One can still see the effects of the decisions made when Canada metricated. Many industries had to decide whether they wanted the hard or soft conversion option. Good example so of both can be seen in the dairy industry: +milk was hard converted (4 L, 2 L, 1 L, 500 ml, and 250 ml) +butter was soft converted (454 g blocks) +margarine followed the butter lead (1.36 kg, 908 g, 454 g) though some larger sizes +(2 kg and up) are hard metric. +processed cheese was hard converted (1 kg, 500 g, 250 g) +brick cheese (mostly domestic cheddar) was initially soft converted (908 g, 454 g, +227 g) but some companies are now packaging in hard metric (800 g, 400 g, 200 g). +This may be the result of "downsizing", but I have noticed that the companies who +package their products in hard metric amounts tend to have a smaller price tag than +the companies the are still only soft converted. It is possible that some companies +are trying to follow the European cheese industry lead, especially since the +consumption of "variety" cheeses has increased substantially over the past few years. +Kraft tends to use soft-converted package sizes while Armstrong uses the hard metric +packages sizes. I buy from companies the the hard conversion... I vote with my +$1-coins when I have the chance. . greg Saskatoon SK Canada ========================================= Gregory Peterson, M.Sc. Molecular Genetics Diversity Technician Technicien en Deversités Génétique Moléculaire Plant Gene Resources of Canada, AAFC Les Ressources Phytogénétiques du Canada, AAC 107 Science Place Saskatoon SK S7N 0X2 tel: (306) 956-7200 (AAFC reception) tel: (306) 956-7296 (lab) fax: (306) 956-7246 internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- >>> "G. Stanley Doore" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 2001-03-21 20:08:24 >>> Sounds like a good approach. Milk for example is in English units because its size is regulated by law. A law was changed to allow alcohol to convert to metric only. That's why it was converted durng the 1970s. Same needs to be done for milk etc. Stan ----- Original Message ----- From: Gregory Peterson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2001 2:32 PM Subject: Re: [USMA:11745] Re: Highway sign conversion I think packaging is a good way to get metric into the minds of the public without seeing it. This is the case with the 2 litre soda bottles in the US. Packaging amounts can be ignored. It's for this reason why, I think that the quantities on packaged foods in Canada are 99% metric, but the price for meat and veggies is still in Imperial. I still think that the US needs more of an obvious trigger. Weather would be a very good place to start to put metric in peoples faces. As I said before, start with degrees Celsius, kilopascals, and millimetres/centimetres of precipitation. Leave the MPH in place for wind speeds until the highways are done. This way people see metric, begin talking with metric terms and before long they'll end up preferring freezing at 0 rather than 32. It's too easy to say "a can of soup" whether it's 250 ml or 10 floz. greg
