The soil improver: transforming forestry slash with biochar

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Kev Dowman tells Paula Sharp why we should be producing biochar on a commercial scale. He says it is an investment for our future, specifically the future of New Zealand’s land quality and how we can contain carbon.
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Globally, there is scientific investment going into producing biochar, an activated type of charcoal, because of its environmental upside. And the upside is potentially massive. Biochar has the ability to hold carbon in the soil for thousands of years and simultaneously increase land fertility. Kevin Dowman is passionate for New Zealand to play a big part in this movement.

Kev is tapping into his experience and knowledge of logging and logging practices (milling wood, farming, and commercial waste products) to create biochar for domestic and commercial use. The process involves wood (or woodchip, garden waste, cardboard, or bones) heated to around 500oC with limited oxygen until it forms a charcoal, then dousing it with liquid, thereby activating the charcoal and creating biochar.

Biochar stabilises carbon (carbon sequestration). It is about 70 percent carbon, the remaining 30 percent is a composite of nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen. Biochar is so porous it can interact with its surroundings. Research has proven that using biochar to increase soil carbon also increases soil pH and biodiversity, soil water retention and water quality improve, crop yield doubles, land fertility increases, there is less land erosion, microbials are more active (less disease), livestock health improves (therefore human health improves), and climate mitigation is in play. Biochar is so efficient at storing carbon (in a world where we are looking to cut greenhouse gases (GHG)), that it is being hailed as ‘black gold’ by product developers and innovators around the world.

Why is Kev so keen on biochar?

Kev converted to biochar from the other side. When he was 10 years old, Kev started skipping school to go logging with his father. By 14 he’d all but quit school to be a logger. By 19 he was helping to clear farms of their forestry before joining Kinleith Pulp and Paper Mill in Tokoroa in charge of his own logging gang.

In those days, logging was a hugely lucrative business with whole native forests being cleared and planted in pine, then cleared again. Kev worked the length and breadth of New Zealand, he saw the change from under-scrubbing (slashing the undergrowth) with machetes before felling trees with axes and a (singular) chainsaw, to the use of a version of agent orange (245T) to kill off the scrub before the trees were levelled with machinery. (He has memories of his crew working as the chemical was dropped, their clothes and vehicles covered in its residue. “We were told it was safe, they were using this type of thing in the Vietnam war.”).

Fast forward to 2019, and things ‘weren’t quite right’ with his health. Kev was on his way to the doctor but got delayed by school students protesting against climate change. ‘We have 12 years left’ [to stop climate change] was the message he heard. Kev didn’t know if he had 12 years left. But he wanted a solution for these young people. Kev is a father, a grandfather, a man who has worked (and damaged) the land and a man who deeply loves the land. And he is not one to shy away from a challenge. In that moment he decided; ‘I’ve got to do something to change this. These kids need a future.’

Kev is an intelligent and articulate man who never went to university. His white hair and tanned face speak of decades outside. Self-educated on biochar, today he has a high level of technical knowledge on the subject. To meet him, he is more than ‘a man who can’, he is ‘a man who does.’

Kev’s thought process kept coming back to ‘nature knows how to do this’. His bright blue eyes sparkle as he explains; “Nature, by way of photosynthesis, converts carbon gases into solid carbon (plants and trees). As they grow, they are a natural carbon store. (A tree or plant is considered carbon neutral when it reaches maturity.) The gas converted in this process is now stored within the tree as wood and plant fibre. Carbon remains in this state until it begins to breakdown, by natural or other means. Insects, decay, burning, and weathering, all break down the carbon and release the gases back into the atmosphere.”

Unless it is stabilised. “Over billions of years carbon has been formed into a solid state, then trapped under ground, in the sea, lakes, swamps, bogs, and even in permafrost, in the form of coal, oil, natural gas and peat. In short, nature takes carbon from the air and puts it in the ground.

“It is well known that wood burned in a non-oxygen environment produces charcoal. Once activated, charcoal is very difficult to break down and carbon in this form can be stored for thousands of years.”

Kev’s solution

Was simple, if we take it out, we help put it back. Five years on and many proto-types of biochar furnaces (the Tin Man, the Jolly Rodger, the Kon-Tiki, and the Retort Kiln), Kev has built his own energy and time-efficient kiln in order to make biochar for domestic use (copyright pending). With investment, it is something that could also be upscaled for commercial use. Kev uses a variety of techniques for different materials in order to create biochar, but at the moment, he recommends the bucket style Kon-Tiki for domestic use. His advice to the home gardener is; “No matter what system; Retort, Kon-Tiki, Pit, or other, the drier the material, the better – under 20 percent moisture content is ideal. This means less energy is wasted driving out moisture, allowing for higher temperatures to be reached in the process, resulting in better char. All systems used should have a double burning ability of gases, at higher temperatures to keep down GHG.”

