Of course, this fellow does not know that the USA is a signatory of the Metric Convention, a member of the BIPM and that USC can be classed as a second-hand metric system. "Foreign measurement system" indeed! I would say that HIS remarks are asinine!
Han Historian of Dutch Metrication, Nijmegen, The Netherlands ----- Original Message ----- From: Hu, Alfred To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Thursday, 2002-06-06 16:27 Subject: [USMA:20353] RE: Fwd: Question on Dairy Products Thats a very lame excuse and answer... alfred -----Original Message----- From: John Woelflein [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2002 6:29 AM To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:20349] Fwd: Question on Dairy Products I wrote to USDA and asked why dairy products were not yet considering metrication. Here is reply from John Rourke of the USDA: "Rourke, John" sda.gov> cc: "Mengel, John" , "McKee, Richard" 2002-06-06 Subject: Question on Dairy Products 09:21 In response to your question, I conducted a survey of consumer products in my household. Of the 50 products surveyed, only 3 were in metric sizes -- a 2-liter cola product, a 3-liter wine product and a 0.75 liter alcohol product. All other products, including bottled water, were in standard U.S. fluid and weight measures, along with the metric equivalent in parentheses. There were 2 fruit juice products both in 64 ozs. (2 quart) containers. One problem I would see with converting to metric sizes would be in the carbonated beverage vending machine business; would they continue to use the same size 12-ounce cans and label it as the metric equiv. of 12 ozs.? Until American consumers start demanding product in metric sizes, I do not expect the food processing industry to make the conversion. Many American consumers, given their fierce independent nature, may be unwilling to accept products sold only in a "foreign" measuring system. Any statements to the effect that American consumers are less intelligent than consumers in other countries is asinine. John
