Digital parsley

Lots of produce have these 3D bar codes readable by cellphone camera. (Chew on that, iPhone! Hmm? There are apps for that now? Ah, nevermind.) Anyway, clicking on the QR code brings up info on the produce. Not just nutritional data, but a photo of farmers growing it, background on the climate, annual yield, and the full name of the supervisor.

These aren't new. They might even be on the decline now. I bring this to you today only because I clicked on it today. But food traceability is an issue here as everywhere (we arrived in the middle of the poison Chinese gyoza scandal) and this is an interesting attempt to soothe worries.

Of course, if suppliers purposely mislabel meat for everything including origin, grade, and sell-by date, there's no reason to think they wouldn't give their parsley a fake online profile. (That picture could be ten years old! Or just taken from a flattering angle.)

Speaking of mislabeled meat, here's a Japanese meat-labelling scandal more than 100 years old.