He knows New Zealand is an ideal country to utilise this on a large scale. There is simply a lot of waste wood (and other materials). He is not alone in this; Professor Jim Jones and his team at Massey University see the value of using slash to create biochar on a commercial scale.

As a nation we produce a lot of slash which enter the water ways – damaging bridges, making rivers dangerous, damming small water reservoirs and washing up in large quantities on our beaches as logs or smaller driftwood. Recent weather events have seen huge amounts of damage caused by slash. Moreover, vast quantities of noncommercial grade logs are left in our remote forests, out of (public) sight, out of (the industry’s) mind. This wood currently has no commercial value, but could be a resource for biochar.

Future potential

Kev sees a future where slash or logging refuse is used as fuel for biochar, to harness CO2 as a resource for land quality. Low-grade waste logs could be made into biochar on location to replenish the soil, creating forest fertility.

Globally, historic over-farming, monoculture, and chemical use, has meant our soil is lacking in available micro- and macronutrients. Kev and other experts know biochar, mixed with organic matter, can alter this. Instead of nitrogen leaching below the plant root zone, biochar holds nitrate/nitrogen in place. Biochar increases the cations (positively charged ions within the soil) and anions (negatively charged ions). Higher levels of cations provide potassium, ammonium, magnesium, calcium, zinc, manganese, iron and copper to the plant. Anions allow for higher amounts of nitrate, phosphate, sulphate, borate, and molybdate. When biochar is present, plants perform and absorb to a higher standard.

Biochar in our waterways could act as natural carbon filters, key to New Zealand being able to clean up its lakes, rivers and streams.

Research is also proving biochar as a feed additive could reduce methane production in the cow’s rumen. This benefit to our meat and dairy industry could be vast. In 2025, He Waka Eke Noa, the Primary Sector Climate Action Partnership plans to implement taxes on farmed animal’s methane and CO2 emissions. This tax will be the farmer’s responsibility (and therefore passed onto the consumer). Instead of taxing emissions in this way, perhaps He Waka Eke Noa, could support farmers to change their methane and CO2 levels at ‘grass roots’? Independently, and as a collective, farmers given this information and access to biochar or biochar furnaces could be incentivised to change their farming practices, producing fewer animal gases. Australian farmer, Doug Pow, found (and published) that by adding biochar to feed, livestock showed improved nutritional intake therefore increased milk production, and less odour and gas. As an aside, Kevin also questions whether our bee population is being ‘carbon starved’, that by introducing biochar into our pastures our bees would thrive at a higher level.

Biochar is not new to the world. Evidence of its use has been found in the Amazon between 500-9000 years BP (before present) to make arid soil fertile. In 2010, scientists James Hansen and James Lovelock started working with biochar for carbon dioxide removal. Many countries are exploring ways of eliminating or storing carbon. In New Zealand, Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research, has benchmarked and monitored soil carbon in 275 of its 500 on-farm sites (to June 2022). They are well aware of our carbon resources.

Is biochar part of the answer?

In 2023, the Wall Street Journal writes that large companies around the world are offsetting their carbon emissions with carbon credits and by buying into biochar and biochar products. In 2018, Fonterra Nelson transitioned from using coal to burning wood in a process called ‘co-firing’ to power its premises. Kev suggests it would be a small step to create biochar in the process. Fonterra, will you lead the way?

Should New Zealand be refocusing its CO2 gaze on options like biochar in order to validate its green credentials? Kev Dowman certainly thinks so.

Further information

Garden Biochar Production

Making biochar, by Living Web Farms.
A six-part series recommended by Kev Dowman.
youtube.com/watch?v=svNg5w7WY0k How to make a Retort Kiln youtube.com/watch?v=PxrsBQDBQOk

How to make a Kon-Tiki Kiln
youtube.com/watch?v=1o0QqePtNM4

New Zealand Biochar Research Centre
massey.ac.nz/about/colleges-schools-and-institutes/ college-of-sciences/our-research/research-projectsand-groups/new-zealand-biochar-research-centre/

Paula Sharp is a Nutritional Therapist based in the Bay of Plenty. She is interested in organic food production and how quality food creates quality health. She recently attended a biochar workshop hosted by Kev Dowman and was inspired by his findings on natural soil enhancement.

Biochar

Submitted by Dylan Graves with permission from BNNZ.

What is biochar?

