"....There are means you can further expand from this which we'll cover near the end of the article. However..

This too, is a perfect opportunity to use this communication avenue to place our produce in favour of the Chinese imports. We could have a separate label for when the imports are on the market floor . For this we can explore the features of our product by offering doubts and assurances:

"Fresh, Australian grown" we could also say 'Fumigation free' as all imports are fumigated. and after reviewing articles on Chinese farming methods , we could also say ' DDT free' . 'Fumigation & DDT free' would be an ideal medium . This maybe something to think about.... if the buyer was made aware by a suggestive means that the imported product was less desirable, and perhaps detrimental to their livelihood, by possible health risks to their consumers , then they would have doubts and select a safer alternative. Which is what we want.

The thing to remember here is.. the Buyer ( retailer) holds the most at stake. The buyer is the person we must focus our full attention on. The buyer of taro, off the agent, is for us the most easily accessible and impressionable advocate we could have in this strategy. There is few of them in comparison to the general public, they make their own decisions. And we can access them easily with our boxes of taro. A perfect medium for our limited resources and creating a major impact.

All we have to do is crawl inside the buyers head .....and pull the few strings of suggestive thought... happens all the time with commercial advertising. If they purchase a product knowingly aware of the fact, it may contain possible future health repercussions from their customers, they'll drop the box of potential health risks in favour of something safer. Too much would be posed as risk regarding lawsuits, liabilities and bad consumer attention.

What we are doing here is not pointing the finger at the Chinese imports and saying their taro is contaminated.... we are merely pointing the finger at ourselves saying that ours isn't. We are making the retailer or reader aware the while DDT is banned and not present in Australia , it is still used and a very serious health & environmental issue in China. The circumvention or onus would then be placed on Chinese authorities & farmers to prove that their crops don't contain DDT. This you could understand given the size and infrastructure of China could pose severe problems in alleviating these fears in Australian consumers/markets.

We contacted Coles a few months back, as consumers, with regards to DDT & toxin levels in Chinese garlic ( which has overrun nearly every consumer outlet) They said that tests were done for contamination levels for the garlic and were found to be of "an acceptable standard". They were evasive on the source of this results and by who had done them. It is vital at this point to realize we cannot lay claim that Chinese produce is contaminated. This ,I believe, with our limited budget to obtain proof, would lead to serious repercussions. I think by saying our product is DDT free, then we can led consumer awareness or belief, that there are issues concerning problems of exposure to this in China.

This way, if it works, can be implemented immediately, we would get the support of the consumer, we could do it at little cost ( 5-10 cents a sticker). This would far outpace the results of any bureaucratic paper shuffling that only wish to bury our concerns. We would also set the precedence, in the fact that all fresh produce from China could be pursued in this manner , with threatened industries similar to ours. This could do much in the way of pushing our concerns of Taro diseases and promoting our environmentally friendly, locally grown taro.

The other spin off benefit is assurances, we can assure that our product is safe. The fact that we inform buyers and end users of our 'safe' taro, means they see these issues concerns us. The reason it concerns us, is because it concerns them!!! Their interests are our interests!!

We could perhaps envisage a sticker, with the Australian flag, blue background (indicating Internationality- thus imports) then in bold letters Fresh, Australian grown, (promoting us)'Fumigation (indicating imports- all imports are fumigated) & DDT free' (indicating awareness of other products- health issues- pending liability issues) maybe a yellow smiley after that ( indicating friendliness of our product, and concern of imported product). This is just an idea.... to give an indication of invoking thought patterns...

I'm not sure whether this has been tried before or not, or whether you'd think it's a good idea or not... I'm just laying ideas on the table....

I think we should remember.... if we do get Taro Leaf Blight or whatever from these imports... (with the displayed current levels of intelligence from Biosecurity / Border Patrol, who think Taro is related to the potato and tomato groups) then we are in very serious trouble. As with citrus canker, your place will be quarantined. There will be an army of white suits with every available contaminate "nuking" your property. You can't move past the front gate without being doused in "decontaminates ". The environmental friendly aspects of taro goes out the window... the whole taro industry goes out the window...and if the level of intelligence by the authorities drops to an even further low... and declares that Taro Leaf Blight poses a possible threat to the multi-million dollar banana industry, being related as with having a rhizome & suckers..... we'd all simply be vapourised!!!!... on some barren island with a boat and no motor......

I know this is extreme.... but relatively true, but this does give us viable reason to act, and act urgently as this is the threatened outcome of our industry. All because Biosecurity simply failed to acknowledge taro, and the issues related to it.

Here is evidence of DDT use in China ( and high levels found in produce) reported by

Croucher Institute for Environmental Sciences, and Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, PR China.

Environmental Health Perspectives

Check out Chinese Crops: A Soiled Image? part of this page

This is just an idea folks.... but given our situation i think we should give it serious thought...."

 Sam

Jeff Daniells (DPI&F) replied to this and suggested

1. Need to check for DDT levels in our own soils
2. Need the backup of larger organisations such as Australian Banana Growers Council and gave me the contact of CEO Tony Heidrich with his referral to put forward our case

I rang an agronomist, who told me DDT remains in the soil at half levels (detectable) for 2-15 years depending on microbial activity. DDT ban was imposed in Australia in 1983 and totally finalised in 1987.

This could be an avenue as TGA has much limited funds, which compared to potential desecration of taro industry with outbreak of Taro Leaf Blight etc maybe worth the risk. This is an extreme option.....