"laws" news and stories

"Unfortunate-looking" fruits and vegetables will no longer face discrimination in Europe, where a ban on the sale of misshapen produce was repealed on Wednesday.

Shape standards, which prohibited curved, knobby or otherwise different-looking fruits vegetables from going to market, will no longer be enforced come next July. The unpopular law had meant that oddly curved bananas and bulbous carrots would simply be thrown away by vendors looking to avoid fines. As food prices have risen in recent months, it became hard to avoid acknowledging the, uh, complete stupidity of these laws.

"It makes no sense to throw perfectly good products away, just because they are the 'wrong' shape," said Mariann Fischer Boel, European Commissioner of Agriculture. Amen to that.

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Country-of-origin labeling laws went into effect in the United States Tuesday, though it may be some weeks before new labels appear at grocery stores. American stores will now have to identify the country of origin for meats, produce and some types of nuts, according to the Agriculture Department. Retailers have six months to comply with the law.

A number of groups have rallied for country-of-origin labeling, including farmers, ranchers and consumer groups, who say shoppers should know where their food comes from. The recent Chinese melamine scandal has had an increasing number of Americans worried about knowing what country's products they're buying. This type of labeling is already ubiquitous in Europe, where foods are often labeled down to the specific region of origin.

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• Jennifer McLagan defends fat and details its tasty history.
  
• As prices skyrocket, bakers try to come up with cheaper alternatives.
• It looks like Vancouver's Raincity Grill is suffering under a rain of chaos and disappointing food and service.
• Ewenity Dairy Co-operative's battling gouda-style cheeses -- pasteurized and raw.
• When absurd statutes bite you in the keester -- a Prohibition-era "law makes it illegal for anyone to send or carry beverage alcohol across a provincial border without the consent of the government in the destination province."

Meat and milk from cloned animals have been deemed safe by the FDA and won't make it to market for some time yet, which is a relief to many consumers because the USDA has also determined that there needs to be no label distinguishing between cloned meat and naturally-bred meat and some would like to see that policy change before the products are on store shelves. Another issue that needs definition is whether or not clones can be organic. Many feel that as long as the clones are "raised organically," living the same lifestyle and receiving the same food as conventionally organic animals, they should receive the designation.

Others, all supporters of the organic movement, range from strongly against the issue to rabidly against it. The terms "organic" and "cloned" just don't belong together, they say. The current guidelines state that genetically modified foods cannot be consider organic. By implication, an animal made in a lab - even if it isn't "genetically modified" - should also be excluded. "Surely, these opponents conclude, no animal is more engineered than a clone."

For the moment, it seems that the current organic rules would apply and that it would not be difficult for cloned foods to qualify as such, but ultimately, the decision lies in the hands of the USDA, which could be considered by an advisory panel as early as spring. After this decision, we may see a revision of the definition of "organic" itself.

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In light of the E. coli and botulism problems over the past few months that have been linked to California growers, there has been a proposal that new standards should be implemented to ensure that consumers will feel safe and comfortable buying California produce. Most growers have already increased the amount of oversight that their produce recieives, but the new plan involves the creaton of a "seal of approval" for all leafy vegetables. The standards for the seal have not yet been determined, but growers and lawmakers plan to iron out the details later this spring. Issues being considered are how to more effectively test irrigation water and how to keep livestock, primarily cattle, away from cropland.

In spite of the fact that there is no actual plan in place yet, the idea of a "seal of approval" is already being met with opposition, with critics saying that "the industry's proposal relies too heavily on policing itself." This could be a strong argument in other industries, but when it comes to food safety, no one wants to make sure consumers are protected more than the growers whose livelihoods depend on consumer satisfaction with, and confidence in, their products.

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