ALL THE WAY WITH A GREEN USA 

By Pete Heininger 

(This article was commissioned by The Australian Financial Review)

IT MAY be brave for an entrepreneur to consider the United States as an ideal environment for a new business . . . yet this is precisely what renowned Australian inventor, designer, entrepreneur, commentator and national television personality Sally Dominguez has done over the past 12 months. 

Her new North American company, Rainwater HOG, now based in California, has already securing two major environmental awards for its easy-to-install, relocatable HOG rainwater storage device: a Spark Design Award and a Top 10 Green Building Product Award from America’s oldest sustainability publication, Environmental Building News.

Sales are rolling in as water-deprived Americans throughout the country see multiple roles for Dominguez’s invention and green vision. 

One convert is Banny Banerjee, director of Stanford University’s Program In Design, whose faculty charter is to create “strategic paradigms that bring about rapid change in some of the larger problems facing mankind”. Banerjee, considered a North American harbinger of change, has already invited Dominguez to outline the HOG to like minds. 

But the 39-year-old Sydneysider believes her business, professional and personal profiles fit well with what she sees as “future” drivers of the US economy. 

“Most Americans I meet know their economy is in trouble, and that embracing new, sustainable industries will not only create fresh directions and new wealth for their country, but will help create the millions of jobs [President] Barack Obama wants,” Dominguez says. 

She also believes many Australians confronting the global financial crisis are tending to cling to the past, wanting to protect existing industries rather than looking forward. “We have a golden opportunity to start steering the global economy in new, sustainable ways,” she says. “Our existing economies are failing us, and many Americans seem to be recognising this more quickly than many Australians.” 

A modular rainwater storage “tank” for use in tight spaces such as under decks, against houses, or even within walls, the 190 litre-capacity HOG can also be used as a static thermal-mass device, capable of helping to regulate a building’s temperature extremes. It’s all central to Dominguez’s making-things-work-harder philosophy.

Although originally developed as a modular water-storage tank that could be used on smaller inner-city housing blocks – and easily moved when residents changed address – Dominguez says Americans have recognised wider uses for the product, demonstrating what she believes is an advantage in the way they evaluate products and innovation.

“There are enormous business and employment opportunities in the US – provided you listen carefully, and move swiftly,” she says. “Once Simon [her husband and business partner] and I realised Obama looked like being the next US president, we recognised sustainability would be high on America’s economic agenda. We knew we had to ride that wave to make the HOG a big success.” 

But Dominguez also discovered Americans think laterally when it comes to stored water. A number of US states have “preparedness” programs in place; residents are reminded they need to have enough fresh water stored for 30 days should services be disrupted. “So we are moving to meet this kind of product demand,” she says. “It’s an opportunity that didn’t exist for us in Australia.” 

Dominguez says she’s also keen to develop a cradle-to-cradle manufacturing and recycling facility, not only making HOGs and variants, but demonstrating their sustainability by recycling them to produce other environmentally friendly products. With increasing numbers of traditional factories becoming available throughout the US, she believes this is achievement is becoming easier by the day. 

“My vision is to employ returned servicemen and women [from Iraq and Afghanistan] – people used to working hard with their hands and outdoors – providing them security and jobs, and further demonstrating our sustainability credentials,” she says. 

Dominguez says no matter how bad the US economy appears, it’s still huge by Australian standards. California with its population of more than 37 million still produces 13 per cent of the nation’s GDP – or almost $US1.9 trillion ($3.02 trillion). Its economy is larger than all but eight countries. 

“And the potential for our business as far afield as New York and Chicago – two cities vying to be seen as America’s greenest – is simply enormous,” Dominguez says. 

Sustainability experts like Michelle Kauffman – who trained under design greats such as Frank Gehry, and who is considered the “foremother” of modern prefabrication in North America – agree, backing the HOG and similar products. 

Green Team USA, a marketing consultancy specialising in sustainability issues agrees green industries will do well in the future US. Despite the recession, for instance, its research shows almost 64 per cent of Americans are still prepared to pay more for organic food, and socially responsible investing stands at 11 per cent of all US investment. 

Founder Hugh Hough says a staggering 79 per cent of current US MBA students would accept a job with a green company ahead of a conventional one, and 86 per cent of consumers say companies should stand for more than profits. Almost 40 per cent of US consumers say they want to work for companies that support charitable initiatives. 

