Consumer rights story

In fact, I feel very strongly about knowing where my food comes from. I think it is in the community’s interest to be able to access information about the origins of foods, because food from different countries is subject to different growing, handling and processing standards.

Chemical and pesticide levels, types of fertiliser, genetic modification and hygiene requirements are all governed by different rules and regulations in other countries. These might not be the same as Australian standards, but because it can be cheaper to buy certain products from foreign countries than from Australian growers, some big-chain retailers take this option. This can have a powerful influence upon the quality of the food in our supermarkets.


My action was assisted by a huge campaign in The West Australian Newspaper; called ‘Know Where Your Food Comes From.’ I was pretty well-versed on the issue after reading stories for weeks in the paper about WA growers who had been jipped by retailers choosing to stock cheaper fruit and veg from other countries rather than home-grown produce, along with some frightening research pieces on the standards (of lack of) that foreign fresh produce are required to meet. The newspaper doggedly pursued the campaign for several weeks, maintaining it as news in the first ten pages of every single issue, and calling for government reform of food labelling in supermarkets. It ran cut-out coupons, similar to a petition, which required readers to tick a box in answer to the question ‘Do you want to know where your food comes from’ and then send the coupon in to the newspaper to be counted in the campaign.

Time to act.

Now, I have quite a few health-nuts at my work, who felt strongly about the issue because they wanted to know what their foods had been fertilised or treated with. There were also few of us were interested in the issue because we regard choice as a consumer’s right, and think that we should have access to the relevant information prior to purchasing food so that we can make informed decisions. We discussed the issue, and decided that we could capitalise on the official newspaper campaign to get our message across. So we went to town with the newspaper coupons - photocopied hundreds of them - and left them up on the bench at work with a pen. On my shifts, I made sure customers’ attention was being drawn to the coupons, and I know others in my workplace did the same. We got a few knock-backs from people who weren’t all that interested, but in the end we got over four hundred signatures!!

Four hundred positive responses to contribute to the campaign!

I wrote a covering letter and we sent them off to the newspaper. They ran the letter, and I’m proud to say that the signatures we drummed up from the local community contributed to the 40,000-strong response from the wider population of WA. Food labelling legislation is consequently being revised, and the outcome will hopefully be better informed consumers with an improved ability to choose, and greater support for Western Australian growers.