Get used to ridiculous food labels, like this honey from ... Where exactly?

IT’S ONE of the most frustrating things about grocery shopping, but confusing labels could be here for years to come if this legislation goes ahead.

WE ALL like to know where our food came from.

Whether it’s a desire to support local farmers, avoid GMOs or minimise our carbon footprint, Australians have long called for clear labelling, to show not only where our grocery products were made, but where each of their ingredients came from.

But consumer advocates warn that increasing market domination by multinational companies — magnified by the Trans-Pacific Partnership — means labels are likely to get even more confusing and unhelpful than ever.

Speaking at a TPP forum at the NSW Parliament House on Wednesday, Choice policy and campaigns adviser Sarah Agar warned that if the Australian Government ratifies the free trade agreement in its current form, campaigners could face an impossible task in the fight for clear labelling.

The text of the agreement, which dropped in November after being negotiated in secrecy, includes a controversial clause that will give global corporations the ability to attack new Australian laws that they don’t like.

The investor-state dispute settlement clause will allow companies to launch legal proceedings against Australia in an international tribunal, which individual citizens will have no access to, if it tries to pass legislation that goes against their interests.

And one of the most unpopular types of laws for these companies relates to food packaging.

“If the TPP goes through with ISDS clauses, then attempts to change country of origin labelling in the future could be challenged by international corporations who don’t want to provide clearer information,” Ms Agar said.

Federal government has unveiled the new #CountryofOrigin food labels today! What do you think? #auspol pic.twitter.com/rSEvf3mOaC

— CHOICE (@choiceaustralia) July 21, 2015

That means more confusing labels that make it impossible for shoppers to know which country the ingredients in their foods came from.

While new labels unveiled last year will soon do away with the ubiquitous “made with Australian and imported ingredients” tag, they won’t actually tell us where products come from.

Instead, they’ll show what percentage of a product’s ingredients are Australian, with no obligation to identify where remaining ingredients came from.

This will be at the discretion of food companies, who may find it more convenient to follow the example of a jar of honey posted on Facebook, with a country of origin label that reads: “South Africa and/or Argentina and/or Australia and/or China and/or Zambia.

Businessman Dick Smith says multinationals will never allow food labelling laws to be fixed. Picture: Ray Strange.

Entrepreneur Dick Smith, whose name is synonymous with “Australian made”, said keeping information off food labels was a no-brainer for big corporations

“If you’re going to enter into any kind of free trade agreement the powerful companies overseas are going to want to make sure they have the maximum ability to sell their products into your country — and they are really opposed to any type of labelling laws,” Mr Smith said.

“Any labelling that shows an Australian product with an advantage over a product from overseas works against them.”

Mr Smith, whose food company turns over $18 million a year, has built a business on Australia’s appetite for locally made-and-owned products.

“At Dick Smith Foods we capitalise on that and say ‘labelling is a con, so buy our product’,” Mr Smith said.

“Other companies use slick advertising and beautiful packaging; we use patriotism.”

But the commitment to only stocking products made in Australia, by locally owned companies, was becoming harder to fulfil, he said.

Dick Smith Foods has just been given notice that Sanitarium, which makes its best-selling Bushfoods breakfast cereal, will no longer be manufacturing the product due to a change in operations at its factory.

“And we’re having an incredible problem finding an Australian company to make it, because they hardly exist,” Mr Smith said.

“The problem is just about every successful food company is foreign owned. They get bigger the only way they can — by taking over anything successful ... Anyone good is instantly bought out.”

It happened in 2006 when Nestle gobbled up Green’s Foods — then the maker of Dick Smith branded peanut butter — for $137 million. And things have gone downhill from there.

“I’d say about half the ones we’ve worked with have been bought out,” he said. “That’s why we went from $80 million turnover to $18 million.”

CALLS TO BLOCK TPP

While Australia has already signed the TPP, it won’t take effect until the government has ratified it by passing special legislation to bring it into effect.

“We can still do something to stop this,” Ms Agar said. “Choice is calling on politicians to block this legislation when it does come through, unless the government commits to dealing with the threat of ISDS.”

She said this could be done by negotiating with individual TPP parties to opt-out of the ISDS clauses.

“This is a realistic option — Australia has in fact already done this with one party to the TPP, New Zealand,” Ms Agar said.

Mr Smith was more pessimistic, arguing that fixing food labelling laws would remain out of reach regardless of what final form the TPP took — including the ISDS.

“I don’t think it’s any different to the unbelievable political pressure these company have anyway,” he said.

“Big companies have enormous lobbying power and influence, because of the vast number of Australians they employ ... They just threaten: ‘If you do this, I’ll do that’.”

HOPE FOR FARMERS

For companies that are still Australian owned, like Coles and Woolworths, the need to maximise profits is tempered by consumer pressure to support local farmers.

While Mr Smith predicted that this would result in their “destruction” by competitor Aldi — a privately owned German company that stocks 90 per cent home brands — consumer activism has had an impact on Coles.

The retailer this week announced plans to replace imported white quinoa with an Australian product, grown by a group of Western Australian farmers who recently set up the nation’s first quinoa processing plan — with a $500,000 Coles grant.

The funding came on the back of research into shopping preferences commissioned by Coles in February, which found that Australians cared about where their food came from.

“Our customers want to buy locally-grown products,” Coles Managing Director John Durkan said.

“To be able to replace imported white quinoa with a locally grown and processed product is a great outcome, and it would be fantastic if we could one day replace all our imported quinoa with local products.”

Let’s just hope they are clearly labelled.

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