“My advice to any Australian with a great, sustainable idea or product is to consider the US carefully,” Dominguez says. “With Chicago and New York currently involved in one of the world’s biggest ‘green-offs’, the potential is growing rapidly.” 

Chicago has embraced so-called green roofs to the point where more than 2 million square feet (0.29 million square metres) now constitute rooftop gardens, more than all other US cities combined. Chicago also boasts the world’s only municipal buildings to secure platinum design ratings from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. 

Roofing company Tecta America, of Skokie, Illinois, started business in 2000 with 1000 workers. It now employs 3500 roofers in 48 states. 

Meanwhile, New York’s $US537 million PlaNYC 2030, launched several years ago by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, aims to transform that city into the first environmentally friendly, sustainable megacity of the 21^st century. So far, 127 separate initiatives involving some 20 city agencies are underway – including the planting of more than 54,000 trees and building 120 kilometres of new bicycle lanes. 

“Obama’s aim is to create 3 million mostly green jobs while addressing his nation’s pressing energy needs,” Dominguez says. “I feel we have a real future with our business in the US with this kind of thinking.” 

And as if to underscore the potential for sustainable entrepreneurs and employees, a Center for American Progress report, prepared by Robert Pollin, of the University of Massachusetts, estimates that $US100 billion dollars spent over the next two years could create as many as 2 million new jobs.

There’s plenty to do; the American Society of Civil Engineers estimates $US1.6 trillion will be needed over the next five years just to restore America’s crumbling infrastructure. 

“So despite any economic pessimism, Australians wanting to make it on the broader world stage could do far worse than consider a green future for themselves and their products in the US,” Dominguez says. 

THE GROWTH OF AUSTRALIAN ORGANICS 

By PETE HEININGER 

(This article was commissioned by The Australian Financial Review early in 2009)

Australian organic farming, food processing and marketing is now big business – light years beyond the concept of hippy farmers trundling small barrow-loads of produce to their local markets. 

The country’s largest member-based organics organisation, Biological Farmers of Australia, says the retail value of organic products sold in Australia – incorporating imports and adjusting for exports – is now $623 million. 

Farm gate value of Australian organic products and produce stood at $231 million in 2007. 

The BFA says the global financial crisis does not appear to be having much effect on organic production, or on the numbers of farms seeking organic certification. Australia now accounts for the largest area of certified organic farmland in the world –slightly less than 12 million hectares. 

Capitalising on the rising popularity of organics, the BFA – as part of its 2009 green marketing push – is aiming to see “organic products in every isle in the supermarket from 2009”, general manager Holly Vyner says. 

“From here, we believe organic produce and products can feature in almost all shopping baskets by 2013,” she says. 

In its market forecast report, Food Of The Future: Australian Shopping Baskets in 2013, IBISWorld highlights a range of organic products it says will rise in popularity in the next four years. These include organic yoghurt and other dairy products, eggs, processed chicken, red meat, and chocolate. 

The BFA – for whom the report was prepared – says those with a sweet tooth, and who love their teas and coffees, are arguably taking one of the sharpest ethical turns. IBISWorld says chocolate sales are set to rise sharpest where products are shown to be dark, premium, and certified organic and/or fair trade. 

Organic chocolate company Loving Earth’s managing director Scott Fry says that despite current economic conditions, demand for his products are “skyrocketing” in Australia and New Zealand. 

Robert Watson, from the Mungalli Creek biodynamic dairy in Queensland, says demand for organic products, particularly cheeses, is also growing exponentially. 

Those producing organic red meat and poultry are encountering similar market conditions, and the BFA is expecting producers to invest further in 2009-2010  in marketing the distinction between organics and conventional products. 

“We’re now embracing technology that will help deliver high-quality, organically certified lamb to consumers,” Justin McClure, a large organic meat producer near Tilpa, NSW, says. “The lower stocking densities [of organic farming] are working in tandem with our management to deliver quality meat.” 

Vyner says that although there’s no hard data yet, supermarket chains are telling the BFA that shoppers are continuing to demand organic produce and products. She says consumer demand for organic produce has risen “at least” 80 per cent in the past few years. 

The BFA released its second Australian Organic Market Report in 2008, designed to allow farmers and marketers to make business decisions on organics and organic marketing. 

