Why do we need to teach children binary coding?

I am very much in favor of teaching children more than one number system (e.g. binary additional to the decimal system). To me this gives children a better understanding of the nature of numbers – I know that this seems not to be widely shared 😉

Now I found a further reason why it essential to know binary codes – How else would you decode this best before date on this chocolate bar if you would not know it!