Biochar is produced by heating biomass in an oxygen-free or air-limited environment, called pyrolysis. If used as a soil amendment it will have biology added to it before application. Yes, it is similar to charcoal, but not the same.

Biochar’s key attributes and benefits

  • Biochar is a stable form of carbon derived from biomass. The chemical carbon bonds are very resistant to breakdown through biological processes.
  • It’s very long lived: Pyrogenic carbon in fertile grassland soils has been dated to over 7,000 years in the US Midwest, and 12-14,000 years in Russia.
  • It has a microscopic pore structure which provides immense internal surface area and optimum habitat for soil microbiota. This porosity makes biochar an ideal amendment for increasing aeration and water retention of soils.
  • Biochar has a high cation exchange capacity, which gives it superior adsorption qualities and provides the ability to bind and retain dissolved nutrients. The soil microbiota can use them and make them available to plant roots.

How is biochar produced?

Traditional charcoal production methods, such as smouldering in earth mounds or beehive kilns, are typically slow, polluting, and inefficient. Because of the lower temperatures in these processes, the charcoal produced has a high level of hydrocarbons remaining and is less suitable for many of the applications appropriate to biochar. It is also less long-lived and will degrade or decompose in soil.

An internet search will generate multiple methods for creating biochar at whichever scale suits you. Purposed incinerators, open air-drums, or small-scale kilns are available for household or farm-scale biochar production.

Commercial reactors produce syngas, industrial heat/ power, biochar; and potentially a range of condensates (pyroligneous acids, oils, and tars).

Things we could be doing with biochar in NZ:

  • Turn virtually any organic material ‘waste’ into a useful product.
  • Improve the fertility, aeration and water retention of our pasture and arable soils.
  • Reduce the emissions of CO2, N2O, NH4+ and CH4 from agricultural soils.
  • Reduce nutrient leaching into our waterways. Biochar can be used in soil or to filter water.
  • After it is saturated with nutrients it can then be used as a soil amendment – the burden becomes a benefit.
  • Carbon sequestration – short rotation crops could be converted to stable carbon.
  • Other applications include animal feed supplements, bedding, manure management, effluent treatment, building materials, and more.

Standards and carbon sequestration eligibility

One of the primary drivers for economic production of biochar is likely to be the price of carbon credits, either through a government-operated cap and trade system like the NZ Emissions Trading Scheme, or via a voluntary market such as Puro.earth. In order for this value to be properly attributed, quantification of the carbon stored in biochar needs to be robust and verifiable and must take into account the complete lifecycle analysis (LCA) of production and application, along with reliable models of its longevity in the environment.

Modern pyrolysis plants as well as certain types of farm-scale methods such as flame cap pyrolysis systems can produce biochar in an energy efficient way.

European Biochar Certificate

The European Biochar Certificate (european-biochar.org) is a voluntary industry standard in Europe. In Switzerland, however, it is obligatory for all biochar sold for use in agriculture.

IBI Standards

The IBI Biochar Certification Program is a voluntary scheme administered by the International Biochar Initiative (IBI) to provide certification of biochar products (biochar-international.org)

The Biochar Network New Zealand Inc. (BNNZ)

Biochar Network of New Zealand (BNNZ) is an incorporated society constituted in 2019 with a mission to promote widespread acceptance of biochar. BNNZ has members with a high degree of practical knowledge who are passionate about biochar and its benefits. Join BNNZ at biochar.net.nz.

Silt to soil: Rejuvenating silt organically

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The silts from recent floods are devoid of the all-important pore spaces, organic matter and microbes that make up a living soil. Charles Merfield gives practical recommendations on how to use organic processes to re-establish these and revitalise mineral-rich silt.
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An ideal soil is 45 per cent mineral, 5 per cent organic matter and 50 per cent pore spaces occupied equally by air and water.

The relative sizes of sand, silt and clay particles. 

What is silt?

Silt, sand, and clay are terms for specific sizes of the rock particles that make up soil – see figure 1 above.

Silt is left on flatter areas after flooding because the water currents are too slow to carry sand, and clay is so small and light it stays in suspension.  Silt is also used as a general term for finer materials left behind by floods. 

The east coast of the North Island has been particularly badly affected by flooding from Cyclone Gabrielle because many of its rocks are siltstones and mudstones.  There are predominantly made of silt and clay particles, and they are highly erodible, so large amounts were carried by the floodwaters. 

Silts left behind by flooding (and also deposited by wind), is how many of Aotearoa New Zealand’s extremely fertile soils began, then vegetation built up the organic matter, biology, and structure to form soil.  While flood silt is not soil, it can be transformed into soil, often highly fertile soil.  This can take a few, or tens of years, depending on approach.

