Hot Topics

 

Independent soil scientist, Dr Doug Edmeades, today congratulated the Fertiliser Quality Council on its determination to publish a damming report by Irish scientist, Dr Catherine Watson, which concluded that Summit-Quinphos’s advertising of its product Sustain was misleading.

 

He said, “The Fertiliser Quality Council was set up Federated Farmers for farmers to ensure that the fertiliser products they purchased were properly labeled and that claims made about products were based on sound science. Their efforts in this case are commendable and will be much appreciated by farmers who are tired of being hoodwinked”.       

 

Dr Edmeades had independently reviewed the data (14 field trials) on Sustain in his widely read “Fertiliser Review” and described Summit-Quinphos’s advertising as “contemptible”.

 

He said, “this decision by the Fertiliser Quality Council should be taken very seriously by both fertiliser cooperatives”. “There was a time”, he said, “when such blatant disregard for science was confined to the fringes of this important industry, but regretfully, it is now becoming mainstream and both fertiliser co-operatives, once staunch supporters of sound science, are not without blemish,” noting that Summit-Quinphos is now wholly owned by Ballance Agri Nutrients. 

 

It is time, he said, for both companies to re-examine their purpose. “They are cooperatives and they are owned by their farmer shareholders. Their role should be to provide their shareholders with quality, scientifically tested and proven fertiliser products at the least cost, rather than spending time and money fighting for market share with extravagant claims about new unproven products”.