I’m writing this month’s column back in my native Australia, where I’m now based once again following a recent stint in Europe. Soon after arriving back home, I was privileged to be invited to speak at the Australia Grain Storage and Protection conference last month.
If you’re part of the industry and haven’t been to the conference, it is certainly worth considering in future, if you can. The Conference is a major event in the Australian grain industry calendar, and I always find events like these a great opportunity for the sector to get together, take a step back, and reflect where we are and where we need to be in the future.
My key takeaway from this year’s event is that we are now at a critical moment. Operators throughout the industry, from growers to transporters, and including fumigators like me, increasingly have a choice to do things differently. That means rejecting the old, polluting, and less effective treatments and prioritising new solutions which offer environmental sustainability and high levels of effectiveness.
As I proposed to the audience at last month’s conference, the industry has a growing choice in the products it uses to ensure biosecurity. The challenges we face, including the worsening climate and alarming increases in pest resistance, mean that we cannot continue to rely on many historically used solutions. Instead, we need to be looking elsewhere.
It’s clear to me – and everyone who attended the Grain Storage and Protection Conference – that contrary to popular belief viable alternatives are available in the treatment of grain.
Take, for example, ethyl formate, a chemical which is highly effective as a broad-spectrum fumigant, especially when paired with nitrogen or carbon dioxide. Unlike methyl bromide, ethyl formate is not an ozone depleting substance. Bizarrely, it smells like rum and is responsible for the flavour of raspberries! But it also works to keep fresh commodities, such as grain, as well as storage facilities, safe and pest-free.
Ethyl formate is just one of a series of options the grain industry has which offers the opportunity to add methyl bromide and similar legacy products to the dustbin of history. It was clear from my conversations with delegates at last month’s conference that there is incredible appetite to just that throughout our industry.
I left the event feeling more inspired and motivated than ever. I’m confident that real, wholesale, change for the grain industry is just around the corner. It’s now up to us to make it happen. I’d be happy to help anyone looking to make the switch – if that’s you, then don’t hesitate to get in touch!
