Why import kaka when we are natural producers?

[Don1]

...time to build our own biosolids plant... the PNP and JLP leadership alone produce enough to cover Jamaica.
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EPA approval not good enough – Dr. Dawes
Sunday, 08 March 2009 The debate about the safety of the low cost fertiliser recently imported by the Government from the United States (US) continues to rage.

st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }The Government and the Opposition have been at odds since Agriculture Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton revealed that the fertiliser contains human excreta.

Since then, Dr. Tufton has defended the safety of the product, saying it had been tested and approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency, (EPA).

But Former Senior Medical Officer at the May Pen Hospital in Clarendon, Dr. Winston Dawes, said the EPA's saying the fertiliser was safe does not necessarily make it so.

"If it's human faeces, then there are certain risks involved ... if it's properly treated and made sterile, killing whatever worms from eggs etc, it should be relatively safe. The unfortunate thing is that the EPA, which they are quoting like many regulatory organizations in the US, were gutted under the (George W.) Bush administration so we're not too sure that when you're regulated under the EPA, that this means that you did what ought to be done," said Dr. Dawes on That's a Rap, RJR's weekly news review programme on Sunday.

Food security & food safety

He added that despite the Government's emphasis on food security it must be more vigilant in ensuring food safety.

"We've had several episodes in the last few years, especially in the last few months of salmonella infections which they've traced to farms either in California or in Mexico ... this is causing a problem. The problem which we now have with food is commercial farming and mixing of produce from different farms ... you're not sure where exactly you end up ... it's sometimes very, very difficult to trace the orgins of these infections," said Dr. Dawes.

Where was the Bureau of Standard? - Franklyn

Meanwhile, attorney-at-law and former People's National Party Senator Delano Franklyn is calling for more stringent importation measures.

Mr. Franklyn asked why the Bureau of Standards was not consulted when the low cost fertiliser was being sourced overseas.

"Such an agency ought to have been involved ... I heard the Bureaus Executive Director saying there's nothing wrong with a product being brought into Jamaica having been passed by the Bureau of Standard's equivalent in the US, but I believe the Bureau and the Ministry of Agriculture have a responsibility to try and ensure (that all imported goods are safe) and in fact, they have ordered that certain tests be done and it means that the Bureau will be involved," said Mr. Franklyn, who was also speaking on RJR's That's a Rap.

No salmonella in imported peanut based products - BSJ

In the meantime, the Bureau of Standards Jamaica says it has concluded tests on several products following the outbreak of Salmonella in the US.

The Bureau says its tests have not shown any trace of Salmonella.

There have been concerns about Salmonella in peanut and peanut- based products since the contamination in the US.

The Bureau of Standards says among the products tested are - salted peanuts, peanut punch flavoured drinks, cocktail peanuts and peanut porridge mix.

Salmonella is a genus of rod-shaped Gram-negative enterobacteria that causes typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever, and the food borne illness salmonellosis.

There are approximately 40,000 cases of Salmonella infection reported in the United States each year.

[Assasin]

Well build our own and charge 4 times the price, build it unproductively.

I remember the local fertiliser maker saying there is no way he could cut price, Jamaica was paying one of the highest in the caribbean. It was not until Bruce went to Venuzula and saw it doesn't have to be that expensive.

The price drop in half with imported fertilizer and local prducer drop his price as well. If them serious about production in Ja then do it but not at the expense of the farmers.

[Don1]

Well build our own and charge 4 times the price, build it unproductively.

I remember the local fertiliser maker saying there is no way he could cut price, Jamaica was paying one of the highest in the caribbean. It was not until Bruce went to Venuzula and saw it doesn't have to be that expensive.

The price drop in half with imported fertilizer and local prducer drop his price as well. If them serious about production in Ja then do it but not at the expense of the farmers.

The local fertiliser supplier imports his product.

I'm suggesting that we use a local raw material... and I've pointed out some big bio-solid producers that can be tapped.

[Willi]

Tru dat.

We can start with animal/plant wastes from the few agro endeavours that still survive.

[Assasin]

Got you but part of the problem is when we produce anything locally we think we have to charge a arm and a leg.

We don't use modern productive tatics and once they have a monopoly they try to kill everybody else.

Another company is cement company. Now cheaper cement on the market they have "improved productivity" and the prices have been lowered.

I support the local production wholeheartedly but it must not be a "stickup thing".

[Karl]

The local fertiliser supplier imports his product.

I'm suggesting that we use a local raw material... and I've pointed out some big bio-solid producers that can be tapped.

We should!
...but somehow I think we would have to do some importing to supplement the 'home grown product'.

Agree wid yuh, sah!
..but didn't Robert Lightbourne (JLP) and Michael Manley (PNP) - import subsitution & value added production - suggest we go that way and they both were 'beaten down'?

[Willi]

Times change Karl.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Lead, follow...or get out of the way!