23 August 2009

Palm kernel addiction threatens economic sabotage

Revelations today about New Zealand dairy farming’s growing addiction to palm kernel feed show the immense risk of unsustainable dairying to our priceless ‘clean and green’ export brand.

Palm kernel (PKE) is produced along with palm oil on land cleared of tropical rainforest in Indonesia and Malaysia. This rainforest destruction is a major source of carbon emissions and is leading orangutans and other rainforest species to extinction.

“Importing massive amounts of palm kernel undermines the priceless ‘clean and green’ brand that underpins our economy and most New Zealanders’ jobs,”said Green Party Co-leader Russel Norman.

“Stopping this sort of economic sabotage requires strong leadership from the Government.”

The Green Party warned about the alarming rise in imported PKE in April 2008, releasing statistics that showed a thousand-fold increase from 0.4 tonnes in 1999 to 455,000 tonnes in 2007. Statistics released today show imports more than doubled in the past year to 1.1 million tonnes in 2008, one-quarter of global PKE production.

“New Zealand’s palm kernel addiction is already costing our economy, and farmers, due to lost sales of our own grain and maize feeds,” said Dr Norman.

“Just this week members of the NZ Grain Council wrote to the Green Party concerned about large-scale PKE imports because it is environmentally destructive, is a biosecurity risk, and is leading to the 'demise of the NZ domestic grain industry'.”

The Farmer’s Weekly magazine reported last week that New Zealand grain farmers have been hit by a ‘perfect storm’ with ‘a large carryover of maize, wheat and barley from last season’. Unsustainable imported feeds like palm kernel are used instead of locally-grown supplementary feeds.

“Dairying's increased reliance on palm kernel is having a real impact on other Kiwi farmers," Dr Norman said, "farmers who are already squeezed by the recession and the dollar.

“The scale of palm kernel importation will also be deeply concerning for the many New Zealanders who recently pressured Cadbury to remove palm oil from its chocolate.

“Kiwis rightly concerned about the use of palm oil will be shocked to learn that we import a lot more palm kernel than palm oil.”

Palm oil imports in 2008 were 22 million litres (valued at $35 million); whereas palm kernel imports were 1 billion kilograms (valued at $317 million).

“We need the Prime Minister and Fonterra to show the sort of commonsense that Cadbury displayed last week,” said Dr Norman. “John Key needs to show leadership before consumer rejection of our exports hurts our economy like it recently hurt Cadbury’s sales.

“New Zealand's addiction to rainforest-destroying palm kernel is caused by unsustainable dairy intensification, which also pollutes our water, dams our rivers for irrigation, and increases our greenhouse gas emissions.

“Studies from AgResearch and DairyNZ have shown that the sustainable dairying practised by many of our farmers is the answer, being both environmentally responsible and economically profitable.”

References:
Green Party statement in April 2008: http://www.greens.org.nz/node/19066
Farmer’s Weekly (17 Aug 2009): http://www.nzfarmersweekly.co.nz/article/7867.html

ENDS

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