A human chain of protesters piled sacks labelled ‘Fonterra palm kernel’ and ‘Fonterra coal’ outside Fonterra’s corporate headquarters today in protest of greenhouse gas emissions caused by the dairy giant’s intensive farming practices.
This comes the day after Fonterra admits that its palm kernel is
not sustainable, only that they are "pushing" for sustainability
(1).
"Fonterra knows that their palm kernel comes at the expense of
rainforests, orangutans, indigenous peoples and the climate, yet
they do it anyway. Now they are trying to down play the issue
rather than dealing with it," said Greenpeace New Zealand climate
campaigner Simon Boxer.
"Two weeks out from the Copenhagen international climate talks,
Fonterra's influence is preventing John Key and the New Zealand
Government from reducing emissions."
"We are laying Fonterra's climate crimes at its door. John Key
must stand up to Fonterra and bring it under control, rather than
allowing them to dictate this country's response to climate
change."
"Fonterra is New Zealand's largest greenhouse gas emitter. In
addition to increasing on-farm emissions Fonterra's levels of
climate pollution are skyrocketing due to the expansion of burning
coal for milk processing and its increase of palm kernel imports,
produced on land cleared of rainforests".
Fonterra is responsible for around 16 million tonnes of
emissions each year (over 20 per cent of New Zealand's total
emissions) (2), but this increases to a massive 36 million tonnes
when indirect emissions are included such as from palm kernel
production (3). This is more than all of New Zealand's transport
emissions including aviation plus all electricity generation
emissions including Huntly coal power station.
Seventy-six-year Harold Phillips, attending the protest because
he doesn't like the path Fonterra has taken said, "I feel compelled
to protest. Fonterra's dairy farming nowadays needs a lot of
fertiliser, supplementary feed like palm kernel grown on the ashes
of far away rainforests. It's farming but not how it used to be.
It's a disgrace."
"Fonterra has lobbied the Government heavily so that Kiwi
taxpayers have to pick up most of the bill for Fonterra's climate
pollution while still increasing their greenhouse gas emissions
each year. It's an outrageous situation", said Boxer. "At this
point in time we must drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions
and those who create the pollution should pay."
Today's protest follows Greenpeace action last week that shut
down the New Vale coal mine in Southland which supplies Fonterra's
Edendale milk processing factory. In August, Greenpeace exposed the
links between Fonterra's supplementary palm kernel feed from
Indonesia and the devastation of rainforests, including orangutan
and Sumatran tiger habitats, contributing to massive climate
change. Greenpeace stopped a shipment of palm kernel at Tauranga in
September and protested against another shipment into Taranaki in
October.
Other contacts: Greenpeace New Zealand Climate Campaigner Simon Boxer 021 905 579
Communications Officer Dean Baigent-Mercer 021 1044 101
Notes: 1 “Fonterra’s procurement policy includes pushing for certification and more sustainable supplies of products and services”, Fonterra media advisory: Greenpeace Protest – Fonterra Centre, 23 November 2009.
2 http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/climate/gas-emissions-flowchart/index.html">http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/climate/gas-emissions-flowchart/index.html plus 1.87 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions from Fonterra’s processing and manufacturing processes calculated from Fonterra’s ETS submission; http://www.parliament.nz/NR/rdonlyres/F793E11E-A3EE-45D2-A983-59E8783D47D3/115724/49SCFE_EVI_00DBHOH_BILL9597_1_A14811_Fonterra_1.pdf
Dairy on farm emissions http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/climate/gas-emissions-flowchart/index.html">http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/climate/gas-emissions-flowchart/index.html
3 According to data from carbon footprint research of the palm industry rainforest destruction of peat lands for palm plantations gives rise to 96,565 kg of greenhouse gas emissions per hectare per year of production (GHG emissions from palm oil production Literature review and proposals for amendments of RSPO Principles & Criteria, July 2009). According to carbon footprint methodology by a Malaysian Government research agency for industrial development the production of one kg of PKE gives rise to a footprint of up to 18.2 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (The LCA Approach to Illustrate Palm Oil’s Sustainability Advantage S.S.Chen SIRIM Environmental & Bioprocess Technology Centre, Malaysia. SIRIM Berhad is a wholly-owned company of the Malaysian Government under the Minister of Finance Incorporated). Imports of palm kernel to New Zealand in 2008 were 1.1 million tonnes (Statistics New Zealand).