US Green Award for Aussie Horticulture

Clean, green Australian grown veg to be marketed under Coles’ house brand

AUSVEG and Strawberries Australia, recently won a US Environment Protection Authoritiy’s Award for leading Australia’s phase-out of methyl bromide – an odorless, colorless gas used as an agricultural soil and structural fumigant to control a wide variety of pests, but one that depletes the stratospheric ozone layer.

• Tomato, pepper, and cucurbit growers (rock melon, honeydew, water melon, pumpkin) – stopped using methyl bromide quickly, and did not need ‘critical use exemptions’;
• A strong industry-government partnership used collaborative, targeted research and adopted alternatives;
• Farms in the Bundaberg region, once Australia?s main user of methyl bromide, now produce 100% of their vegetables using ozone-friendly alternatives;
• Growers in the Carnarvon region eliminated methyl bromide in 2002;
• Australian strawberry fruit producers only required a critical use exemption for one year (2005), but have now eliminated methyl bromide use;
• Australian horticulturists achieved the phase-out through a nationwide network of growers, researchers, extension agents, government and methyl bromide and alternative suppliers dedicated to environmental protection.

Jeff Mcspedden from Ausveg says the award recognises Australia’s ‘clean, green’ industry, while “America have given themselves another 10 years to phase it out, which is probably going to be a problem for them.”

The ‘clean, green’ argument was one put by Tasmanian grower Richard Bovill’s 2005 ‘Fair Dinkum Campaign’ which aimed to get Australians buying Australian grown and to get supermarket labelling more ‘precise’. Richard has since been named Tasmanian Australian of the Year 2006 for his efforts and the Coles supermarket chain will launch its own range of Australian-grown vegetables under the house brand, “You’ll love Coles”.

• Local growers have expressed their satisfaction with Coles’ decision;
• Cameron Trainer, fresh merchandise manager at Coles, said the company will only accept high quality vegetables from producers;
• Richard Bovill said Australian consumers sent a clear message to retailers that they want to buy Australian products.

You may be interested in the Greg Barns article arguing Tasmanian farmers want protectionism, but only for themselves and the 33 comments it generated!