The first report, published in 2004, was provided to the federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. 

“[The report] also provides reference points for governments and other interested parties on a range of issues – including farm-gate value by industry sector, the estimated size of Australia’s retail market, as well as import and export values,” the BFA’s chairman, Queensland vegetable farmer, Doug Haas, says. 

The report, commissioned by the BFA, was researched and compiled by the University of New England’s Organic Research Centre. 

“Organic farming in Australia has been operating under formalised agreements since the 1980s,” Haas says. 

Now, thanks to higher customer awareness of organics, he says major retailers are carrying more than 500 different fresh and grocery lines. 

At last count, Australia had 2750 certified organic operators, and this number had risen 5.2 per cent between 2004 and 2007. The BFA’s registered member and client list now stands at 3500 individuals and organisations. 

The BFA says that of all organic farmers, processors and marketers, about 75 per cent are farmers, and about 66 per cent of these are engaged in horticulture. 

Yet despite its size, and the fact that some organic sectors have grown 10-30 per cent since 2004, only 1.5-1.8 per cent of Australia’s farmers are certified as organic operators. Haas and Vyner are adamant: there’s still enormous potential for operators wishing to embrace organic and/or biodynamic farming and processing – both for local and export markets. 

Time is on organics’ side. The average Australian organic farmer is younger than his conventional counterpart, and the BFA says organic farms are growing in size and through consolidation. 

One BFA member in the Bowen district of central Queensland employs 200-300 workers seasonally, and harvests up tgo140 tonnes of tomatoes a day. Another member, a chicken farmer, is processing up to 80,000 birds a week through his on-farm facility, Haas says. 

So what’s driving this increased production? 

The BFA says farm gate sales of organic produce have risen more than 80 per cent since 2004, and IBISWorld says 40 per cent of all consumers now say they buy organic food items “sometimes” when they shop. 

This growth in demand, in turn, has created other organic niches – ranging from fertilisers to cosmetics. 

The BSA helps maintain organics stability through its two certification agencies, Australian Certified Organic and Organic Growers of Australia. 

These standards are helping Australian producers in some of the toughest export markets. Late last year, beef producers Matt O’Leary from Australian Organic Meats in NSW became the first meat supplier in the world to meet criteria of the Japanese Agriculture Standard (JAS) for livestock. 

“We were able to conform . . . quickly because we were operating at a high level under Australian standards already,” O’Leary says. 

Although most organic meat suppliers current conform to Japan’s National Standard for Organic and Bio-Dynamic Produce, JAS is likely to be mandatory in future. 

“We’re now that one step ahead to service a market that’s showing growing interest in Australian organics,” O’Leary told the BFA recently.

 

SLAVES TO HAPPINESS & PLEASURE

(This piece was published in the autumn 2009 issue of Green Pages Magazine)

Issa knows just about all there is know about growing cocoa beans, the basis of the next piece of chocolate you’re about to savour. He’s been farming it non-stop in the steamy jungles of Cote d’Ivoire for the past three years. What you may not know, though, is he’s never tasted chocolate. Oh . . . And he’s illiterate. He’s not sure, but he thinks he’s 14. And he’s a slave. Pete Heininger has compiled this disturbing feature.

 

Breakout quote:

In the 400 years of rampant slave trading, about 13 million people were kidnapped and shipped from Africa, then sold and traded into Europe and the Americas. But today, slavery is worse than ever, with as many as 27 million people estimated to be ‘owned’ and traded by other human beings . . .

*****

BREAKOUT ONE:

Issa, a native of Mali, now only vaguely remembers his family. He only just remembers the promise of a bike and an education once his parents safely saw him cross the border into Cote d’Ivoire and into the hands of one of the many locateurs (or traffickers) operating in the dusty town of Niele. The promise of an additional $US150 to help out his impoverished family was an added incentive to see him happily make his way, via the locaueur to Le Gros’ (the Big Man’s) farm somewhere deep inside the Ivorian lowland jungles. 

He can’t remember exactly how long he’s been on the farm and he has no real idea that he toils for 12-14 hours a day tending the delicate cocoa pods, then extricating the seeds, drying them in the sun, then bagging and carrying and loading them onto trucks for transport to the coast for export. 

