There is no truth to the rumour that North American fertilizer products contain melamine, says an industry executive and a government regulator.
On Nov. 17, the New York Times published an op-ed piece written by Texas State University history professor James McWilliams titled Our Homegrown Melamine Problem.
McWilliams said Americans shouldn’t be too eager to point the finger at China for its tainted food supply where dangerous levels of the industrial chemical has been found in milk, eggs, chicken feed, wheat gluten and baby formula that killed at least four infants.
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He said there is evidence that North America’s food supply is at risk as well.
“Fertilizer companies commonly add melamine to their products because it helps control the rate at which nitrogen seeps into soil, thereby allowing the farmer to get more nutrient bang for the fertilizer buck. But the government doesn’t regulate how much melamine is applied to the soil,” wrote McWilliams.
Clyde Graham, vice-president of strategy and alliances with the Canadian Fertilizer Institute, doesn’t know where the professor is getting his facts.
“We’re not aware of anyone who is making or selling melamine fertilizer in Canada,” he said.
That includes product sourced from the United States, where the chemical is not registered for use by the Food and Drug Administration.
Monika Mazur, media relations officer with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, confirmed that melamine is not authorized for use in this country or the United States.
“Most of the fertilizer sold in Canada comes from Canadian or U.S. sources where (melamine) is not used and forbidden in domestic fertilizer production,” she said.
Graham said melamine does have a high nitrogen content and there were some attempts in the 1950s and 1960s to see if it would work as a fertilizer, but it never caught on.
He said the Texas history professor doesn’t appear to be an expert in fertilizer production.
