by Kevin Hague
For some time now the Government has been under fire for its inaction on, or even encouragement of, the importation of palm kernel as supplementary feed. The deforestation that occurs to facilitate palm plantations is leading rapidly to the extinction of the orang utan, massive dislocation of indigenous people, and further erosion of biodiversity and of the forests’ ability to absorb Carbon. Government started to argue that palm kernel was purely a waste product and was not a driver of this deforestation, but then grudgingly ceded to logic and reasoning, admitting that it did have an effect.
Another of the problems with palm kernel imports is the risk they present to biosecurity. Currently our protection from risks is supposed to be this: palm kernel is exposed to heat as a byproduct of the process for separating the kernel from the fruit. It is then stored in facilities that are “substantially bird and vermin-proof. It is then fumigated with Phosphine, either at the port of origin or en route to New Zealand. When it arrives here a small sample of it is visually inspected, and if insects or animals are found it is fumigated with Methyl Bromide.
Last month I released information showing that 9 shipments(from about 300) had to be fumigated in New Zealand because they had not been fumigated at their port of origin and that a further 39 shipments had to be fumigated because they contained insects (and in one case, a gecko) despite supposedly having been fumigated when shipped. I guess palm kernel might be a difficult material to fumigate, because it is very dense and perhaps the fumigant won’t penetrate to where the insects are. Or perhaps these numbers illustrate a very slack approach to biosecurity standards. Either way we should expect that insects are being introduced to New Zealand via palm kernel shipments.
Today in the House I was asking the Minister of Agriculture about Foot and Mouth disease. This disease is endemic in Malaysia, with outbreaks literally every year. Canadian (and other) agriculture authorities show that the virus causing foot and mouth disease is able to survive for many days in soil and water. I am aware of many reports from farmers feeding out palm kernel, of contamination by wood, metal and soil. In other words there is a real risk of introducing foot and mouth disease into New Zealand. The visual inspection mechanism used for detecting risks when this stuff arives here will, of course, not find micro-organisms. Fumigation will not kill the FMD virus. In other words there is a real risk, and Government is doing nothing whatsoever about it.
The Government responds (or would have except that it was Gerry Brownlee answering on behalf of the Minister, and of course he doesn’t know anything about it) that the heat in the extraction process kills micro-organisms. But this process occurs before the palm kernel is most likely to be exposed to soil contamination , so exposure to this heat is entirely beside the point.
The really interesting about Mr. Brownlee’s answers today was that he appeared to be entirely unconcerned about the risk from foot and mouth disease, and indicated that he could not give the New Zealand public and farmers any assurance that all these biosecurity risks could be eliminated. The risk to all of our primary industries, and to tourism, from biosecurity risks is huge, and foot and mouth disease, should it strike here, would take a terrible toll on the exporting component of our economy. National’s shoulder shrug seems entirely inexplicable.
What’s more we have absolutely no need to take these risks. At the same time that we are importing this stuff with all its risk and other disastrous consequences, New Zealand’s grain farmers and the communities they live in are experiencing hard times. For goodness’ sake (literally), we need to be using supplementary feed grown by New Zealand farmers – with absolutely no biosecurity risk. If a decent biosecurity regime was applied to palm kernel, and the costs attributed, even any price advantage it offers would probably disappear.
My press release with more info is here.
Published in Environment & Resource Management by Kevin Hague on Thu, October 15th, 2009
Tags: Kevin Hague
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on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
That a relative of mine can have his, his wife’s, and his 2 year old daughters shoes taken away at Auckland Airport for fumigating, because they admitted to going for a walk near their home in Wiltshire, (a dairy farming shire); not on a farm, but on a footpath never traversed by a cow, sounds a draconian act when compared to the dereliction of duty being exhibited by Biosecurity in relation to Palm Kernel.
Would the ‘friendship’ between Fonterra & JK have anything to do with this phenomenon ? Talk about the tail wagging the dog !
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And the biosecurity risk with this product is astonishingly high, this is driven by nothing but greed and short sightedness.
Its not as if farmers can’t afford to purchase local supplementary feed.
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You need to get your blog posting out into the mainstream media as an opinion article, this reads in a very responsable manner.
Anyway, watching the response in Parliament of Gerry Brownlee was alarming, cracking jokes about monkeys and the like. Consistiently MAF have been advised of reports of contamination on farm from PKE.
