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Cheap fertiliser and cheaper politics
MARK WIGNALL
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Two weeks ago when the matter of the fertiliser imports came up again in the House, the JLP administration allowed itself to be taken off guard by the PNP playing to the ignorance of Jamaican people while farmers had already used the fertiliser and were begging for more.
MARK WIGNALL
Ex-Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke, a quite likeable man, bellowed in the House, ostensibly on behalf of the people, but as party politics go, it was designed to provide a high to his party. It was for him the perfect platform. It not only embellished his leader's "care" for the poor, but it placed a flat-footed JLP administration, once again, on the defensive.
Granted, politicians are very rarely to be trusted to do the right thing but in this instance, the JLP administration had allowed in 2,500 tonnes of three blends of fertiliser from the Diamond R Company in Florida between October 23 and November 21, 2008. The fertiliser is a biosolid which is the end result of waste-water treatment process. It was classified as a Class AA biosolid or residual by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
The difference between the old days of Busta and the archaic politics of Roger Clarke, on one hand, and communication and information-gathering in the age of the internet, on the other hand, is stark. If Roger Clarke was really interested in determining if the fertiliser was laced with "excretia", as he called it, he could have checked it out. He would have found out that there are biosolids, like those rated Class B, which are not recommended for use on food crops. Indeed, as far as I am concerned, those fertilisers should never be used in any island nation of 4,000 square miles where farms, houses and the water table all share essentially the same space.
But apparently, Mr Clarke had bigger fish to fry. He knew that the skillet was on, and the political temperature was rising. All that was needed was to gut the JLP, scale it, salt and pepper it, and throw it in, on top of the high flame.
One quote from a US EPA risk assessment report of the batch said, "In addition to the EPA Class A criterion, based on the required concentration limit for heavy metals in a Class AA biosolid, this biosolid would classify to be of exceptional quality (EQ) by the EPA. Therefore, a Class AA biosolid can be used in a similar manner to commercial fertilisers; that includes application to cropland, including leafy vegetables, with no special harvesting or post-harvest restrictions.
"The potential for ground or surface water contamination from this product is no different from the potential related to the use of other inorganic blends or soil ameliorants, such as animal manure. As a result, no special precautions need to be taken to protect water resources as a result of its use. Application of this product should be guided by soil conditions and agronomic protocols and not environmental or human health concerns specific to this product."
That report was dated January 29, 2009.
A UWI Department of Microbiology report signed by a heavyweight microbiologist Alison Nicholson is not so much a report of anything except that it certifies: "Fertiliser heated to a temperature of 1200ºF should be pathogen-free." It is basically saying that a Class AA biosolid earns that specification by, among other things, meeting the temperature designation classification.
The JLP, acting like an Opposition party on the ropes, allowed ex-Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke to pour scorn on farmers getting better fertiliser at 50 per cent less than before. Because the JLP administration has still not come to grips with the fact that it is running things in Jamaica, it failed to coordinate affairs between the Commerce Ministry (the importing agency) and the Agriculture Ministry.
Because we do not trust our politicians, we expect them to lie to us. When Roger Clarke did his ("excretia") grandstanding, the JLP administration had once again fallen prey to a nation overdosed on PNP-itis. What it should have done is learn to play chess from September 2007.
Once the fertiliser arrived, it should have energised the Bureau of Standards to do some work for a change and start being bottom-up effective to the little farmer on the plains of South St Elizabeth, the hilly regions of St Ann and every single area where a hill of yam or a field of vegetables is planted. But no, the JLP acted like it is little bits and pieces of ministries, loosely strung together instead of a government leading a team.
Now we gather, the Bureau of Standards (BOS) is getting involved. After the fact. I have absolutely no doubt that the Bureau's examination of the product will give it a clean bill of health. But at this stage, with the political atmosphere as charged as it has been for the last three weeks, very few will be willing to believe it.
In this country, we wrap every sweetie and every tidbit of information in layers of green or orange. It is either PNP truth or JLP truth. Prime Minister Golding has seen his political opposite in Portia Simpson Miller, has debated with her and in fact demolished her in that 2007 pre-election debate. What are we to make of her, the person who showed and failed and is now aching to show up again? What are we to make of our prime minister, the great debater, who so far has failed to show and is most compliant in stepping backwards from the centre of the ring and placing his back against the ropes.
Is it the rope-a-dope PM? Is it another great strategy borrowed from a real great in Muhammad Ali? Will you come out blazing from all angles with hooks, jabs and sneaky, stinging uppercuts? And then, when? Or are you most comfortable where you believe no blows will defile your face?
At present, all eyes are on the West Portland by-election and it is shaping up to be a repeat of the North East St Ann battle of 2001. The PNP has thrown the kitchen sink down there to fight off the efforts, once again, of the JLP's Daryl Vaz. No doubt much "fertiliser" will be thrown out by the PNP in that campaign. In fact, it has already started and it is not pretty. I gather even my name is on one of the flyers.
The PNP has everything to gain in West Portland. If it reduces the 2007 majority of the JLP, it will claim that it has clawed back much. And it will do so to a nation of people that are, at this time, very much out of love with the JLP. If the PNP wins, it will signal the return of the one who showed up, loved up and failed miserably. If it loses, the PNP will not lose any sleep over the match.
I expect Vaz to win the seat, to go against the grain of popular national sentiment. I expect him to do this because of the excellent quality of his work since September 2007 among a constituency of people who have been starved for quality representation for too long.
