Another Sarcastic Idiot Writing For The National Post
Why do people want to buy Canadian? I want to buy Canadian because I know that our food safety regulations are strict; cheap toxic chemicals used on crops in the third world are not being used here. I know that ethically bankrupt managers of food companies will not be spiking flour and gluten with melamine to falsely increase measured protein content. I know that steel will not be contaminated with radioactive isotopes. I know that paint and plastic with not be contaminated with lead. I know that drugs such as warfarin will not be contaminated with cartilage. When products are properly labelled “made in Canada”, I will know that the fish I buy will not have been sitting in a Russian cargo ship for 2 months before processing. I have no problems buying Danish Cheese or Ethiopian chocolate. I do have problem with buying old fish and food products from China. William Watson tries to paint a picture of Canadians as xenophobic zeolots – and the article he has written comes off sounding like he’s a petulant cranky childish schoolyard bully. I really can’t believe that the Post even published this garbage. He also appears to sneer at older women who belong to book clubs…nice.
Feel better now? Your anxieties allayed? On Wednesday the federal government announced it’s going to redo Canada’s food labeling laws so you can much more easily exercise your anti-globalization bias and keep foreigners out of our marketplace. [...]
I doubt very much whether CBC book-club ladies will ever vote for Stephen Harper. Still, they must be pleased by his announcement that henceforth food labels will contain more detail about where food comes from. It will now be much easier for them to exercise their anti-foreign-food phobias. [...]
Faced with rising xenophobia, ardent internationalists — and I bet the book-club ladies would claim to be such — will have only one moral choice: When the new labels appear, seek out foreign food, boycott Canadian.
Idiot. Anything to add Michele? Not much. You’ve done an excellent job. In situations such as food labeling, I tend to think we should assume the worst. Therefore, based on past occurrences, there’s a strong likelihood that food products from China could be contaminated. I want to be able to identify those items with a higher risk. I can’t do that if apple juice concentrate from China is reconstituted here and then labeled as “Product of Canada.” The best I can do currently is try to purchase only “not from concentrate” juice with country of origin indicated. (I was kind of insulted by the derogatory use of “book club lady” but I do know women like those he’s described. And I know others who are the complete opposite. He forgot the dangers of assuming.)