But Issa craves for something better to eat that the burnt, rotting bananas he and his fellow child slaves on his farm subsist on. And at night – after the beatings, after shoeless toil, after the countless insect bites – he’s locked into an airless, windowless single-room slab hunt measuring barely 7m by 8m . . . along with his 18 other teenage ‘inmates’. No bed. No Netting. No toilet. Just the bare boards. 

Issa doesn’t dare contemplate escape. The last youth who tried was tracked for several days through the jungle before being dragged back, exhausted, and bashed to within an inch of his life with chains and tree branches. That young man still drags his left leg somewhat limply – but is expected to work as hard as the others . . . 

Welcome to the basis of much of the world’s chocolate trade. But not 300 years ago. Not 100 years ago. Not even 50 years ago. Issa, along with countless thousands of other child slaves is toiling away right now, in 2009. Just to support the global trade of affordable chocolate . . . 

****

MAIN FEATURE:

 

With almost 70 per cent of all world cocoa coming from west Africa (according to the UN), modern-day child slavery is built into most of the world’s chocolate supply. The only exceptions are ethically sustainable, organic chocolates manufactured by a small handful of major players and a growing army of smaller producers. 

All this African production comes from only four countries – Cote d’Ivoire (38-39 per cent), Ghana (21-22 per cent), Nigeria (about 5 per cent) and Cameroon (another 5 per cent). All four are no shrinking violets when it comes to human rights abuses, torture and misery. Almost all other cocoa comes from Central and South America and South-East Asia. 

Although cocoa forms the bottom rung of the world’s commodity price ladder – traded on two exchanges (London and New York) – millions of poor families in third-world countries depend on it for their livelihoods. Cocoa is the world’s smallest soft-commodity market. Some 5 million families produce the global output of 3.6 million tonnes a year. The London commodities exchange handles most of the west African production. 

But Cote d’Ivoire produces the most globally, generating some 20 per cent of its income from cocoa – and making the issue of slavery all the more pressing. According to the International Labor Organisation more than 109,000 children were working on Ivorian cocoa farms in 2002, but this number had risen to about 200,000 three years later. By now, it could be almost as high as 300,000. No one is sure . . . What we do know is that so many of these children work in some of the most appalling conditions imaginable. 

Given the delicacy of cocoa pods – they have to be grown in the steamy dappled under-storey jungle light – crops are often subjected to huge doses of chemical pesticides, many of which have been banned elsewhere. Farmers, their families and the slaves are all exposed, without protective clothing or gloves. Yet despite these efforts, as much as 30 per cent of all Cote d’Ivoire cocoa crops can be lost to disease in any one year. 

The plight of the country’s child slaves first came to mainstream light 11 years ago, when it was estimated that as many as 6 per cent of children toiling on that country’s crops were being trafficked from neighbouring countries – Ghana, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Mali, Guinea, Benin and Togo. That was 12,000 children. UNICEF puts the total number of children trafficked throughout west Africa at a staggering 200,000 a year. The BBC has reported that as many as 12,000 children a year are being trafficked from Mali alone into Cote d’Ivoire every year. Cote d’Ivoire traffickers are being paid as little as $US10 per child they deliver to Le Gros. 

Sadly, Anti-Slavery International estimates as many as 700,000 women and children are trafficked each year around the world in a squalid trade estimated to be worth about $US7 billion. 

News of how chocolate made from Ivorian beans could be linked to child slavery caused immediate outrage. There was an attempt by several United States senators to add an amendment to the 2001 Agricultural Appropriations bill that would require chocolate products to carry labelling confirming that slaves were not used in producing their cocoa. However, the chocolate industry protested: the action would cause consumers to boycott chocolate products, which would only hurt the cocoa producers even more. The twisted logic was that the less revenue they received, the more these growers might continue using slaves. 

The bill never reached the House-Senate conference committee, as the US chocolate industry joined forces to take “action” regarding the elimination of child labor on cocoa farms. This successfully precluded any official government action. 

But nothing much has changed. Cote d’Ivoire’s internal political situation isn’t helping either. Political unrest is rampant, there have been two coups (1999 and 2001), and civil war has been raging for two years – ironically over prime cocoa-growing areas. 

Just as it’s hard to put a figure on the amount of global cocoa that’s produced by slaves, it’s just as hard to estimate the amount of slave product coming out of Cote d’Ivoire alone. And when Cote d’Ivoire cocoa beans are mixed with production from other countries as far afield as Belize and Indonesia – then onsold to traders via the two major exchanges – the task becomes tragically impossible to calculate. 