Contamination

The first thing to determine is if flood silt is contaminated with harmful materials. Most biological materials such as sewage will naturally decompose over time so in the long-term they will not be damaging.  

If it is suspected synthetic chemicals have been washed down, it is a much more complex problem and the effect will depend on the exact chemicals and their amounts.  This issue is too technical to cover here, you need expert advice.  Start by contacting your council and if you are organically certified, talk with your certifier. 

Integration

How best to deal with the silt depends on how deep it is.

 If it is less than 20 cm deep it can be dug in or cultivated into the soil below. This should bring the soil back to a form of normality quite quickly.  Experience on pasture has shown that mixing the silt with original soil improved recovery, both short and longer term.  Cultivation also destroys the interface between original soil and silt which can be a barrier to air, water and roots. 

Between 20 cm and 60 cm deep it can be cultivated in, but, doing this manually in a garden will be very challenging, and even commercially, specialised equipment, e.g., a spading machine is likely to be required.  Also, the amount of silt will be greater than the original topsoil meaning it will take longer to get back to full health. 

Beyond 60 cm the silt will have to be removed if it is causing other problems, e.g., has buried infrastructure or is killing perennial plants or trees. 

Incorporation

If the silt is not removed, then the best action is to get plants growing as quickly as possible to start the process of turning the silt into soil. 

Some perennial plants, such as kiwifruit and citrus have low tolerance of waterlogging and anaerobic soils.  For these species clearing the silt about 30 to 50 cm from around the trunks within 48 hours may be the difference between the plants living or dying.  Sadly this will have been impossible or impractical in many situations. 

Biological materials such as compost and manure and incorporated into the silt that can really kick start the soil-forming processes.  Five per cent soil organic matter can equate to 500 to 1000 tonnes of organic matter per ha, so, in this situation putting on hundreds of tonnes of compost can be justified, if at all feasible.  This will also boost the populations of soil microbes in the silt, to help its transformation into soil. 

Regeneration

While silt will have very few soil microbes and other biology in it compared with healthy soil, it is far from sterile. Soil microbes are blowing around on the wind all the time. To get soil biology amongst the silt requires living plants.

Living plants, particularly the exudates from their roots (see the article ‘Humus is dead – long live MAOM’ in OrganicNZ Nov/Dec 22), are what turns silt to soil.  Any plants are good and the more diversity of species the better.  However, there are a number issues to take into account when deciding which species to use. 

  • The seed needs to be readily available and not expensive.  This typically means pasture and arable species, i.e., cover crops. 
  • Species need to be suitable for your climate and also the time of year, i.e., don’t plant frost sensitive species in autumn / winter in cooler areas. 
  • The plants need to grow quickly.  To hold the silt together when it rains and stop it blowing around as dust in the dry.  That also means pasture, and especially annual arable species / cover crops are best. 
  • You need all three of the herbaceous (i.e., pasture and arable) functional plant groups:  grasses, legumes and forbs (‘herbs’). 
  • Grasses have fine fibrous root systems that are very good at holding onto the silt and keeping it in place.  Annual arable species such as ryecorn, triticale, and maize have deep rooting systems which will hold onto more soil and grow into the original soil to tap into its nutrients. 
  • Legumes can fix nitrogen which will be in short supply.  However, legumes need the right symbiotic bacterial to do the fixing, which may not be present in enough numbers in the silt.  It is probable that white clover, being so ubiquitous across New Zealand, may be OK.  Other species are likely to need inoculum applied with the seed.  Inoculums are species specific.  Talk with your seed supplier. 
  • Forbs are everything that is not a grass or a legume.  Put in what ever you can, especially some deeper rooting species such as chicory (perennial) and sunflowers (annual) as these can ‘punch’ through the silt into the original soil and help transport soil microbes up into the silt.  They will also help get oxygen down into the original soil as their roots die and create air channels. 
  • Annuals are generally much faster growing than perennials which is what is needed for quick establishment to protect the silt from wind and rain, but, they only grow for a few months.  Try mixing some perennials’ seed in with the annuals’ seed so once the annuals are finished the perennials can come through.  This is a form of undersowing described in the article ‘The root of the matter: Intercropping and living mulches’ in OrganicNZ Jan/Feb 23. 
  • Avoid species that don’t tolerate wet conditions, lucerne is the obvious example, as they wont like the anaerobic conditions in the silt.  Ask your seed supplier. 
  • The exact species are not critical – the really critical thing is to get the silt sown with something rather than nothing, and sooner rather than later. 
  • Having a range of species can also help provide resilience because if some species don’t do well, then others will grow to fill the gaps. 
  • Don’t delay planting too long as the top of the silt will dry out.  Drilling, if possible, would be preferable to broadcasting and rolling or raking the seed in. 
  • Silt that is smelly is likely to be anaerobic (or have toxins present) so cultivating it to introduce oxygen is likely to be required.  Seeds sown into smelly silt may die due to toxins. 
  • If using machinery, the silt will need to be dried out enough to be tractable.  It is likely the silt will be variable, from more clayey areas where the flood water was moving the slowest, to sandy areas where it was moving fast.  Tractability will thus vary as the texture (makeup) of the silt varies, – be careful or you will bog the tractor!

