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by Tod Maffin
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I want to move to Australia.
And before you angrily hit Reply, hear me out, because I have one very specific reason, and it involves Froot Loops.
The label we need
Australia has a food labelling system that should make every Canadian deeply embarrassed.
When you pick up a product in an Australian grocery store, you see a kangaroo logo inside a triangle. Beneath that logo is a bar chart, one that tells you, instantly, what percentage of the ingredients in that product are actually Australian.
This became mandatory there in 2018.
Now let me remind you what we have in Canada. There is a legal definition for "Made in Canada" and "Product of Canada."
Then, we have an absolute clusterfuck of vague but impressive-sounding claims like "Prepared in Canada" or "Packed in Canada" or "Imported by this Canadian company" and "Farted on briefly in Canada while it was in transit."
No bar chart. No house hippo holding up a percentage.
T O D B I T
In Canada, "Made in Canada" and "Product of Canada" claims are entirely voluntary; no food company is legally required to make any origin claim at all, which means a company can simply stay silent about where its ingredients came from.
It should be easier to compare products.
For instance, two boxes of Froot Loops. Should I buy:
🇨🇦 / 🇺🇸 — the one that’s made in Canada by Canadians (Kellogg’s “Froot Loops”), but owned by and run by an American company?
🇺🇸 / 🇨🇦 — or the copycat cereal (Western Family’s “Fruity Whirls”) made by a Canadian company but uses American ingredients, is a product of the U.S., and doesn't disclose where it's actually made?
If we can require bilingual labelling on every package of gum from Nunavut to Niagara, if we can regulate the curvature of cucumbers, surely we can replace this hodgepodge nonsense of "made in, assembled in, packaged in" and just put a little bar chart on a box of crackers so I know if the wheat came from Saskatchewan or Spokane.
Saskatchewan or Spokane?
Am I holding something grown by a Canadian farmer, or something assembled in a warehouse from seventeen countries that all technically touched the product for eleven seconds?
Australia gave the world Vegemite, mandatory voting, hot people, and the phrase "no worries." And now they are lapping us on food transparency.
I'd be more embarrassed, but I can't tell where my feelings were manufactured.
T O D B I T
Vegemite was nearly killed off before it became an Australian icon: poor sales led its creator Fred Walker to rename it "Parwill" in 1928, a pun on Marmite ("if Ma might, then Pa will"), but Australians ignored that too, and the name was eventually changed back.
Trivia
Under Canadian food labelling law, which claim has the strictest requirement for domestic content?
— 30 —
Join the discussion about this issue in my Discord community
The Weekly Poll
Should Canada adopt an Australian-style ingredient origin indicator?
Last Week:
The Funny Bone
Canadian stores listing U.S. agricultural products as Canadian
by Greg Kearney; used under licence.
What You Missed This Week
The Good News ♥️
The Montreal Victoire became the first Canadian PWHL team to win the Walter Cup.
Vancouver, Calgary, and Quebec City made the top 100 on the Happy City Index.
A mother-daughter duo from Nova Scotia are creating purses from recycled jeans to support women’s shelters.
SCIENCE!!!!!! 🔭
Fossils discovered in the Northwest Territories offer unprecedented insight into the earliest evolution of complex animal life on Earth.
Canada has updated its plant hardiness map to reflect the shifts caused by climate change.
Cascadia Seaweed is on track to launch a new biorefinery in Port Edward, B.C.
Over 40,000 Montreal Canadiens fans caused a mini earthquake, measuring 0.5 on the Richter Scale, while celebrating the team's game seven win.
P.E.I. business leaders worry the power system may not keep up with AI growth.
The First Peoples 🪶
Indigenous students at Gatineau’s Philemon Wright High School hosted a hands-on celebration of Cree, Algonquin, and Inuit culture.
Katzie First Nation guardians and partners gathered to celebrate the restoration of an important B.C. marsh.
Students in Piapot First Nation performed, danced, and showcased their art at this year's arts and language festival.
Star Blanket Cree Nation celebrated the return of buffalo to their land.
Canadian Content 🍁
Tralala, a CBC GEM original children’s animated show, has debuted.
Based in 2011 on Nova Scotia’s south shore, Michael Eddy’s latest novel, Koh-i-Noor, is a satirical coming-of-age tale.
Author David Ly explores the shores of Lanilia in his latest fantasy novel, Not All Dragons.
Toronto-based comedian Kyle Bergstresser has released his latest album, You Gotta Get Used To The Boy.
Wild Things 🐻❄️
A flock of geese, including seven goslings, are the talk of the town in Dartmouth, NS.
A Quebec man will be graduating from Montreal’s École Polytechnique with a degree in mechanical engineering, and his beloved service dog, Kopeck, by his side.
Ontario has officially passed legislation banning invasive medical experiments on dogs and cats, making it the first province in Canada to prohibit the practice.
Sports 🏒
The Montreal Canadiens have entered the NHL Eastern Conference Finals with a bang, defeating the Carolina Hurricanes 6-2 in Game 1.
Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander became the 14th player to win back-to-back NBA MVPs.
Soccer icon Christine Sinclair honours her mother in her animated short Christine Sinclair: Kind of a Big Deal, which will debut next month during the men's FIFA World Cup.
The Edmonton Riverhawks unveiled a new logo featuring an Indigenous design; 20% of merch sales featuring the logo will go to Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society.
Pickleball players from British Columbia and beyond will participate in the Victoria Pickleball Festival in Topaz Park in Victoria, BC.
Across Canada 📍
Alberta is changing its provincial signs and licence plates to showcase their new slogan “Strong and Free”.
The Edmonton Police have teamed up with “ethical hackers” to prevent fraud.
New artwork has been chosen for the CK5 ward at the HSC Children’s Hospital in Winnipeg to provide a comforting environment for healing.
The government of Ontario has announced plans to extend last call until 4 a.m for the duration of the FIFA World Cup.
A retired physicist will be performing a series of concerts in Annapolis Valley, NS, this summer to raise funds for heart and stroke research.
A statue of Amelia Earhart has been reassembled and returned to its post in Harbour Grace, NFLD.
Canada’s Market This Week
Royal Bank | |
TD Bank | |
Enbridge | |
ScotiaBank | |
Bank of Montreal | |
CP Rail | |
Shopify | |
Canadian Tire | |
Loblaws | |
Tim Hortons (RBI) | |
Dollarama | |
Rogers |