New Zealand has become addicted to importing palm kernel from Indonesia as use for cattle feed here in NZ.
This is environmentally monstrous because the palm kernel represents deforestation, (often by extremely destructive methods), biodiversity loss, and greenhouse gas emissions.
It also carries Foot and Mouth disease.
Indonesia has claimed to have stamped out a recent Foot and Mouth outbreak but there were serious questions raised by ABC as to whether the Indonesians were trying to cover up the outbreak rather than solve it…
Foot-and-mouth disease may still be spreading in Bali’s cattle, despite lack of recorded cases
Experts have cast doubt on claims by Indonesian officials that they have not recorded a single case of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) among Bali’s cattle population in weeks.
Bali’s Agriculture and Food Security office claims the island has been free of FMD for almost two months.
The last officially reported case in Bali was on 1 August.
But the ABC has seen and filmed cattle with clear signs of FMD this month in separate areas of Bali.
Farmers have reported cattle with symptoms consistent with the disease, including foaming at the mouth, poor appetite and swollen feet.
And officials in Denpasar have also confirmed to the ABC that more than 60 cattle were slaughtered in the first week of September, because of the disease.
…NZ has responded with an audit last year…
NZ audits palm kernel supply chain as Indonesia battles foot and mouth outbreak
An on-the-ground audit of Indonesia’s palm kernel supply chain shows it is meeting New Zealand’s strict biosecurity requirements for foot and mouth disease, MPI says.
…but when you consider the destruction an outbreak would create here…
Dire warning over impact of foot and mouth disease on New Zealand’s economy
New Zealand’s economy could take a $10 billion hit in the event of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease. That’s according to one model from Biosecurity NZ.
…I’m not sure an audit is an appropriate response.
We shouldn’t be taking Palm Kernel in the first place because it’s so environmentally damaging but if it also inadvertently brings Foot and Mouth into then country we are in real immediate trouble.
The enormous rain we have had in NZ has destroyed crop used to feed cattle in NZ and the grass the rain events are producing produces less quality milk, so the demand for Palm Kernel this year is going to be massive.
If we are going to take even more Palm Kernel this year from a place with Foot and Mouth, it’s only a matter of time.
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Nothing compared to the amount of coal we import from Indonesia. #our generation’s nuclear moment.
Stick to the point of the post; you’re a poor driver of your tank, Frank. Frankly saying – get some lessons in directing your mind as well as your vehicle and give us comment pointed in the right direction.
The answer is “yes”, Chris Luxon will undoubtedly suffer a foot-in-mouth outbreak during the election campaign. It’s just a matter of time.
You beat me to it
Finally…a thoughtful TDB article on farming. Yes there is a risk (along with inbound Tourism), and should that risk become reality it would be catastrophic for all of New Zealand. Palm kernel (along with synthetic Nitrogen) also drives the dairy industry intensification beyond natural limits, (with collateral damage to our waterways) whereas the sheep and beef industry largely depend upon natural grass growth. Maybe it is time to weigh the pros and cons of palm kernel imports?
Thank goodness for some sensible debate from you Jason instead of childish (in this discussion) political point scoring. As you say palm kernel raises yield, is like a drug for farmers and instead of powdered cleaner that is said to be put in some drugs and is ingested by users, we are trying to get our cows to produce unnaturally, sort of on steroids. But we suspect Indonesia of not being 100% truthful – yet we know how slippery figures and percentages can be as we toss 100% pure etc around to describe our enterprise. Huh! Doh!
It may be that if we suffer a foot and mouth disease outbreak it will be under a National- ACT government.
In which case expect it to be blamed on Social welfare beneficaries and Polynesians while the government counters it with increased immigration, zero taxation for millionaires, the re-introduction of child labour and slavery.
A farmer might be able to answer this for me: Where was the feed coming from before it came from Indonesia?
Presumably there was once a local source.
Kristoff – previously they used maize silage and some still do.
My father made silage from grass both in Northland and Otago.
Feedlot farming is relatively recent farming technique in NZ. It should never have been allowed. it is fraught with disaster especially disease. Canterbury is an arid region totally unsuited to dairy and the grazing of cattle in large numbers. Apart from a few isolated areas e.g. Geradine. Intensive dairying in Canterbury is an ecological disaster and an an environmental crime. We are a nation of greedy fuckwits for allowing to happen.
I don’t know any previous source of Palm kennel but like the price of fertilisers its price has risen sharply recently. We have used it in the past as sheep and beef, mainly in an ElNino weather pattern that makes droughts on the east coasts of both Islands more likely. Martyn may be right that some dairy farmers may wish to use it after failed summer crops but most east coast farms have grass growing over the fence tops with the La Niña pattern. Martyn has a point. It’s a big risk and foot and mouth would effectively kill what’s left of our economy. The cost of palm kernel has made it almost unaffordable unless money isn’t an issue. On our sheep and beef farm in Hawkes Bay of 260 Htrs money is always an issue. We try to cover feed shortages with baleage which is in plentiful supply this year. We ignore the risk of foot and mouth at our peril. And that’s everyone not just the farmers.
