Why Don't We Label Food Another Way?

The Governments are rather fond of inventing various new ways to label food.

Here in the EU, just about any food you eat or buy has a label on the packaging or the menu. Arbitrary stuff, such as a packet of salmon having a warning that seafood is inside...just in case you are allergic to seafood and didn't smell a rat oh, sorry, fish.

Whether you are allergic to wheat, gluten, shellfish, seafood, dairy or meat ( good grief, what do people eat ? ), there is a warning label on every item bought to make you aware of what is in it. Fair enough, there might be some who have adverse reactions to certain things such as peanuts for example. Yes, labels save lives.

But, why doesn't the EU produce simple and easy to understand warning labels which make us aware of what we are about to buy & consume? Wouldn't it be nice, if there were warning labels about the various pesticides, fertilizers or chemical preservatives used in everyday food items?

They could have coloured labels:

• Luminous Green Eat to your heart's content.
• Dark Green This has trace amounts of chemical additives but might only affect you in a decade or so.
• Orange Hark, take care and be aware that this may cause you any number of modern illnesses.
• Red Stop! Really, eat at your own risk.

There is such an effort being made for food allergies and it almost feels as if the really harmful stuff is, for want of a better phrase, swept under the carpet.

One day in the not to distant future, there is going to be a gravestone floating in the universe pointing out our folly:

There used to be a lovely planet that was filled with lovely people.
Alas, the love of money overtook the love of life and living.
R.I.P. Planet Earth.

Biggi