Even the summer ham that Civis enjoyed boar the marks of international trade. Who would have thought that pork butchered in this "Made in New Zealand" product might have come from such a long list of countries as you can see here?
Civis notes the United States and New Zealand are on the label. There’s also the comment that "these countries may not always reflect the country the animal has been raised in".
The pork butchered in the various countries "may" have been used. It is impossible to know if the pork comes from New Zealand or somewhere with much lower animal welfare standards.
Pork producers in this country are up against it because they must meet regulations well beyond those in most places. No wonder two-thirds of our pork is imported.
As an example, sows can be confined in gestation stalls for their whole pregnancy in the United States. Gestation stalls are banned in New Zealand.
Spain and Germany have led the importing list, followed by Poland, Canada, Finland and the United States.
Country of origin labels are important for many consumers. They should be extended. Civis also needs to look for the 100% NZ Pork label.
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Mackenzie, MacKenzie or McKenzie. The ODT’s, stylebook’s name for sheep drover and folk hero James McKenzie was featured last week. Civis is unsurprised to be informed that such spelling variations are a nightmare for genealogical researchers. Even families themselves — not just those officially recording names — can change the spelling.
But, of course, it was another news outlet’s stylebook that made the news thanks again to that vile, ignorant, disruptive and dangerous Donald Trump. Readers might remember that the respected international news agency Associated Press (AP) last month was banned from White House media briefings and presidential events.
Its crime? AP — with its headquarters in New York — had the temerity to continue to include "Gulf of Mexico" in its stylebook after President Trump had decreed the body of water should be named the Gulf of America.
The arrogance and high-handedness are breathtaking. It’s been the Gulf of Mexico for about 400 years and never before the Gulf of America. It borders Mexico as well as the United States and encompasses several Caribbean nations.
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Civis wonders how many readers try to avoid calling the United States "America". It never seemed right, even before Trump’s (Maga) Make America Great Again campaigns. In "the Americas", North, South and Central America, there are 34 other nations, including the still independent Canada.
Why should one country hog the name? Usually, substituting the United States (or US for short) will suffice.
Describing people from the US is tricky. There is no alternative to Americans in English, and United Statesians is hideous. Ways of writing around the matter, like people from the United States or United States residents, are wordy and unsatisfactory.
Yankees or Yanks is used informally by people outside the US, including New Zealanders. It grates, however, because Yankee traditionally referred only to New Englanders or those from the northeast or north.
And don’t dare call someone from the southern states a Yankee. That’s likely to leave a sow taste.