Suffice to say, though, there’s an excellent chance that any chocolate not made using cocoa sourced directly from farmers on a Fairtrade basis is tainted by slavery. 

But even when child slaves aren’t used in cocoa production, the International Program On The Elimination of Child Labor and the ILO estimate that most family members involved in the industry around the world earn as little as $US30-110 each a year – a pittance compared with the overall commercial value of chocolate. 

It’s hard to comprehend the disparity when Americans gorge themselves on more than $US13 billion worth of chocolate products each year. 

Nor is it easy to align a product so often associated with our pleasure and happiness with such gross, rampant human misery.

 

1)    Estimation of global slavery today – Expendable People: Slavery in the Age of Globalisation – Kevin Bales

***** 

COCOA – A DELICIOUS STORY 

(SIDEBAR 2): 

But not all west African cocoa is produced in dreadful conditions. In 1993, when the government liberalised Ghana’s cocoa trade, thousands of the country’s farmers – fearing their industry would be over-run by foreign interests – formed the Kuapa Kokoo co-operative. 

Like so many cocoa farmers around the world, many of these people had not only never tasted chocolate before the co-op, they didn’t even know what it was! 

Soon after forming the co-operative, they struck an agreement with Germany’s Divine chocolate company to buy their cocoa at Fairtrade prices. 

Today, some 45,000 farmers are Kuapa Kokoo members. Company sales in 2007 were more than $US18 million, and Divine – which sells its Fairtrade-branded product “not at super-premium prices” – bought 1200 tonnes of Kuapa Kokoo cocoa in the same year. 

However, 98 per cent of the co-op’s production is sold to the state-run marketing board, so ends up in many different chocolate brands around the world. 

Coming full circle, the Kuapa Kokoo co-operative now owns 45 per cent of Divine, allowing it to share in the company’s overall profits as well. 

Sweet! 

CHOCOHOLICS

(SIDEBAR 3)

Although cocoa is largely produced in developing countries, it is mostly consumed in industrialised countries.

For cocoa, the buyers in the consuming countries are the processors and the chocolate manufacturers. A few multinational companies dominate both sides of the mechanised business, and market the final product.

According to the UN, the largest consumers of chocolate are: 

·         The United States – about 33 per cent

·         Germany – almost 12 per cent

·         France – almost 10.5 per cent

·         Britain – more than 9 per cent

Interestingly, the Japanese – who didn’t know much about chocolate before World War II – now consume almost 4.5 per cent of all that’s made in the world.

 ENDS . . .

A TALE OF TWO GREEN – AND FAIR – CHOCOLATES 

(This piece was prepared for the autumn 2009 issue of Green Pages Magazine)

Green & Black's 

Green & Black’s - launched in Britain in 1991 by the founder of Whole Earth Foods, Craig Sams, and his wife Josephine Fairley - was the world’s first organic chocolate brand.  

The company, which Sams sold to Cadbury in 2005 for a reported £20 million, continues to be run as a separate entity from the confectionery giant, and regards sustainable, ethical business practices as a core element of its operation and brand values. 

Sams, now president of Green & Black’s, says the chocolate maker uses only the best organic, ethically sourced and Fairtrade-certified ingredients. The manufacturer was awarded Britain’s first Fairtrade mark, back in the early ‘90s. 

Since 1993, Green & Black’s has bought organic cocoa beans from the Toledo Cacao Growers Association (TCGA) farmers co-operative in Belize. “The TCGA is a democratic co-operative that represents farmers in one of the country’s poorest areas,” Sams says. 

The beginning 

The motivation behind Green & Black's work in Belize started through Sams’ efforts. A pioneer of Britain’s organic movement and ethical trading, and currently vice-chair of the country’s Soil Association and chairman of Soil Association Certification Ltd, he’s passionate about Green & Black's credentials. 

On holiday in Belize, Sams and Fairley met a group of Maya smallholder farmers who had planted cocoa trees at the request of a large chocolate company which subsequently withdrew from the country leaving the farmers with no market. The couple discovered the farmers were growing their cocoa organically, and agreed to buy it at a fair price. This cocoa was then used to create Green & Black’s Maya Gold product. 

