food processors. In the summary of responses to its consultation, the EU reports:
Processors opposed almost unanimously, citing the difficulties of traceability and costs. They also claimed the consumer was not interested in origin of raw materials for processed foods. [Emphasis added]
Ah well, it was a nice dream while it lasted.
