On Mar 31, 4:24=A0pm, judith wrote:
> On Mon, 31 Mar 2008 04:37:43 -0700 (PDT), s_pickle2...@yahoo.com
> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> >On Mar 27, 11:04=A0am, Norbert Liecfeldt wrote:
> >> On Thu, 27 Mar 2008 08:44:36 +0000, Les Invalides wrote:
> >> > judith posted
> >> >>None of this says that cucumbers or bananas must be straight.
>
> >> > Of course not. But neither did the newspapers claim that it did; just=
> >> > that there was a new European law that was going to be a bloody nuisa=
nce
> >> > to retailers by imposing stupid rules on the straightness or curvatur=
e
> >> > of bananas etc. As Gaz has already said, many of the newspapers repor=
ted
> >> > it unfairly; but in essence the story was true. The EC *did* impose s=
uch
> >> > regulations.
>
> >> That's the essence of the free market. If you want to avoid unfair
> >> competition, e.g. allow the Dutch to market their inferior cucumbers as=
> >> "extra-class" in the UK when UK producers might have to follow the more=
> >> stringent UK regulations (whatever they might have been) and Class
> >> equivalent cucumbers as Class 2, then you need a EU wide regulation.
> >> Unless you want to bring everything down to the lowest common
> >> denominator, which would be an alternative. Or stop the free flow of
> >> goods, which would be another alternative.
>
> >Unfortunately, this classification emphasises straightness as a
> >primary quality, instead of water content, taste or nutritional value.
> >If one country has a tradition of growing crooked varities of
> >cucumbers, producers there *will* be disadvantaged, or if I will be
> >disadvantaged if I developed a new tastier and in every other way
> >superior but crooked variety, because I will not be able to sell it as
> >extra or 1st class.
>
> Please explain how they would be disadvantaged.
> If someone wants to produce crooked cucumbers then they may do so -
> they will just have to sell them as Class3 or whatever it is; that
> does not mean that they are no fit for human consumption.
Imagine that the directive defined 1st class apples as exclusively or
mostly red. This would exclude granny smiths and golden delicious
apples from the 1st class and it would cause economic disadvantage to
their growers, because no supermarket would sell 3rd class produce.
Furthermore, a lot of perfectly edible fruits and vegetables are
thrown away simply because they do not meet arbitrary criteria, while
there is plenty of cosmetically 1st class fruits that don't taste like
anything.
> You have yet to answer the earlier point on how retailers buying by
> the crate full may be sure of what they are getting.-
The cucumbers could be described by variety, size, etc, or by a
classification developed by the people involved in growing and selling
cucumbers. People managed to sell cucumbers internationally even
before the EU.
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