“This way of doing business came naturally . . .  and in the process, the Maya Gold brand earned us Britain’s first Fairtrade mark in 1994,” Sams says. 

On-going partnership 

Green & Black’s buys all the cocoa beans the TCGA produce for a minimum guaranteed price – which includes organic and social premiums. “This allows farmers to benefit from cocoa price rises and ensures they have the security in case the market price falls,” Sams says. “We also have a five-year rolling contract with the TCGA, and we’re investing in their cocoa growing communities on top of this.” 

In 2003, Green & Black’s extended its activities with cocoa farmers and started a more structured, sustainable development program with the TCGA to provide further support. The company invested £225,000 over three years with the council and this money was matched by a British government grant. “This investment in cocoa farming communities was used to help improve management and farming practices, rehabilitate hurricane-damaged crops, plant more cocoa trees (more than 1 million), and train farmers in better growing methods,” Sams says. 

Today, Green & Black’s continues to provide technical agricultural advice and support to the Belize farmers. As a result, cocoa bean yields and quality have improved, meaning the farmers are able to sell more high-quality organic cocoa beans, increasing and increase their income. 

“The fair price, long-term contract and community investment the TCGA receives give them economic security and enable them to plan for the future for their families and community – including the education for their children,” Sams says. 

In the Dominican Republic 

Green & Black’s also sources organic cocoa beans from the Dominican Republic.  “We pay the world market price plus an organic premium, which happens to be above the Fairtrade price,” Sams says. “Green & Black’s has also invested in fermentation, drying equipment and technical support to help farmers further improve bean quality so they can sell more high-quality beans and make more money.   

The company says it’s committed to applying Ethical Sourcing Standards in its own workplace, and expects suppliers, co-manufacturers and business partners to do the same.  

 “Our Ethical Sourcing Standards are based on International Labour Organisation conventions, the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, the Ethical Trade Initiative Basecode and adheres to [British] Soil Association Organic Standards,” Sams says.   

Green & Black’s Ethical sourcing standards include:  human rights and labour standards; health, safety, and hygiene standards; work hours and fair remuneration; and environment, organic & sustainable agriculture.  

Green & Black’s chocolates are available widely throughout Australia.

Divine intervention

Not all west African cocoa is produced in dreadful conditions. In 1993, when the government liberalised Ghana’s cocoa trade, thousands of the country’s farmers – fearing their industry would be over-run by foreign interests – formed the Kuapa Kokoo co-operative. 

Like so many cocoa farmers, many of these people had never tasted chocolate before the co-op. They didn’t even know what it was! 

Soon after forming the co-op, they struck an agreement with Germany’s Divine chocolate company to buy their cocoa at Fairtrade prices. 

Today, some 45,000 farmers are Kuapa Kokoo members. Company sales in 2007 were more than $US18 million, and Divine – which sells its Fairtrade-branded product “not at super-premium prices” –says it  bought 1200 tonnes of Kuapa Kokoo cocoa in the same year. 

However, 98 per cent of the co-op’s production is sold to the state-run marketing board, so ends up in many different chocolate brands around the world. 

The Kuapa Kokoo co-operative now owns 45 per cent of Divine, allowing it to share in the company’s overall profits as well. 

ENDS . . .    

GONE FISHING 

 (This piece was published in the autumn 2009 issue of Green Pages Magazine)

Next Time you tuck into a few dozen prawns, or order swordfish as a main, keep this in mind – yours may well be the last generation to have access to seemingly bountiful supplies of edible fish. If some marine scientists are right, all major fisheries around the world will have collapsed within 40 years  . . . Pete Heininger reports.

THE GRIM REAPERS 

There’s little doubt about it now; the damage we humans have caused through over-fishing these past 40 years could well take 250-300 years to repair – if we stop fishing immediately. And completely. 

I didn’t want to scare you towards meat and three veg, but what the hell! Try some of the following information on for size. Then think very carefully about what fish you’ll buy or order next, and when . . . 

Assistant Professor Boris Worm, of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, says almost 30 per cent of the world’s fisheries are already collapsing – which means fleets are harvesting 10 per cent or less of maximum known catches in those areas. 

By 2050, all known fisheries will have collapsed. Forget buying gold by then! A seafood platter may well be something only available to the uber-wealthy. 

