comment@whoar:..unsettling times at a green party ‘do’..

i had the privilege today of attending a green party forum on their c.o.o.l.-campaign..

(country of origin labelling..)

(now..i should issue a disclaimer here..in that i think that putting scarce energies/resources into this ‘issue’..given what we are facing..

..is just a latter re-mix of re-arranging deckchairs on the titanic..

..and i could come up with a priority to-do list that would have country of origin labelling ..way way down the bottom..

so do keep that in mind…it will help explain my acerbic take on the whole business/affair..

i confess i was there ‘cos of the list of speakers…)

gareth morgan kicked it off..

and in his impassioned speech..he didn’t mention the topic at hand..but issued a message emphasising the urgencies..

of dealing with all the nasty shit coming our way..

morgan seems to be getting very angry…at the feet-dragging of the major players..

..and this is good..

‘cos people listen to him..

and he is saying what needs to be said..

(if anything..he could ratchet-up the rhetoric even more..the circumstances certainly call for it..)

a questioner after his speech…tried to bring him back to the subject to hand…

and he was blunt in his dismissal of this campaign really meaning much of anything..

saying it is far more important to focus on the conditions any food is grown in..

rather than any country of origin..

he also pointed out what others also referred to..

namely that even our own country of origin labelled exports..often contain imported ingredients..

an example offered by another..is that watties baked beans…are offered as ‘proudly new zealand’ in origin..

but the beans are imported..(!)..(they just mix up the sauce here..and that probably also from ‘imported ingredients’..)

(morgan had to leave early..and bailed out soon after..)

and i have to say..the expressions on the faces of kedgely..and the event organisers..

..when morgan dropped this bomb..

was ‘a moment to behold’..’treasure’ even..

sue chetwin from the consumers institute also spoke..

and my question for her had to wait untill the end..

and it was…

that i am puzzled by the fact that for anyone to access the reports they do on consumer items..

a (healthy-sized) subscription fee must be paid..(!)

i pointed out to her..that those most in need of her services/advice in product ranking..the poor..

..are unable to access this information..

(am i the only one to think there is something really seriously out of whack about that..?..)

chetwin had no answer..

there were other speakers..

but the other one i had come to see/hear..was the head of the pig-farmers/producers association..

and the grinding sound from the back of the room that was my teeth..started soon into his speech..

he echoed the calls of other speakers..to only buy local pork..not imported pork..

he then..somewhat off-handedly..referred to ‘that animal welfare issue from a while back’..

and noted he had sorted it by sending out welfare-guidelines to all the pig farmers..

he then left the subject..and continued in his riff..

of ‘foregn pork bad..local pork good!’..

so..my question to him..(which caused some consternation in the room..i must say..

one person came up after and said ‘good question’..and i got nods/winks/smiles from a couple of others..

but in general..the punters weren’t happy..)

was to ask him was he aware of the ironies inherent in much of this imported-pig being farmed in far better conditions than the animals here.?.

he started banging on about america having no animal welfare standards..

i tried to bring him back here..by asking if we could have a look at this new document/rules he has sent to all farmers..?

and ‘is it voluntary or compulsory?’..

he then said it wasn’t new..was just the current regime/rules…(an oxymoron ..?..surely..?..’animal welfare guidelines’..?..)

and that he/they are ‘waiting on the government’

so i asked..’so..no pigs in new zealand are one iota better off than they were when mike king went into that piggery..?..with the cameras..

your industry has made no voluntary moves..?..”

he didn’t get a chance to answer..as the person compering the event butted in and closed me down..

(wither free speech..?..eh..?..)

another questioner attempted to point out similar anomalies in their master-plan for country of origin labelling..

but was also closed down by the compere..(also..like me..at the urgings of kedgely)..

and what was really ‘unsettling’ about this ‘do’…

(wasn’t so much kedgely et.al. being ‘upset’ by morgans’ abrupt dismissal of the worth of the task under discussion..

and the hard/awkward questions at the end..

it was that blind devotion kedgely et.al have to their task at hand..

(something kedgely said she ‘has been working on for ten years!’..

..i wasn’t sure why that deserved the round of applause she received ..)

and that devotion .. blinding them to what they really should be focussed/working on..

which i really don’t need to list..

eh..?