[Draft] Feeling Pins and Needles

[Electrum]

An issue based on the Australian experience of saboteurs contaminating fruit with needles. I think Option 2 could do with a bit of work. Seeking comments on the overall balance of the issue as well.

2nd draft

ISSUE: Feeling Pins and Needles

[desc] Several @@DEMONYMPLURAL@@ have recently gone to hospital after unknowingly ingesting fresh strawberries laced with needles, seemingly placed by a disgruntled farm worker. Now it seems like the entire country is giving the collective side-eye to all packed fruit.

[option]"Food security must be tightened," says your Home Affairs Minister, who seems to be looking at a closed-circuit feed of your bedroom on @@HIS@@ phone. "Start by having CCTV cameras at every point of the supply chain. Ensure that every farm and distribution centre has metal detectors and X-ray machines. Mandate that all fruit be sold in tamper-proof packaging. Have a system in place that allows the government to trace the origin of their fruit back to the farm. Give us a few @@CURRENCYPLURAL@@ to implement all of this. Thank me for giving you a solution. You're welcome."
[effect]citizens peel plastic packaging and peels off their fruit

[option]"That's too much of a burden during these tough times," pleads strawberry farmer @@RANDOMNAME@@, who is finding @@HIM@@self in a bit of a jam. "Please, you have to help us. No one is buying strawberries anymore because they're scared they'll swallow a needle. I don't know how this could have happened, but we're a family owned farm with not much money to spare. Give our industry a vote of confidence by propping up our farms, and by educating people to slice their fruit before eating."
[effect]strawberry farmers are no longer feeling blueberry

[option]"I'd like to speak to your manager," needles aggrieved mother @@RANDOMNAMEFEMALE@@, whose son was one of the unfortunates. "Are you saying that my son, Billy, should use a KNIFE before he eats his fruit? That's ridiculous! The only reason this is happening is because these farmers are paying their workers a PIT-TANCE. If you tell people to slice up fruit, then you're giving in to all the copy-cats to put EVEN MORE needles in fruit! The only way to stamp this crime out is to FORCE farmers to pay their workers properly and DESTROY all of the contaminated fruit."
[effect]bored kids play 'find the needle in the fruit dumpster'

ISSUE: Feeling Pins and Needles

[desc] Several @@DEMONYMPLURAL@@ have recently gone to hospital after unknowingly ingesting fresh strawberries laced with needles, seemingly placed by an unknown saboteur. Now it seems like the entire country is giving the collective side-eye to all fruit packed in punnets.

[option]"Please, you have to help us," pleads strawberry farmer @@RANDOMNAME@@, who is finding @@HIM@@self in a bit of a jam. "No one is buying strawberries anymore because they're scared to swallow a needle. I don't know how this could have happened, but we're a family owned farm and times have been tough. Give our industry a vote of confidence by propping up our farms, and educating people to slice their fruit before eating."
[effect]strawberry farmers are no longer feeling blueberry

[option]"You're suggesting my son, BILLY, should use a KNIFE before he eats his fruit?" needles aggrieved mother @@RANDOMNAMEFEMALE@@, whose son was one of the unfortunates. "The only reason this is happening is because these farmers are paying their workers a PIT-TANCE. If you tell people to slice up fruit, then you're NOT ADDRESSING the root cause, and you're GIVING IN to all the copy-cats who are putting EVEN MORE needles in fruit! The only way to stamp this crime out is to FORCE farmers to pay their workers PROPERLY and DESTROY all of the contaminated fruit."
[effect]bored kids play "find the needle in the fruit dumpster"

[option]"Food security must be tightened," says your Minister of Home Affairs, who seems to be looking at a CCTV feed of your bedroom on @@HIS@@ phone. "Start by having CCTVs at every point of the supply chain. Ensure that every farm and distribution centre has an airport security-style machine to scan for metallic objects. Mandate that all fruit be sold in tamper-proof packaging. Have a system in place that allows the government to trace the origin of their fruit back to the farm. Give us a few @@CURRENCYPLURAL@@ to implement all of this. Thank me for giving you a solution. You're welcome."
[effect]citizens peel plastic packaging and peels off their fruit

[Daarwyrth]

who is finding @@HIM@@self in a bit of a jam

Perhaps consider changing this to "feeling the prick of tears in @@HIS@@ eyes" to run with the "pins and needles" gimmick

Otherwise, the issue options feel balanced and I quite like option 2, but if you could make it a little shorter then it would come across stronger. The capitalization is a fun gimmick to work with and it conveys the message well, but at one point it felt a tiny tad tedious to read it like that. Something that did come to mind is that this issue option would be a perfect way to sneak in the Karen meme and have the mother barge into a store and demand to speak the manager. Or something along those lines, perhaps closer tied to @@LEADER@@ and their office instead of a supermarket.

[Jutsa]

What, no socialist variant for option 1?

Looks really neat though. I'm shocked and disgusted this is a real thing, but it's a good issue.

[Candensia]

I feel the debate would flow better if the options went 3, 1, 2, rather than 1,2,3 as they do now. Talking about food security seems like an obvious first option, rather than an alternative-solution third option. Of course it'll necessitate tweaks elsewhere, but that's my view.

"No one is buying strawberries anymore because they're scared to swallow a needle.

Clunky. How about:

No one is buying strawberries anymore because they're scared about swallowing a needle.

or

... they're scared they'll swallow a needle.

[effect]bored kids play "find the needle in the fruit dumpster"

Heads up, I think the normal convention is to put 'single quotes' around non-speech, to avoid confusion.

[Pythaga]

Start by having CCTVs at every point of the supply chain. Ensure that every farm and distribution centre has an airport security-style machine to scan for metallic objects.

I'd suggest replacing "CCTVs" with either "CCTV cameras" or "monitoring cameras" or something else like that.

Also, I'd recommend replacing "airport security-style machine" with "X-ray machines and metal detectors". Using the actual terms makes more sense in my opinion, especially since this is being said by a bureaucrat with experience in the field. Plus, @@NAME@@ may have banned airplanes, making a comparison to airports nonsensical.

[Electrum]

Thank you all for the feedback. I've implemented them all in this latest draft.