In Food Label Wars, Both Sides Hide the Facts

Neither Agribusiness nor government wants you to know what’s in the food you buy.

In the European Union, a battle has been waged between the forces of evil, Agribusiness, against the forces of evil, government agencies. Both sides want to control what goes on food labels. Agribusiness won, and it’s being called a defeat for consumers. The truth, though, is that consumers lose, no matter which side wins. Neither wants to tell the public what’s really in the foods bought in stores.

People in the US need to listen up, too. This same battle is being fought in the States. It really doesn’t matter who wins—because you still end up the loser—and the real issues aren’t even discussed.

Traffic Light Labeling Gets the Red Light

At issue is a color-coding system that would require the addition of stoplight colors on labels to indicate whether healthy amounts of four ingredients are included. For example, if an unhealthy amount of saturated fat is included, then a red circle would be displayed. If the ill-informed nanny official considers the quantity low enough to be healthy, then the product would gain a green circle for that item. And, of course, if it couldn’t be determined whether it’s healthy, then it would rate a yellow circle. Items considered for this system include sugar, fat, saturated fat, and salt.

Readers of Gaia Health know how absurd such a system is. The very idea of focusing on four items, three of which are perfectly healthy, with sugar as the only exception, is simply absurd.

This is the system that Agribusiness successfully fought in the EU. They fought long and hard. Member of European Parliament, Struan Stevenson of Scotland, stated:

The lobbyists have now penetrated the inner sanctum of the MEPs and they’re walking into our offices very often without any appointments at all. People are objecting to that and saying we should have more control about where lobbyists are allowed to go. But on this issue there are armies of them. I’ve never seen anything like it.

What’s Wrong With Traffic Lights?

It’s part and parcel of the modern view of health to break things down to their smallest elements and treat them as separate units. Thus, rather than look at food as consisting of a whole, such as broccoli or chicken, it’s being treated as a bunch of parts deemed to be nutrient elements.

This becomes necessary in Agribusiness, because the bulk of stuff termed food is really only one thing: corn. This ubiquitous stuff has been processed every conceivable way, with new methods being developed every day to fool the palate. It doesn’t really amount to food, so it’s broken down into arbitrary parts that sound like they’re nutritional elements.