4 December 2007
Media Advisory
Country of Origin petition to be presented on Thursday
Green Party MP Sue Kedgley will be presenting a 39,000 signature petition calling for mandatory country of origin
labelling on all fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and single component foods at 1pm this Thursday in the West Foyer
in Parliament.
Representatives of some of the organisations supporting the petition - Pork Industry Board, Horticulture New Zealand,
New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Consumers Institute of New Zealand, the CTU - will also speak
briefly at the presentation.
Ms Kedgley will also be releasing the results of a Green Party shopping survey to ascertain how many stores undertake
voluntary country of origin labelling, and will have a supermarket trolley full of unlabelled examples.
"The petition has wide support from producer groups, consumer groups, unions, sector groups as well as ordinary New
Zealanders. The government would be foolish to ignore the huge support for mandatory country of origin labelling of
fresh food.
"I hope the petition will get a good hearing at the Commerce Committee, and that the government will recognise that it
cannot continue to oppose the democratic right of consumers to know where their food comes from. It's time New Zealand
caught up with most of the rest of the world on this one."
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Organisations Supporting the Country of Origin Labelling petition Horticulture New Zealand, Pork Industry Board,
Consumers Institute of New Zealand, Organics Aotearoa New Zealand, Soil and Health, CTU, National Distribution Union,
Safe Food Campaign, Grey Power, Rural New Zealand, Pesticides Action Network, Parents Centre New Zealand, Business and
Professional Women New Zealand, Greenpeace New Zealand, GE Free New Zealand
ENDS