Will we get a Foot and Mouth outbreak this year?
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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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.
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.
Sort of flies in the face of dairy industry propaganda that our cattle are ‘100% naturally grass fed’.
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.
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!