Origin of food, people’s initiative

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EU citizens’ initiatives proliferate. (1) The latest citizens’ initiative, registered by the European Commission on 19.9.18, is dedicated to the origin of food and the provenance of its raw materials. Details to follow.


‘Eat ORIGINal

! Unmask your food
‘, EU citizens’ initiative

The proposed EU citizens’ initiative aims to achieve mandatory declaration of origin on all food products. The goals are those that the European Commission itself should pursue, within its mandate, and yet has so far neglected.




The prevention of






food fraud





– which the Commission led by



Jean Claude Juncker




has relegated to a ‘cultural’ phenomenon.




rather than taking the necessary steps to protect public health-is the first goal to be pursued.

The right to consumer information Is its first corollary. Because informed purchasing choices cannot be made without awareness of where the food was produced, i.e., the country of origin and the location of the plant.




The origin of the





primary ingredient




(

>50%) is equally necessary. And the statement of ‘



Origin Planet Earth









, developed by Brussels with the connivance of member states,

may perhaps prove useful for the inhabitants of Mars to distinguish Earth foods from those of other planets. Certainly not to European consumers, to know, for example, whether lentils on the shelf are Italian or Canadian.

Awareness about the origin, moreover, it also responds to the need of consumAtors to be able to choose foods that are not derived from unsustainable supply chains. Taking into account the serious impact of some productions on human communities and/or on the environment. (3)

Food origin labeling, one million signatures to a new commission

The initiative
Eat ORIGINal!
Unmask your food‘ will be officially registered by the European Commission on 2.10.18. From that date, one million signatures will need to be collected, in at least seven member states, within a calendar year. After that, Brussels will have three months to decide whether or not to act on the request. With an obligation to justify, in either case, his decision.

The Juncker Commission is certainly not the one to be entrusted with instances of transparency. His latest ‘gobbledygook’ in the service of the


Corporation




Is the attempt to secrecy the safety risk assessment of chemical substances

. After sinking any hypothesis of mandatory indication of origin of raw materials On food labels.

Thank goodness However, following the collection of the fateful one million signatures by October 3, 2019, consideration of the regulatory proposal ‘Eat ORIGINal! will be entrusted to a new European Commission, which will be formed after the European elections next spring.

Dario Dongo

Notes

(1) The latest EU citizens’ initiatives recalled on our website aspire to solve the tragedy of hunger in Europe (‘Stop Starvation for 8% of the European Population’) and the ban Of use of cages on livestock farms (‘End the Cage Era). Added to these is theinitiative to ban glyphosate

(‘




Ban glyphosate and protect people and the environment from toxic pesticides


‘), to which the Commission recently responded with a statement, however, lacking concrete commitments. See http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-5191_en.htm

(2) See reg. EU 2018/775, already renamed by the writer ‘OPT (Origin Planet Earth) Regulation



(3) In this regard, it is worth recalling the phenomena of child exploitation



and migrants.

Dario Dongo
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Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.