Repeatedly MAF have found incursions at the border. The merchants screen this stuff prior to sale, dumping the contaminates outside of MAF control.
FMD is not the only soil borne risk that could enter NZ via PKE, but heat treatment during pressing, then storing as a waste product with fumigation during shipping will have no effect on soil bourne diseases.
PKE is a time bomb for NZ, from a biosecurity, food safety and market image perspective.
This argument is not about support for NZ feed growers, but it is about undue biosecurity risk being taken by a sector of NZ in order to provide a cheap waste product feed to the dairy industry.
Unfortunately the way our biosecurity rules are written and the further changes that the Minister would like to make to “Incursion Cost Sharing” rules would see absolutely no responsibility fall on the Aussie firms that import this crap.
Keep up the good work, you have a considerable level of support from NZ farmers on this issue.
Cheers.
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What about the possibility of methyl bromide contamination in the palm kernel? How is the fumigation carried out? Who checks for possible residues and could it get into milk/beef prodoucts or sheep for that matter?
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As previously posted, this is a National disgrace so good on you Kevin – Go go go !
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To learn a lot more about this maybe not so strange mucalage try this link or google it.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mucilage+in+the+med&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rlz=1R1GGGL_en-GBGB344GB344&client=firefox-a
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Haven’t bookmarked all my research into this – but NZ and Bio-security seem a contradiction in terms – we need you Kev!
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Shipping food for cows across the Pacific to NZ should set alarm bells ringing, quite apart from the biosecurity risk.
It’s wrong on so many levels. That it continues shows that there is disease in the system. That disease eventually lodges in the people (that’s us), whether it be through consuming the milk, drinking the compromised water or simply living in the landscape made ill by practices of the dairy industry.
Some early morning cheer, right there!
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Fly; a part of our massive carbon footprint (per capita) that will only get larger under (and I mean under) the Nats….wonder when the Maori Party are getting something authentic by way of ethic quality to stand by – other than selling their votes for ‘prizes’.
How is the weather in Dipton?
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Mark – long night?
The weather in Dipton is wooly.
Maori Party prizes, ethical and otherwise? Keep a watch on the coast and speaking of cow-fodder, guard the seaweed – slippery stuff, that.
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Jimmy, Good point on the Methyl Bromide, MAF have noted in written answers to Parliamentary Questions that PKE shipments have been treated with MB, but MAF go on to say they do not support the use of MB because it is widely known to be a severe Ozone depleting substance. That is really bad in itself, unfortunately as a nation we are becoming increasingly dependant on imported food – thanks to our supermarkets leveraging down the price of local produce. Most of the imported fruit and vegetables we eat are treated with Methyl Bromide – That sucks for food safety!
From an ozone damage point of view, the treatment of fruit and vegetables in a warehouse situation means that the MB can be recovered.
As for treating a bulk frieghter full of PKE, there is no way that sufficient sealing can be achieved in the ship’s hold to pressurise the MB into the dense PKE – but more importantly the MB cannot be recovered and is lost into the atmosphere.
As for killing the bugs in the PKE, the MB kills the ones on the surface and does squat to kill the bugs further down in the hold. But the MAF fella rocks up and sees some dead insects on the surface and certifies the shipment to unloaded – no wonder MAF found 106 different insect species in PKE stores during feb’09.
As for MB treatment controlling Foot and Mouth or preventing the growth of dangerous aflatoxins – complete waste of time, MB is an insecticide, somebody maybe should inform Mr. Brownlee of this fact!!!!
Maybe Carter and Brownlee also need pointed out that heat treatment hardly makes PKE clean and safe if the PKE is then stored outside for weeks/months prior to shipping.
Go Kev…
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No Sleep for the wicked Fly – have been wandering the News of the World all night – a somewhat epiphaneous return to NZ’s Green Blog – a bastion of hope you know.
But Pita Sharples got up in the House and said he had secured ‘more dole money for Maori’ by bedding down with the Nats….Mr Key laughed heartily….check Hansard if you like, but there was quite a bit of confusion on display.
Me – I can’t even answer the “Race” category question here. There is no such thing as a Kiwi(ie; gotta be a maori/euro or something else irrelevant). A foible peculiar to this country, and one I find somewhat sinister in it’s implications.
Smacks of the old Divide and Conquer routine – in a country that could use unified purpose.
Good Kai that Kelp you know…
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