[Pil-pc-oceania] Minister Tony Burke blasts EU 'green miles' concept (the Land)

[Deb Guildner]

SOURCE: Extract from ABARE Outlook report, to be published in Rural Press agricultural weeklies, March 6

Our new labor Federal Agriculture Minister, Tony Burke, is the one practising protectionism.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but if he isn't spruiking for organic agriculture, then he isn't on top of this issue.  Total energy credits for production of any item should also include the total inputs used in the system which produces that item: in the case of non-biological systems that includes fuel used on site, the carbon credits of fertilisers, pesticides etc etc. 

But it seems clear that Minister Burke sees locally based production-to-consumption models as flawed.  Of course, states-based protectionism was a very C19 argument, which for a long time stood in the way of the federation of Australia...  Tony Burke needs to get over that old 'tyranny of distance' thing...................

Just about everything is only a 'small portion of greenhouse gas emissions': the trouble comes when you ADD THEM ALL UP, Tony. 



Minister blasts EU 'green miles' concept
CHRIS GRIFFITH
5/03/2008 7:22:00 PM
Federal Minister for Agriculture, Tony Burke, has slammed a new consumer program quickly spreading throughout Europe designed to encourage shoppers to buy according to how far the product has travelled to the sale point in the interest of the environment.
Known as "Green Miles" of "Food Miles", Mr Burke told delegates at this year's ABARE Outlook conference that the program was a consumer-driven barrier to trade, misleading, and amounted to nothing more than "protectionism".

"I have to express upfront my deep concern about the food miles campaign in Europe," Mr Burke said.

"This is a campaign pretending to provide consumers with information, as though the key issue in carbon emissions and carbon emissions is how far the product has travelled.

"We all know that transport costs are a very small portion in terms of greenhouse emissions and a very small portion of the total chain value in greenhouse emissions and climate change.

"Yet to have a campaign starting to get some legs on the other side of the world which can mislead consumers to believe that the distance travelled is the be all and end all, is a campaign that is nothing more than protectionism and is a campaign deliberately designed to deceive."

Mr Burke said every opportunity must be used to can "make those messages loud and clear" so consumers are not conned.

He said the campaign is designed so shoppers think they are being environmentally friendly when they're actually being given the wrong indicators.

SOURCE: Extract from ABARE Outlook report, to be published in Rural Press agricultural weeklies, March 6




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