Activists lock on to crane wires
Our activists have been aboard the
East Ambition off the coast of Tauranga for over 6 hours now and have thus far managed to keep it from unloading it's cargo of palm kernel animal feed.
Two activists have been arrested by 12 remain locked to the ship's cranes. They continue to post live updates direct to our website from their positions.
Fonterra have come out and denied responsibility for the shipment but this is disingenuous to say the least. The shipment is headed for Fonterra’s nationwide dairy herd -there's no two ways about it.
One of the Greenpeace inflatable boats
For the last weeks all Fonterra has done is mislead the New Zealand people. It has not done its homework on the supply of palm based animal feed and has been caught out in its involvement in rainforest destruction. Greenwashing its way out of this will not work and the only option left is for Fonterra to stop the imports.
A quarter of the world’s production of Palm Kernel Expeller (PKE) animal feed, an economic product of the Indonesian and Malaysian palm industry, was imported into New Zealand last year with the majority going to feed dairy cows. Around 95 per cent of all New Zealand dairy farms are shareholders within Fonterra.
Also today on the defensive was RD1 which is a half-owned subsidiary of Fonterra. It claimed Greenpeace’s actions are damaging New Zealand’s overseas reputation.
But it is Fonterra which is putting New Zealand’s clean, green image at risk by its involvement in tropical rainforest and peatland destruction which comes at a huge cost to the climate.
Imports for palm based animal feed in 2008 would have contributed up to 20 times New Zealand’s domestic air travel emissions. It is time for Fonterra to come clean on its climate crime and for John Key to put an end to the country’s involvement in this destructive and unnecessary trade.
Watch the action unfold and send a message to the activists at http://live.greenpeace.org.nz