Once you have some plants establishing, getting a full soil nutrient (macro and micro nutrients) and pH test will be valuable, and vital for commercial operations. This is because the silt is likely to have limited amounts of plant-available nutrients, as these are tied up with soil’s organic matter – which is very limited in freshly deposited silt.  Adding organic matter will supply nutrients, or use certified organic fertilisers. 

Good luck and ngā manaakitanga. 

Dr Charles Merfield is an agroecologist and head of the Future Farming Centre, which is part of the BHU Organics Trust. This article used information from a number of sources, particularly resources compiled by www.landwise.org.nz and www.hortnz.co.nz, but have not been personally tested by Dr Merfield.

Happiness Begins With Good Food

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The hormones that support us to feel calm, content, and happy
are produced in our gut from the food we eat. Laura Hett
explains how our diet affects our state of mind.
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Making soil: turning food scraps into food production

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A climate action enterprise uses bokashi and no-turn composting methods to create carbon-rich, nutrient-dense soil. Theresa Sjoquist talks to those who are diverting landfill to profitable crops.
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Bringing seaweed back into the food chain

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Nutrients and minerals from the earth’s crust flow into the sea and are absorbed by seaweed.  Duncan Smith outlines the benefits of closing the loop and bringing seaweed back into your food chain.
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Medicinal fungi at Ora’s Farm

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Lion’s Mane, Turkey Tail, Piopinno, Enoki, Shiitake. Intriguing names for delicious mushrooms that science is revealing are beneficial to our health. Crispin Calidicott talks to two growers who are excited about their therapeutic potential.

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Crispin Caldicott is a journalist, writer, editor, tour guide and tram driver. He juggles these multiple roles in life with a small property on the Kaipara Harbour, planted with olive trees to which he plays Mozart and Beethoven.

The Therapeutic Products Bill: A step forward for natural health products?

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Natural health products are included in the Therapeutic Products Bill which was presented to Parliament at the end of last year. Dr Sandra Clair looks at the reasoning behind it and says that, if executed well, this could be a step in the right direction for pluralistic medicine in New Zealand.
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The Therapeutic Products Bill intends to establish a new regulatory regime for therapeutic products, including plant-based medicines and dietary supplements (Natural Health Product). Submissions closed 15 February 2023. The Health Committee is due to report back to the House of Representatives on 14 June 2023. 

Health is the biggest asset we have, an asset that many people wish to actively support. Until now, this has been rather difficult to do using herbal medicines or dietary supplements due to outdated regulatory restrictions that prohibit the description of their therapeutic purpose.   

Take the example of cough medicines. You have a debilitating chronic cough, you go into a store and look for a natural product to help you to get rid of this cough. However, no natural product describes this complaint.  At best you can only find products labelled with vague descriptions such as ‘relax and soothe a tight chest’.  

In contrast, if you were in Australia, Canada, or countries in the European Union (EU), you could select a product that clearly references your condition: ‘Traditionally used in Western herbal medicine to relieve both dry and mild chesty coughs’. If you were in Switzerland, the basic public health insurance would even pay for a natural cough medicine, as such remedies are listed as effective and safe medicines. 

History

Traditional plant medicines (TPMs) are therapeutic substances derived from plants that grow naturally in our environment and are used according to long-established medical customs. Over centuries they have been the mainstream medicines on all levels of care, grounded in an impressive body of empirical evidence. For example, seventy-five percent of 119 widely used modern drugs are either compounded directly from medicinal plants or synthesised based on plant structures, and they have the same or similar therapeutic purpose as they originally had in traditional medicine. 

Fit for the future?

The Therapeutic Products Bill replaces the Medicines Act 1981 and Dietary Supplements Regulations 1985.  More than 10 years in the making, it is intended to be a flexible regulatory framework for how therapeutic products are manufactured, prescribed, imported, advertised, supplied and exported, and make the regulation of clinical trials more robust. 

Health Minister Andrew Little said it will enable New Zealand to take advantage of advances in medicine, such as cell and tissue therapies, emerging gene therapies, and the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning software.  