Even the staid United Nations – not renowned for alarmist comment – says 75 per cent of the world’s fisheries “are fully exploited, over-exploited or depleted”. Mankind has been aquatically raping and pillaging on a breathtaking scale. 

“In losing species, we lose the productivity and stability of entire ecosystems,” Prof Worm says. Worse still, this overall ecological damage, when coupled with global warming, may make it harder for the world’s oceans to recover. Other animals that depend on our oceans for survival – whales, seals, sharks and dolphins – are also being hammered. 

“Depleted ecosystems are vulnerable to invasive species, disease, the effects of coastal flooding and algae blooms,” Prof Worm says. 

It doesn’t take a Rhodes scholar to counter the sceptics on the parlous state of our oceans. 

Cod stocks on the Canadian Grand Banks in the north-west Atlantic, once one of the world’s richest fisheries and marine environments, collapsed in the early 1990s, taking with them an entire fishing industry and throwing thousands of people onto unemployment lines. In the 1950s and ‘60s an increasing number of nations had sent their fleets to the region in search of seemingly endless cod. Yet by the early 1970s, catches were so small the Canadian government slapped a 200-nautical mile exclusion zone around the Banks. 

But the damage had already been done. By the mid 90s, all major cod and flounder fisheries in the region were closed. Other species, such as turbot and ocean perch, have also had their catch sizes severely restricted. Only now, through the efforts of Canada and other nations are some species starting to make a comeback, with crabs, mussels and scallops leading the way . . . But it’s a far cry from the Glory Days – and a disaster considering Portuguese and Basques fishermen were known to be frequenting the Grand Banks back in the 1400s. 

The global sea and freshwater harvest was 94.8 million tonnes in 2000. This had stalled since the mid 1980s when harvests for the remaining years of that decade hovered between 85 million and 95 million tonnes a year. However, the Earth Institute says catches are now falling 360,000- 660,000 tonnes a year. 

Cod, tuna, haddock, founder and flake catches in the North Atlantic have more than halved since the early 1960s – despite a tripling of the fishing effort. 

And things are not much better here in the Pacific Ocean. The US government recently put the frighteners on the global fishing industry with news that yellowfin tuna had been over-fished in the Pacific. The US longline fleets working the Pacific were forced to cease operating in the second half of 2005, and they were closely followed by fleets from Japan and China. 

Reports have it that Japan’s rubbery catch figures may mean bluefin tuna is in severe strife, and Greenpeace says pirate fishing fleets are still roaming the Pacific undeterred . . . Do you know whether the next fish you eat is sustainable – or a pirate product? 

The US government also says there has been a 90 per cent decline in large Pacific fish since 1950. 

With some already impoverished Pacific nations being paid paltry sums by larger nations to allow fleets to fish their waters into oblivion – and depending on these fees for upwards of 70 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) – things can only get worse. The double whammy is that many of these Pacific peoples depend on fish for as much as 75 per cent of their own protein – much more than, say, Australians or New Zealanders. 

But the economic reality of modern fishing is just as bleak. The UN says total worldwide subsidies for fishing now stands at about $US15 billion ($22.3 billion) a year. What’s more, operating costs exceed total fishing revenues by 50 per cent a year. The US government says subsidies on the North Atlantic fleets now run at $US2.5 billion a year. Not only are we turning the world’s oceans into food deserts, we’re increasingly – and insanely – taxing ourselves for the privilege. 

These huge subsidies have been used to build a sophisticated, global fleet of more than 23,000 large ocean-going trawlers, each weighing more than 100 tonnes. As many of these ships are now true factories, helping to process as well as store catches, we’re burning twice as much fuel per tonne of seafood than we were 20 years ago. 

But as I say, all this madness is fast coming to an end . . .

 

AQUACULTURE – A GROWING BUSINESS

 

Not all’s hopeless when it comes to putting fish on our plates. Some aquaculture – the practice of farming fish – is roaring ahead as a sustainable business, having risen 10 per cent year for the past 20 years. 

Although aquaculture supplied only 1 per cent of global fish in 1950, it now contributes 27 per cent. Fish farm production in 2000, the most recent year for stats, was 36 million tonnes, so it’s a fair bet it’s much higher now. 

China alone is doubling up more than 5 million hectares of rice paddies as fresh fish ponds. Chinese farmers have also learnt to raise more than one type of carp in the same ponds, making their farming land even more sustainable. 

