THE LABEL LIES

The label lies.

That tin of Australian grown tomato paste in your trolley might be nothing of the sort. An eight month Four Corners investigation put more than 900 samples of supermarket tomato products through forensic origin testing and 22 per cent failed. Every failed product traced back to China, over half of those to Xinjiang, a region the United States bans tomato imports from over forced labour. Around 80 per cent of the Leggo's pastes tested failed, Coles and Aldi home brand pastes failed too and all three companies deny it.

Nobody should be surprised, because this is the water death spiral doing exactly what we warned it would do. Every round of water buybacks pushes the price of the water left behind up by around 10 per cent, so planting tomatoes, rice and vegetables costs more every season and more Australian farmers walk away. Less Australian food gets grown, cheap imports fill the gap on the shelf and a dishonest label hides the swap. There are still 450 billion litres of buybacks legally required by the end of next year, which means our food will keep getting more expensive to grow while mislabelled imports keep getting easier to sell. Every turn of the spiral feeds the next one.

You can't even shop your way around it, because the label that's supposed to protect you is the thing doing the lying. The Riverina growers who actually put Australian tomatoes, rice and citrus on your table are being undercut by products pretending to be them.

Food fraud needs real penalties and the water policy driving it needs a Federal Royal Commission. Share this with someone who still thinks the label tells the truth, then stand with the growers who feed you: https://standupforwater.lovable.app/