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Wednesday, November 12, 2008
EU scraps mythical laws on the shape and size of vegetables
You remember all those European laws on the size and shape of vegetables? And how we are always being told they are a myth put about by the Eurosceptics?
The good news is that the EU is going to scrap them.
Hmmm. I certainly remember extraordinary amounts of British xenophobic bile being directed at the European Commission because it set standards for the size and shape of vegetables to be traded within the EU - so that a buyer in Sweden could know what parameters his Spanish aubergines would meet when they arrived on his doorstep. It has now broadened those standards.
But then ... I'm also old enough ot remember when the Liberal Democrats were instinctively pro-European.
And quite right to broaden the standards, because the market now polices itself. My father was in on the very beginning of the UK regulations some 40 years ago (toms and caulis came first) and, believe me, we needed them. Much better that the really poor produce stays where it grew, gets composted, and goes back into the soil.
Hmmm. I certainly remember extraordinary amounts of British xenophobic bile being directed at the European Commission because it set standards for the size and shape of vegetables to be traded within the EU - so that a buyer in Sweden could know what parameters his Spanish aubergines would meet when they arrived on his doorstep. It has now broadened those standards.
ReplyDeleteBut then ... I'm also old enough ot remember when the Liberal Democrats were instinctively pro-European.
And quite right to broaden the standards, because the market now polices itself. My father was in on the very beginning of the UK regulations some 40 years ago (toms and caulis came first) and, believe me, we needed them. Much better that the really poor produce stays where it grew, gets composted, and goes back into the soil.
ReplyDelete