August 2018 Submission on Consumer’s Right to Know (Country of Origin of Food) Bill : Rural Women NZ

Introduction

Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission to the Consumer’s Right to Know (Country of Origin of Food) Bill.

Comments

RWNZ is a founding member of the CoOL Coalition.
As a member of the CoOL Coalition we support the submissions of other members, New Zealand Pork and the NZ Federation of Business and Professional Women and support the submissions of the following individuals; Sue Kedgley and Steffan Browning.
Farmers and growers underpin our rural economy and for consumers to be able to support local growers they must be informed where food is grown or sourced.
RWNZ also supports opportunities for women who live rurally to be financially independent and earn a living from the land. For women farmers and growers to succeed they need the support of consumers to buy their produce and therefore labelling is fundamental to consumers making informed purchase choices about where their food is sourced.
We agree that the Bill needs to allow for the mandatory labelling of single component foods as described in the Bill, and including bacon, ham and milk, as to their country of origin and asks that they be included in the proposed legislation.
We urge the members of the Select Committee to ensure that New Zealand consumers are able to make informed choices when purchasing food for the family. This goes some way to supporting New Zealand’s food producers, our nation’s food sovereignty, and foos security for rural communities. It supports Sustainable Development Goal 12.ⁱ

About Rural Women New Zealand

Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) is a not‐for‐profit, member-based organisation that reaches into all rural communities and has an authoritative voice on rural environment, health, education, technology, business and social issues. RWNZ strives to ensure that all rural residents, workers and families have equitable access to services, inequalities are addressed by Government, and the wellbeing of rural communities is considered from the beginning of all policy and legislative development.
RWNZ is affiliated to the Associated Country Women of the World and as such upholds all ACWW Resolutions and Recommendations. We also uphold United Nations, ILO and WHO conventions and outcome statements as they relate to women and rural women in particular.

Rural Women New Zealand wish to appear before the Committee in support of our submission.

Yours sincerely

Penelope England

Chief Executive Officer

Rural Women New Zealand

PO Box 12-021, Wellington 6144

p 04 473 5524