In the interim I would not be surprised if more PNP crocodile tears are shed and the "excretia" fertiliser is used as the main plank of the West Portland campaign. After all, nothing beats showing up and failing like showing up, loving up and failing again.
observemark@gmail.com
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MARK WIGNALL
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Two weeks ago when the matter of the fertiliser imports came up again in the House, the JLP administration allowed itself to be taken off guard by the PNP playing to the ignorance of Jamaican people while farmers had already used the fertiliser and were begging for more.
MARK WIGNALLEx-Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke, a quite likeable man, bellowed in the House, ostensibly on behalf of the people, but as party politics go, it was designed to provide a high to his party. It was for him the perfect platform. It not only embellished his leader's "care" for the poor, but it placed a flat-footed JLP administration, once again, on the defensive.
Granted, politicians are very rarely to be trusted to do the right thing but in this instance, the JLP administration had allowed in 2,500 tonnes of three blends of fertiliser from the Diamond R Company in Florida between October 23 and November 21, 2008. The fertiliser is a biosolid which is the end result of waste-water treatment process. It was classified as a Class AA biosolid or residual by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
The difference between the old days of Busta and the archaic politics of Roger Clarke, on one hand, and communication and information-gathering in the age of the internet, on the other hand, is stark. If Roger Clarke was really interested in determining if the fertiliser was laced with "excretia", as he called it, he could have checked it out. He would have found out that there are biosolids, like those rated Class B, which are not recommended for use on food crops. Indeed, as far as I am concerned, those fertilisers should never be used in any island nation of 4,000 square miles where farms, houses and the water table all share essentially the same space.
But apparently, Mr Clarke had bigger fish to fry. He knew that the skillet was on, and the political temperature was rising. All that was needed was to gut the JLP, scale it, salt and pepper it, and throw it in, on top of the high flame.
One quote from a US EPA risk assessment report of the batch said, "In addition to the EPA Class A criterion, based on the required concentration limit for heavy metals in a Class AA biosolid, this biosolid would classify to be of exceptional quality (EQ) by the EPA. Therefore, a Class AA biosolid can be used in a similar manner to commercial fertilisers; that includes application to cropland, including leafy vegetables, with no special harvesting or post-harvest restrictions.
"The potential for ground or surface water contamination from this product is no different from the potential related to the use of other inorganic blends or soil ameliorants, such as animal manure. As a result, no special precautions need to be taken to protect water resources as a result of its use. Application of this product should be guided by soil conditions and agronomic protocols and not environmental or human health concerns specific to this product."
That report was dated January 29, 2009.
A UWI Department of Microbiology report signed by a heavyweight microbiologist Alison Nicholson is not so much a report of anything except that it certifies: "Fertiliser heated to a temperature of 1200ºF should be pathogen-free." It is basically saying that a Class AA biosolid earns that specification by, among other things, meeting the temperature designation classification.
The JLP, acting like an Opposition party on the ropes, allowed ex-Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke to pour scorn on farmers getting better fertiliser at 50 per cent less than before. Because the JLP administration has still not come to grips with the fact that it is running things in Jamaica, it failed to coordinate affairs between the Commerce Ministry (the importing agency) and the Agriculture Ministry.
Because we do not trust our politicians, we expect them to lie to us. When Roger Clarke did his ("excretia") grandstanding, the JLP administration had once again fallen prey to a nation overdosed on PNP-itis. What it should have done is learn to play chess from September 2007.
Once the fertiliser arrived, it should have energised the Bureau of Standards to do some work for a change and start being bottom-up effective to the little farmer on the plains of South St Elizabeth, the hilly regions of St Ann and every single area where a hill of yam or a field of vegetables is planted. But no, the JLP acted like it is little bits and pieces of ministries, loosely strung together instead of a government leading a team.
Now we gather, the Bureau of Standards (BOS) is getting involved. After the fact. I have absolutely no doubt that the Bureau's examination of the product will give it a clean bill of health. But at this stage, with the political atmosphere as charged as it has been for the last three weeks, very few will be willing to believe it.
In this country, we wrap every sweetie and every tidbit of information in layers of green or orange. It is either PNP truth or JLP truth. Prime Minister Golding has seen his political opposite in Portia Simpson Miller, has debated with her and in fact demolished her in that 2007 pre-election debate. What are we to make of her, the person who showed and failed and is now aching to show up again? What are we to make of our prime minister, the great debater, who so far has failed to show and is most compliant in stepping backwards from the centre of the ring and placing his back against the ropes.
Is it the rope-a-dope PM? Is it another great strategy borrowed from a real great in Muhammad Ali? Will you come out blazing from all angles with hooks, jabs and sneaky, stinging uppercuts? And then, when? Or are you most comfortable where you believe no blows will defile your face?
At present, all eyes are on the West Portland by-election and it is shaping up to be a repeat of the North East St Ann battle of 2001. The PNP has thrown the kitchen sink down there to fight off the efforts, once again, of the JLP's Daryl Vaz. No doubt much "fertiliser" will be thrown out by the PNP in that campaign. In fact, it has already started and it is not pretty. I gather even my name is on one of the flyers.
The PNP has everything to gain in West Portland. If it reduces the 2007 majority of the JLP, it will claim that it has clawed back much. And it will do so to a nation of people that are, at this time, very much out of love with the JLP. If the PNP wins, it will signal the return of the one who showed up, loved up and failed miserably. If it loses, the PNP will not lose any sleep over the match.
I expect Vaz to win the seat, to go against the grain of popular national sentiment. I expect him to do this because of the excellent quality of his work since September 2007 among a constituency of people who have been starved for quality representation for too long.
In the interim I would not be surprised if more PNP crocodile tears are shed and the "excretia" fertiliser is used as the main plank of the West Portland campaign. After all, nothing beats showing up and failing like showing up, loving up and failing again.
observemark@gmail.com
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