Dyson Ruth: Motions — Food Standards—Folic Acid in Bread 
Dyson Ruth: Motions — Food Standards—Folic Acid in Bread 
[Volume:667;Page:14354] 
Hon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills) 
: 
 I begin by commending the Labour members on the Regulations Review Committee—Charles Chauvel Moana Mackey and Jacinda Ardern—and thanking them for the way they have considered the complaints that came before them a little while ago. I also commend the New Zealand Organisation for Rare Disorders and particularly John Forman who brought the complaint to the attention of the Regulations Review Committee. I understand that Mr Forman is listening to the debate and I think he should give himself a big pat on the back for the work that he did in ensuring that this very important issue received some attention from Parliament even though the issue will be unable to be progressed. Mr Forman has done his work on behalf of other people. Too few New Zealanders do that so he should be commended by the whole of Parliament. I also acknowledge and thank Moana Mackey for moving this motion to disallow the food standard. 
We have heard from numerous members of the House already. Members of the National Party a member of the Green Party and in fact a member of the Maori Party repeated the basis of the campaign in opposition to the addition of folate to our bread but unfortunately the information that they have given to the House is incorrect. The campaign in opposition to the addition of folate was based on lies. It was a deliberate campaign; it was an orchestrated campaign; it was a totally unscientific campaign. It was a campaign driven by a small number of people in New Zealand but because an orchestration of lies was conducted as part of the campaign a number of the public were understandably disturbed by it. In that situation it seems to me that politicians of courage principle and integrity would stand up to people who were lying would stand up on behalf of the truth and would make some effort to explain it. That is not what is happening because the Minister for Food Safety is a weak Minister. She was prepared to do as she was told by the Prime Minister and to make an untidy situation just go away rather than stand up for truth and for healthier babies being born in New Zealand. To me doing that would not have been a big ask; any politician of courage and integrity would do that. The Minister proved that she had neither courage nor integrity. I think what has occurred represents a great loss of opportunity for our country. 
I want to get to the nub of the issue of why it was proposed to put folate back into bread. Actually it is already in there but during the manufacture of bread it is lost as part of the processing. So if we want to get to a wholly natural state as Sue Kedgley indicated then we would take this measure because we would be putting folate back that is taken out during the process of making bread. What happens if a pregnant woman does not have enough vitamin B9 in her diet during the term of her pregnancy? One of the things that happens is that the foetus might not be carried to full term and often quite late in the pregnancy the woman miscarries. It is a pretty hard thing for a woman and her partner to go through a miscarriage at any time in a pregnancy but that is particularly so in the case of a late one resulting from neural tube defects caused by the lack of folate in a woman’s diet. There is one cause with one remedy but the National Government said no. So National says it does not matter whether a pregnant woman has a miscarriage of a baby that she wanted to have. It is not worried about trying to prevent that. I think that is wrong; it is the wrong decision to make. 
The parents may choose to have a pregnancy terminated because of the impairment of a baby—and that is not an easy decision for them to make either—or the baby could be born with spina bifida. I make it crystal clear that this debate is not about reducing the value of the citizenship and worth of any person in New Zealand who has spina bifida. That is not what this debate is about. This debate is about ensuring that when we as a Parliament have an opportunity to reduce impairment reduce ill health then we should take it. It does not mean that anyone who has spina bifida is any less worthy a person than anyone without it. In the same way we would no longer encourage women to take thalidomide; we would not do that any more. That says nothing to reduce the value of people who were born impaired as a result of their mothers taking thalidomide. We just would not continue to take it in pregnancy knowing the effect that it has. 
I referred earlier on to the misinformation that drove the orchestrated campaign on behalf of the bakers against the addition of vitamin B to our bread. The United States the land of the free the land of consumer choice and the leading light for non-intervention has had mandatory folate addition to bread for years because it knows health outcomes are better as a result of doing that. But let me get back to the misinformation. The member from Hamilton and also some other members referred to consumer choice. They said consumers need to have the ability to choose whether they want to eat bread with folate added in case they might not like it or something— 
Moana Mackey 
: They don’t want their cells to divide! 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: They do not want their cells to divide! For some reason we are suddenly obsessed with consumer choice. I tell Mr Macindoe that some women do not know they are pregnant. This will be gobsmacking news to the member I am sure. If women do not know they are pregnant for a month or two months or three months it is too late for them to take up their consumer choice option of adding folate to their diet. It is too late by then. Hundreds of women in New Zealand do not know they are pregnant until it is too late for that additional folate to make a difference to the neural tube situation of the foetus they are carrying. That is why consumer choice is a load of hogwash in this debate. The member should know better than to say what he did. 
The other term that we heard was “mass medication”; “mass medication” is giving a vitamin to people who might not need it. What a terrible thing it is to consider doing that when the reason for it concerns the health and well-being of unborn babies. I personally think it is worth taking the risk of possibly having a little too much vitamin B9 in one’s diet for the sake of the health of babies who have no choice at all about what their mother eats when we have the ability to change their future. 
Some members repeated the absolute nonsense that women would have to eat 11 slices of bread every day for the whole of their pregnancy in order for the added folate to make a difference. For that rubbish to be perpetuated in a grown-up adult Parliament is a disgrace. They would need to eat 11 slices of bread only if they ate nothing else. That might be the case for some people. I personally do not know anyone who eats only bread but that might be the situation for some people. It is rubbish to say that that would have to be the case in order to meet the level of vitamin B9 required to make a difference to the health of a woman’s unborn child—it is just rubbish. 
A previous speaker also talked about the United Kingdom and said we should follow its example by introducing the voluntary addition of folate to bread. Our bakers refused to do that; they said they wanted it to be mandatory. They did not want to go along with a voluntary code because they were nervous about the nonsense that was spoken on their behalf during the debate on this issue. They thought then that people would not buy bread with added folate so the whole purpose of adding it would be defeated. But in the United Kingdom that was not the subject of the debate; the debate there was about the point in the processing of food at which to add the folate: to flour or to bread. 
This motion should be supported. It should be supported on behalf of the hundreds and hundreds of unborn children for whom we have the ability to make a difference to the quality of their health and their lives.