The compost row in New Zealand shows no signs of abating anytime soon. With MPs debating the question to import, or to ban the import of mushroom compost into the country from Europe, the stakes are posed as very high indeed.
“The government is putting the country at serious risk if they go ahead and allow mushroom compost containing animal manure to be imported here,” says Primary Industries Spokesman Richard Prosser.
The MP then raises the spectre of importing all kind of nasties to the antipodean idyll. “There is also the possibility that equine influenza and the virus that causes the devastating porcine reproductive respiratory syndrome could find its way here.
“Just why New Zealand is considering importing European mushroom compost at all is ludicrous when there are sufficient supplies here.”
It all sounds slightly alarmist to European ears, n’est-ce pas?