But beware . . . Not all aquaculture is sustainable. Some ocean farms are proving to be detrimental to their surrounding ecosystems, and questions are mounting on where – and how – some feedstocks are sourced. China, for instance, supplies some 23 million tonnes of feed for caged sea fish, and this is growing rapidly. 

THROW ANOTHER PRAWN ON THE BARBEE

No pun intended, but despite our physical size – and the area of ocean directly under our control – Australia is something of a minnow in the international seafood business. 

We also spend a lot less of our household budget on seafood (about 2 per cent) and eat less of it per head than many other countries. Nor do we eat as much seafood as many of our Asian and Oceanic neighbours – an average of less than 11kg per person a year. Seems we prefer our protein on the hoof, and medium rare. 

Our fleets land some 600 different species, which are marketed under 300 names. The 234,500-odd tonnes of seafood we caught last year was Australia’s fifth most valuable rural industry, after beef, wool, wheat and dairy, and worth almost $2.2 billion. Exports amounted to 68 per cent of the catch, netting almost $1.5 billion. Wild seafood was worth $1.4 billion and aquaculture (60,000 tonnes and growing) was worth $793 million. 

Yet in terms of fish caught, we rank as Nation No 52 in fishing importance. 

Our fishing zone, which contains 150 multi-species fisheries, totals an enormous 11 million square kilometres, and the government has established an offshore exclusion zone ranging to 200 nautical miles. 

In terms of value, our biggest fisheries (in order) are Western Australia, Tasmania, South Australia and Queensland. And our biggest export markets are Hong Kong, Japan, China and the US (see export table, by value). 

But like so much of our terrestrial environment, Australia’s oceans are fragile, and nowhere near as productive as some of the world’s great fisheries. Not as nutrient rich, our waters tend to support multiple species in lower numbers, making it far easier for us to tip the balance by over fishing. 

Craig Bohm, campaign director for the Australian Marine Conservation Society, says there simply hasn’t been enough science done on fishing sustainability for us to make hard-and-fast deliberations. “By the time we realise a species is in trouble, it’s generally too late,” he says. “We’ve only just scratched the surface in terms of learning about fish. By the time we wait for the science to provide concrete answers, its too late.” 

Some species, particularly larger fish like the orange roughy and snapper, have complex life cycles, and don’t reach maturity for 20-40 years. If these are over-fished, and populations crash, it may be next to impossible to restore them for many generations. 

Bohm says smaller fish, like sardines and pilchards, stand a better chance of surviving long term because of their shorter, less complicated life cycles – and because they congregate in huge schools, an ideal defence mechanism. 

Check out Australia’s Sustainable Seafood Guide to help decide your next fish meal.

A GUIDING LIGHT 

Too traumatised to know what fish to buy or order? Relax! Help is at hand – courtesy of the Australian Marine Conservation Society, and in the form of Australia’s Sustainable Seafood Guide (now in an expanded edition). 

Simply, it’s your soft-covered, pocket-size guide to selecting seafood wisely. And it’s comprehensive, independent and national. 

The guide bristles with incredibly useful information. In true guide form, it lists wild and aquaculture species we should say ‘no’ to, others we should think about twice before buying or ordering, and those that have the green light. It also comes with three three-step pocket guides. There are images to help you identify specific species too. 

But rather than just saying NO or THINK TWICE, the guide provides excellent conservation concerns and comments – all in easy-to-absorb bullet points. 

There are sections on commercial fishing gear, seafood and health, product labelling, and imports. There’s even a section on aquaculture, and it points out some environmental sticking points. 

Australia’s Sustainable Seafood Guide (and pocket guides) sells for $9.95, and you can order it online from the Australian Marine Conservation Society – www.marineconservation.org.au – or by calling toll free 1800 066 299. 

USEFUL WEB REFERENECES 

• The Australian Marine Conservation Society – www.marineconservation.org.au
• The School of Ocean and Earth Sciences, University of Hawaii – www.soest.hawaii.edu

 

SEAFOOD EXPORTS 

When it comes to fishy exports, our international customers largely seem to like their skeletons on the outside. Here’s a value breakdown in order: 

• Rock lobster - $463 million
• Pearls - $314 million (not quite food, but valuable nonetheless)
• Abalone - $246 million
• Tuna - $162 million
• Prawns - $94 million

 

ENDS . . .