On 26 Sep 02, Don/Eve Cruse wrote: > What I really meant, however, was a battle between ideas. Such a > battle should not ever descend into physical conflict, although it can > do.
Call me naive but the sentiments of the following article - not to mention the motivation for writing such an attack - bewilder me. I hesitate to pass it along, it may however be grist to Don's mill? NBR = 'National Business Review' a New Zealand newspaper and McShane's website is listed at the end, in his signature file. ---Cut 'n paste begins--- From: Owen McShane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Newsgroups: nz.politics Subject: My NBR column on Biodynamics Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 09:23:09 +1300 Taking Pepper with a Grain of Salt The New Zealand Skeptics awarded this year�s �Bent Spoon Award� to Jeanette Fitzsimons. The Green Party Co-leader had been advocating �Biodynamic Peppering� as a means of getting rid of possums. She dismissed the award as silly nonsense. Some readers might sympathise, thinking �Surely, there are more important things for the Skeptics to be worried about, than obvious nonsense like this.� But the Skeptics got it right. Australia�s Painted Apple Moth was first recorded in the Waitakere suburb of Glendene in 1999 and was later found in Auckland�s Mt Wellington. The insect could cause millions of dollars of damage to New Zealand�s trees and plants. MAF launched an eradication programme. That�s what Biosecurity is supposed to be about. The Greens and their mates saw an opportunity to stamp out a bit more science. Dr Ruth Frampton, MAF�s Director of Forest Biosecurity, headed up the technical team, and recommended a programme which would use aerial spraying if necessary. The pest has been wiped out in Mt Wellington. But, in Waitakere City, a bunch of failed political candidates took control of the Community Advisory Group (CAG) which was supposed to help MAF work with the community while implementing the programme. MAF commissioned an independent survey of residents in the infested area which revealed that seventy-three per cent wanted to eradicate the moth, while 89% had no objection to the use of targeted aerial spraying. But a vocal minority on the CAG demanded that MAF consider alternative �Ground Based Approaches�. Sure enough, one of these turned out to be Ms Fitzsimons� very own bent-spoon-award-winning �Biodynamic Peppering�. Garuda Biodynamics a Te Puke based purveyor of Biodynamic Peppering, runs a web page which explains that Biodynamics, first articulated in 1924 by Austrian Rudolf Steiner, �is based on a concept of life forces which work in nature to bring about balance and healing� and that in Peppering �the insect is gathered and burnt to an ash, which is then spread over the land you wish to protect�. In December 2001, the Community Advisory Group presented MAF with a formal �Peppering Trial Proposal against the Painted Apple Moth�. The submission had been prepared by Hana Blackmore (a Green candidate in the Tamaki electorate) assisted by Garuda Biodynamics, Meriel Watts (a Green candidate in the Waitakere electorate), Glenys Bean, and John Clearwater (a former scientist with HORT Research who favours the use of pheromones over the sprays). None of these people were living in the affected area. In November 2001, the Waitakere City Council sponsored a meeting at which Garuda Dynamics tabled their initial thoughts on the use biodynamic peppering recipes against the painted apple moth in West Auckland. The formal proposal ultimately explained that the insect ashes �produce the negative Energy of the pest�s reproductive force, operating on a vibrational level, not a material one. Used in the field it enters the soil and surrounding vegetation producing an �unfriendly� and inhibiting environment. It is host specific and non-toxic, and does not have a lethal effect.� The proposal advocated the use of �Field Broadcast pipes� which are �PVC pipes with internal copper circuits that can �radiate� the biodynamic preparation that is placed within it�. I am not making this up. Surely the meeting should have sprinkled the Garuda man and his friends with some crematorium ash, which, according to Biodynamic theory, would have sent this bunch of pests packing. Believe it or not the proposal was prepared and submitted to MAF and MAF actually referred it to their Technical Advisory Group, and to ERMA and to its Agricultural Compounds Group for assessment. So our response to a biosecurity crisis was to divert some of our best and brightest minds into examining a system which did not even claim to kill the moths. The initial proposal explained that the ethereal vibration, which must be in tune with astrological events, chases the insects out of the territory and may �inhibit� their reproduction - possibly because they are so busy running away. When a member of the Technical Advisory Group pointed out that they did not want to chase the moths out of Waitakere and back to Mt Wellington the CAG simply dropped this section from the proposal and focused on inhibiting reproduction. The comments from ERMA and the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Group must have heartened Garuda no end. ERMA reported that �No approval is required under the HSNO Act for a substance that does not trigger any HSNO thresholds. However, it is unclear from the information in the proposal whether any threshold is triggered.� The ACVM Group (now part of the New Zealand Food Safety Authority) reached a similar conclusion. No doubt we shall soon hear that Peppering has been �approved� by the authorities. Finally the Technical Advisory Group recommended that any trials be carried out on some other insect rather than compromise and delay the eradication programme in Waitakere. The end result is that the aerial spraying programme will continue without Biodynamic Ethereal Peppering,and presumably without reference to the signs of the Zodiac. Was All well that Ended Well? How did a team of government scientists and bureaucrats end up wasting their valuable time and taxpayers� money considering a wacky proposal to use �etheric vibrations� to deal with a genuine biosecurity risk? What will happen when we get an outbreak of foot and mouth disease? Will some other Community Advisory Group, stacked with fringe fanatics, come galloping to the rescue with burnt bull testicles on copper shish kebab skewers in plastic tubes dangling from the tree tops? MAF�s idea of community consultation had the best of intentions. There was a genuine need to work with those whose would be directly affected by the eradication campaign. But the Community Advisory Group was taken over by a bunch of zealots who didn�t even live in the area. Mr Witten-Hannah, the spokesman for the CAG shelters behind a whole mountain range. The Waitakere CAG became a platform for action groups and aspiring politicians. Some members resigned, complaining that �CAG has become STOP in all but name�. As the �Peppering� enthusiasts realised they were losing the �intellectual� debate within MAF they reverted to personal attacks on Dr Frampton, suggesting she was an intransigent, pig-headed scientist standing in the way of holistic thought and natural remedies. The abuse became so savage that MAF Director-General Murray Sherwin issued a press statement deploring the personal attacks on Dr Ruth Frampton and confirming that she would continue to lead the programme. But not for long. In May 2002, Dr Frampton suddenly announced her retirement �to spend more time with her family.� Actually she was made redundant. The Anti-Science Activists had been thrown their sacrificial lamb. Kubi Witten-Hannah, welcomed the news �hoping for a better working relationship with the Ministry of Agriculture�, explaining that Dr Frampton �had fixed ideas about the way things should be done.� No doubt, Dr Frampton was less than enthusiastic about wasting her time assessing burnt insects and ethereal vibrators while the moths were continuing to breed and feed. But in these PC days it wasn�t the fruitcakes who got the chop and were persuaded �to spend more time with their families�. No, it was Dr Frampton, a highly regarded scientist, who has served her discipline and her country well. Dr Frampton ended up walking down the redundancy road, waving goodbye to her colleagues. She is just the latest victim of the Green Party�s �anti-knowledge wave�. -- Owen McShane, Rangiora Road, Northland, NZ See "Straight Thinking On Line" (http://mcshane.orcon.net.nz) ---Cut 'n paste ends---
