The National Farmers Union and our members want to thank you for the opportunity to be here with the committee, for examining this issue, and for allowing us to express our concerns and recommendations. NFU has been working on these labelling issues for a very long time, and it's nice to see that we may be making some progress on this issue.
Since I'm up first, I'll take a step back and tell you two stories about consumers and why this issue is so important. Coming from the agricultural end, we understand the issues, and so will everybody around here.
First I'd like to tell you about myself. I think I'm a pretty savvy consumer when I'm buying products. A couple of weeks ago I was looking for some tomatoes and I looked very hard to find the ones labelled “Product of Canada”. I found them and started digging in the bin and putting them into my grocery cart, only to notice that the “Product of Canada” tomato had a little label on it that said “Grown in Mexico”. So what had happened is that, sure enough, about seven or eight tomatoes in this bin had a Canadian label, but everything else was grown in Mexico. It just shows it's pretty easy to be deceived if you're not on your toes.
The other thing is, from a consumer's perspective, I was invited onto a call-in show. I was scheduled to be on for five to seven minutes talking about “Product of Canada”. I ended up being on for an hour and a half because the phone lines lit up when consumers.... This was in London, Ontario, which is supposed to be the test market for all things Canadian in English Canada. People were just losing their ever-lovin' minds about this issue. There's a lot of concern out there from the average person, and I think they're looking for some leadership.
At the National Farmers Union national convention in London, Ontario, in November 2007, the following resolution was adopted:
Therefore be it resolved that the NFU undertake a campaign that raises awareness and forces federal and provincial governments to provide clarity and accuracy in food and feed labelling.
This has been a long-standing concern.
Just this past Sunday, the Ontario NFU passed the following resolution:
Therefore be it resolved that the National Farmers Union begin to promote a grown or raised in Canada label to apply to food grown or raised by Canadian farmers.
We've always had policy in this area in the NFU, but it's clear that the deceptive nature of what's been happening around food labelling is expanding to more and more products. You can get “Product of Canada” grapefruit juice, you can get “Product of Canada” coffee. Even though Bruce County is the centre of the known universe, we're not able to grow grapefruit, and I don't know of any other part of Canada where they can.
There's been a lot of talk about the basics of the “Product of Canada” issue, but I want to talk a little bit about CFIA's labelling guide for processed fruit and vegetables, because that's also clearly inadequate. I want to give you two examples from it. The CFIA guidelines force Canadian manufacturers to put on deceptive labelling. If it's a product of Canada, if it's actually grown in Canada, it's optional to list that it's from Canada. Many processors do it simply because it's a marketing tool. And that's what it comes down to. We have to ask why companies do this. Why do they put “Product of Canada” on it? It's because they know it works, because consumers will buy products if they're listed as “Product of Canada”.
So the CFIA guide says you have to use terms like “fancy grade”, “choice grade”, and “standard grade”, but they all have to have the word “Canada” in front of them, and that's if the products come from somewhere else and are repackaged or reprocessed here in Canada. The guide gives two examples, and I think these two examples are quite important when we think about where we need to go on labelling.
Number one, cherries from France, imported into Canada in bulk, repackaged and graded in a registered establishment, must be marked "Canada Choice”. They must be marked even though they are coming from somewhere else.
The second example is of apples imported from the United States and processed into applesauce in a registered establishment. The applesauce will therefore be labelled “Canada Fancy”.
So it's no wonder consumers feel they are being misled, because the rules are set up deliberately to mislead them. There are lots of reasons why that came about, but consumers now are looking for something different.
As far as our recommendations are concerned, this is where we think it is critically important to Canadian family farmers and consumers that we have clear and truthful labels on food products, because consumers are becoming increasingly cynical. They are looking to support Canadian farmers. That's what they want to do when they buy those products. But if they start to believe it really doesn't make any difference, then the people who will be paying the price for that will not be the processors or industry but Canada's family farmers, as people move away from that.
The National Farmers Union is recommending that “Product of Canada” labelling be mandatory for fruits and vegetables that are 100% grown and processed in Canada, and only for fruits and vegetables that are grown here, and that the word “Canada” not be used if those products come from elsewhere. We're also recommending that if a food product is processed or manufactured in Canada and is composed of ingredients that are imported, mandatory labels must specify the country of origin of the ingredients and the percentage of imported ingredients. We think it's important that consumers have a clear and present choice. We also believe that Canadian consumers are looking to know that a product is from Canada. So we think it should be displayed, so that people know. If that goes down the road of country-of-origin labelling, which is coming to the United States, then we think that's what consumers want and we think that's the kind of way to support our farmers.
I want to end with the suggestion that I think is typical coming from farmers: that it's just straightforward and there's no equivocation. That's the resolution that came out on Sunday from the Ontario NFU's annual convention. I will just read it again as I conclude:
Therefore be it resolved that the National Farmers Union begin to promote a grown or raised in Canada label to apply to food grown or raised by Canadian farmers.
It's about as straightforward and as simple as you can get. It's clear and it's unequivocal: if it's grown and raised in Canada, then it's grown and raised in Canada. I think that's what farmers and consumers are looking for.