It turns out that governments don’t have to completely ignore food issues. Sweden is taking food labeling seriously, a bold and excellent move, in our opinion. The Swedish government has started labeling the carbon footprint on food packages. With food coming to our plates from all over the globe, those footprints can be huge, even for tiny foods. Informing consumers about the major systems that bring food to their plates is something every government should do. The system has been working well: food that gets a seal of approval from the labeling system has been selling much better since the system went into effect. But the labels are still a bit vague. It’s one thing to label something “.87kg of CO2 per kg of product” but that doesn’t mean people will completely understand what a carbon footprint is, or how eating food with a smaller footprint is a good idea. Still, Sweden’s model, and its commitment to informing consumers about ramifications of the foods they eat, is a lot better than the ridiculous “Healthy Choice” labels on some American foods.