“Having risk-proportionate approval systems will improve access to necessary and life-saving medicines, such as vaccines in a pandemic.” 

Popularity

Legislation and consumer trends have clearly forked in New Zealand over many decades. The upsurge in organic food consumption is directly linked to an increasing awareness that our bodies function best when they are well nourished and maintained whilst minimally exposed to foreign and toxic chemicals. The same principles apply when it comes to healthcare, where natural medicines are successfully applied as a first line of defense in common and non-life-threatening illnesses.  

The World Health Organisation estimates that about 80% of people around the world use traditional therapeutics to care for their health. Notably, the prevalence of their use is also high in countries where access to pharmaceutical medicine is subsidised, chiefly because they are used to prevent health issues from arising in the first place and are seen as safer than drugs to deal with self-limiting or chronic health complaints. 

In New Zealand, traditional systems of medicine are used to address primary healthcare needs, as is broadly consistent with the majority of countries around the world. Studies estimate that about 50% of adults and 70% of children use therapies and preparations from sources outside pharmaceutical healthcare, with plant medicines being the most prevalent non-pharmaceutical form of self-medication. 

Legislative background

Despite their prevalent use, the current New Zealand legislation does not recognise traditional plant medicines as therapeutic products and does not acknowledge their positive contribution to care.   

There have been several attempts over the past decades to address the outdated regulatory framework regarding natural health products (NHPs). 

Most notable was the failed pursuit of a joint regulatory authority for medicines and other therapeutic products in partnership with Australia under the joint Australia New Zealand Therapeutic Products Act and the subsequently proposed stand-alone domestic bill last debated in 2016. The trans-Tasman regulatory system met strong concern from consumers and politicians for being overly restrictive and potentially harmful to New Zealand consumers and the natural health industry. The subsequently proposed New Zealand-only regime (the Natural Health and Supplementary Products Bill) acknowledged the low risks of herbal medicines and dietary supplements. It intended to protect consumer choice by providing an appropriate, low-cost access regime to NHPs that are safe, effective, and suitable for use in self-treatment. It enjoyed wide political cross-party, industry, and consumer support, and had passed the second reading in Parliament, despite a minor but vocal opposition. It was a surprise when the incoming Labour government shelved this bill in 2017 due to coalition talks with New Zealand First. 

From an international perspective, the current New Zealand legislative framework is out of step. It is a legacy of our colonial past, and does not align with World Health Organisation directives to support and integrate traditional and complementary medicine as a vital part of state-supported or state-funded healthcare to universally cover primary health needs of all residents.  

From a domestic perspective, current regulations contravene provisions in the Treaty of Waitangi and also do not adequately support patient choice of healthcare, which is protected under the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights Regulations 1996 of the Health and Disability Commissioner Act 1994. This is because the scope and purpose of traditional, non-pharmaceutical medicines cannot be accurately stated due to clauses in the Medicines Act 1981. Although the Dietary Supplement Regulations 1985 (part of the Food Act 1981) provides a framework of a sort for quality requirements, they too disallow therapeutic health claims on NHPs, even when a long-standing empirical knowledge-base or scientific evidence is available. Such restrictions impede appropriate use of these low or non-toxic health products and may even promote the inappropriate use of them through the resulting paucity of appropriate consumer information. 

This contrasts with health policies in Australia, Canada and European countries that legally protect the status of traditional medicines. For example, the EU Directive 2004/24/EC grants traditional medicines their own regulatory classification as Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products. Switzerland has gone a step further: since the binding constitutional referendum in 2009, phytotherapy (plant-based medicine) is a treatment option that must be adequately integrated into public healthcare services for its citizens. This constitutional guarantee enables plant medicines to be funded through basic health insurance and secures patient-centred and cost-effective treatment options alongside pharmaceutical drugs and technological interventions. 

Rongoā

While all traditional and herbal medicines and dietary supplements such as vitamins and minerals are included under natural health products, it is not clear yet how rongoā, the holistic healing practices based on tikanga and mātauranga Māori, and in particular rākau plant-based remedies, will be treated under TPB and its regulations.  

Rongoā Māori is a Te Tiriti-protected taonga, however, there is no explicit reference to Te Tiriti o Waitangi protection clauses in the released draft. At the first reading in Parliament the Minister of Health Hon Andrew Little noted that he has since commissioned a workstream to consider how the ‘regulatory settings support the traditional practice of rongoā while balancing this objective against the need to provide assurances for patient safety and export market access for rongoā practitioners’.  

It will be essential that Māori have input in line with the intent of the Crown-Māori partnership model. 