You’re being too hard on our world leading, super environmentally aware, farming industry that is protesting bitterly about farm conversion to forestry while happily buying kernel from countries that have created massive monocultures in order to supply the demand. The noble farmers will work ceaselessly to eliminate Foot and mouth and will not wait for a commie/ socialist tyrannical dictatorship to impose an elimination regime. Just like the cockies did with Mbovis , eliminating it with age old farming practises and no assistance apart from a paltry 800 mil from the taxpayer,our brave, patriotic farmers will continue to forge in steel, their links to capitalist exploitation.
More bollocks and anti-farmer drivel…
Regardless of whether you like our farmers or not your take on the forestry shows an ignorance and disconnect with farming in this country. Everyone in this country will be negatively affected by the treasonous way at which this government has engineered the gradual selling up of our productive land to forestry. The sell out of good productive farm land continues as we speak on the east coast from Hawks Bay to the Wairarapa. Rolling country now sold and where trees are now planted up to and around existing good woolsheds. These farmers are not selling for greed but because profit margins are small, along with increased farm costs that are making the investment unprofitable. Our farm is no different. My son now runs it but his debt situation is precarious and trees may come to this farm also. Good land five minutes off the main road near Otane. People like you don’t get the reliance on farming and the export receipts needed for the economy and that these thousands of hectares now going into trees will never produce food again. But that’s ok we buy shit coal from Indonesia, maybe they will sell us some of their shit foot and mouth food. Be my guest. Enjoy it.
Sort of flies in the face of dairy industry propaganda that our cattle are ‘100% naturally grass fed’.
Foot in Mouth outbreak! We’re already getting one. The psychopathic natzo’s coming out all guns misfiring.
Is this the defining moment when something becomes less worthy of serious debate and more worthy of ridicule?
rnz
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/483135/minimum-wage-too-high-to-increase-further-without-fuelling-inflation-national-s-nicola-willis
Ah… remember The Jonk? Lift the skirts on ASB and you might see him clinging to any pony tail left hanging under there.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/334094/us-billionaire-spent-12-days-in-nz-before-citizenship?utm_source=pocket_reader
stuff
” ‘You can smell where the money is’: Graeme Hart and his innate sense of commerce”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/128825629/you-can-smell-where-the-money-is-graeme-hart-and-his-innate-sense-of-commerce?utm_source=pocket_reader
Innate sense of commerce… what a load of wank.
Also: RNZ
Graeme Hart, NZ’s richest man, makes $3.4b during Covid-19 pandemic
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/124046498/graeme-hart-nzs-richest-man-makes-34b-during-covid19-pandemic?utm_source=pocket_reader
As is the minimum wage.
“Student loans as a strategy for social control”
https://boingboing.net/2022/12/04/student-loans-as-a-strategy-for-social-control.html?utm_source=pocket_reader
Finally: This looks good.
“A sneak peek at Mark Russell’s scathing late capitalism satire Billionaire Island: Cult of Dogs”
https://boingboing.net/2022/11/03/a-sneak-peek-at-mark-russells-scathing-late-capitalism-satire-billionaire-island-cult-of-dogs.html?utm_source=pocket_reader
“The year is 2046, two years after Billionaire Island fell—taking the world’s economy with it. Only one man—er, dog—can save us now. But where is Business Dog? Welcome to Billionaire Island: Cult of Dogs, the long-awaited return of AHOY Comics’ scathing and all too prescient late capitalism satire from writer Mark Russell and artist Steve Pugh, in stores this fall. “
What are you – a communist? I’ll import my PKE and to hell with the consequences… oh wait – what’s that lesion on Bessie? I’ll import my Bulls and to hell with the consequences – oh wait – Bessie you’re limping. I’ll import pollen and to hell with the consequences – oh wait – what’s happening to the vines?
NZ agricultural history is littered with selfish pricks who ignored the consequences and did what they wanted to plump their pockets, can’t see this being any different.
Also it’s election year, can’t see any politician wanting to put a moratorium or ban on PKE – imagine the uproar (although I’d expect Labour to ignore this, they are the the so-called farmer haters after all, National not so much)
If we ban PKE for purely environmental reasons, then we should ban all products that use palm oil as their base.
On the other hand as with a lot of other people I’m not a great fan of pke for all the reasons mentioned previously, thankfully a lot of dairy farmers have weaned themselves from using it in there operations
As for foot and mouth getting into our country via dodgy batches of pke, it’s quite plausible as anecdotally in the past there have been reports of dead animal bits turning up in farmers feed bins. If I was cynical, foot and mouth would be a way for the government to meet reductions in animal numbers to meet our greenhouse gas emissions obligations!
Cynical Rools Okay!
” We shouldn’t be taking Palm Kernel in the first place because it’s so environmentally damaging but if it also inadvertently brings Foot and Mouth into then country we are in real immediate trouble. ”
A human pandemic followed by an animal one.
MPI along with MBIE give me no confidence whatsoever in tackling major threats leading to serious outcomes before they occur.
Mr Hipkins won’t want this taking place before October.
I remember foot and mouth in the UK back in the day….and trust me it’s no picnic
Yup. A cows version of covid eh?
Anyway. I think LINO poli’s will suffer more from foot & mouth in this election more than their other poli brethren neoliberals.
If only there was a proper choice instead of the monkey put up for us to choose from cause they’re all still shit.
If only there was a unicorn or something?