Therapeutic Products Bill

The Therapeutic Products Bill (TPB) intends to establish a new regulatory regime that includes plant-based medicines and dietary supplements under the category of natural health products (NHPs). It repeals all secondary legislation made under the Medicines Act 1981 and revokes the Dietary Supplements Regulations 1985, with the aim to provide comprehensive, risk-proportionate regulation of the various categories of therapeutic products and technologies.  

While the current Medicines Act is administered under Medsafe, the TPB proposes to establish a new Therapeutic Products Regulator that would be responsible for ensuring the safety, quality, and efficacy of regulated products, including natural health products, across their lifecycle. The TPB acknowledges the generally lower-risk of NHPs, which are therefore intended to be evaluated against different standards than those for higher-risk pharmaceutical drugs and medical devices. 

It is positive that the TPB recognises plant-based medicines and dietary supplements as therapeutic products as this will allow informed consumer choice, e.g. a herbal remedy for cough will be able to say so.  

The TPB also recognises that herbal medicines and dietary supplements are generally low risk. Based on this, it aims to enable a cost-effective regime that gives New Zealanders confidence that their trusted natural health products will remain available, are true to label, and provide the health benefits claimed for them.  

If the TPB is passed by Parliament, it will potentially take another 1-2 years to develop the detailed regulations required to complete the regulatory scheme before it comes into force, with a backstop date of 1 September 2026. If done well, TPB could pave the way for a pluralistic healthcare system that – in the words of WHO  – finally emphasises people’s rights to quality health services that are available, accessible, affordable, and culturally acceptable. 

TPB detail

There is still a significant amount of detail that needs to be determined in secondary legislation to be made under the TPB. It will be imperative that these regulations reflect a regime that is appropriate, feasible, practical, and affordable for NHPs. Dr Clair points out some areas that need clarification and resolution to ensure the objectives of the Bill: 

  1. The list of approved ingredients is as wide as possible.   
  1. In the absence of negative safety reports evidence, a natural health product should be grand-fathered into the system by granting market authorisation if it has been in the New Zealand market for a minimum of 10 years. This ‘well-established use’ principle is a recognised regulatory principle.    
  1. Traditional plant medicines are distinct in their healing purpose and long-standing evidence base from modern dietary supplements which were developed in the 20th century to address nutritional deficiencies. Therefore, they require separate considerations. The right to formally access and use them needs to be adequately protected.  
  1. A definition is needed for ‘Traditional Medicine’ and ‘Traditional Practice’. This should include Rongoā Māori and all WHO-recognised medical traditions. 
  1. The TPB permits health benefit claims with scientific evidence or traditional use. It should also permit those health benefit claims trusted by overseas regulators (e.g. Australia, Canada, EU, UK, Switzerland). Such regulators permit reference to therapeutic uses recorded in authoritative clinical textbooks and monographs as this professional body of literature is the most comprehensive and clinically relevant repository of traditional and empirical evidence. In oral traditions, e.g. Rongoā Māori, recognized traditional experts embody this medical knowledge, and this should be admissible as evidence of traditional use. 
  1. The regulations should allow flexibility in description of conditions. For NHPs, the naming of conditions should not be solely based on the  International Classification of Diseases (the ICD) but also by their equivalent in traditional or lay terms, so that they can be related back to traditional evidence and be generally understood by members of the public.  
  1. Practitioner-only category : professionally trained Medical Herbalists and Naturopaths need to be able to maintain access to stronger acting practitioner-only products (not sold over-the-counter). In addition, Schedule 1 of the current Medicines Regulations prevents medical practitioners from legally accessing several traditionally used plant species because they are regulated as pharmaceutical substances in conjunction with their synthetic isolates, regardless of their distinctly different risk profiles and applications. In other jurisdictions, e.g. the UK, such plant species and their whole-plant extracts are available to suitably trained natural health practitioners. Dietary supplements will need to be allowed to contain adequate therapeutic levels of active constituents. 
  1. Many of the ingredients listed under the previous Permitted Substance List (PSL) for natural health products are in fact synthetics. Other jurisdictions, e.g. Switzerland, request the identification of a substance to the public as either natural or synthetic due to their different characteristics, i.e. relating to risk and bioavailability, and consumer preferences. Labelling of New Zealand NHPs should be similarly transparent. 
  1. It is essential that the yet to be appointed advisory committee and proposed dedicated authority is filled with formally engaged subject matter experts on all aspects of traditional and nutritional medicine, namely its products, practices, and professions, and that the administration of these products is separate from pharmaceutical medicines and medical devices. 
  1. The cost recovery framework needs to ensure that compliance costs are fair and equitable for the low-risk NHPs regulated under this Bill so that they remain affordable given that they are presently non-subsidised but used as primary healthcare remedies. 

Have your say

Closing date for submissions on the proposed Therapeutics Products Bill has been extended to 5 March 2023. Go to the New Zealand Parliament website for an online submission form to make your opinion count. 

Soil & Health Association NZ have published their submission regarding the Bill. View this here: https://soilandhealth.org.nz/submissions/submission-of-the-soil-health-association-on-the-therapeutic-products-bill/

References

  1. Farnsworth NR, editor. Ethnopharmacolgy and drug development. Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons; 1994. 
  2. Barnes J, McLachlan AJ, Sherwin CMT, Enioutina EY. Herbal medicines: Challenges in the modern world. Part 1. Australia and New Zealand. Expert Rev Clin Pharmacol. 2016;9(7):905-915. 
  3. Chrystal K, Allan S, Forgeson G, Isaacs R. The use of complementary/alternative medicine by cancer patients in a New Zealand regional cancer treatment centre. The New Zealand Medical Journal (Online). 2003;116(1168). 
  4. Wilson K, Dowson C, Mangin D. Prevalence of complementary and alternative medicine use in Christchurch, New Zealand: Children attending general practice versus paediatric outpatients. N Z Med J. 2007;120(1251):U2464. 
  5. Medsafe. Australia New Zealand Therapeutic Products Agency (ANZTPA). 2012. 
  6. Ellena KR. The uncritical enthusiasts versus the uninformed sceptics: Regulation of complementary and alternative medicines. J Law Med. 2005;13(1):106-124. 
  7. Ministry of Health. Natural health and supplementary products. 2017. 
  8. World Health Organization, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Declaration of Astana. 30.04.2019 ed2018. 
  9. Legislation Direct. Ko Aotearoa tēnei: A report into claims concerning New Zealand law and policy affecting Māori culture and identity. Te taumata tuatahi (Waitangi Tribunal report). Wellington, New Zealand2011. 
  10. Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights Regulations 1996, Pub. L. No. 08.10.2018. 
  11. Schweizerischer Bundesrat. Komplementärmedizin: Vergütung neu geregelt. Complementary Medicine Research2017. p. 268. 
  12. World Health Organization. The regional strategy for traditional medicine in the Western Pacific (2011-2020). Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2012. 
  13. Parliament NZ. Therapeutic products bill — first reading. Hasard (Debates) [Internet]. 13 Dec 2022. Available from: https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20221213_20221214_20. 
  14. Organization WH. WHO Drug Information. 2002;16(2). 
  15. Colquhoun I. Medicines with a ‘well established use’. The Journal of the European Medical Writers Association. 2009;18(1):18-20. 
  16. Linnenbrink N. International comparison of specific requirements for registration of phytopharmaceuticals with focus on the European Community. Planta Med. 1990;56:502-503. 
  17. The Medicines (Retail Sale or Supply of Herbal Remedies) Order 1977, (1970). 

About the author

Dr Sandra Clair (PhD Health Sciences) established the multiple award-winning plant medicine business, Artemis. Using her skills in health sciences and Swiss medical herbalism, underpinned by academic research into a rare Renaissance medical textbook, Dr Clair formulated plant medicines for her clients, then after 1998 sold these directly to health stores, pharmacies, and practitioners and eventually exporting.  

Until July 2021, Dr Clair had a strategic management and governance role overseeing the quality and leading the research and development program of Artemis. She is now a presenter, writer, regulatory advisor and a noted voice for medical herbalism. Watch her TedX presentation on Integrating plant-based medicine into New Zealand’s healthcare system.

The Bill in full

Soil & Health NZ life member Philippa Jamieson, reviewed the 288 pages of the Therapeutic Products Bill 

The bill seeks to regulate the manufacture, sale, importing, exporting, prescribing, dispensing, and other activities involving therapeutic products. It covers three classes of products:  

  • medicines – e.g. pharmaceutical drugs, vaccines, gene therapies, cell and tissue therapies, and ‘biologics’ (such as donated blood, tissue, organs, microorganisms), 
  • medical devices – anything from bandages to pacemakers, dental crowns, surgical mesh, software used therapeutically, robotic surgery machines, 
  • natural health products (NHPs) – e.g. vitamin and mineral supplements, herbal remedies, tinctures, homeopathics, probiotics.  

Many people are concerned that the bill – and the accompanying regulations that are yet to be written – could result in fewer and costlier natural health products. Smaller businesses could struggle with the time and expense of compliance. 

“[The bill] gives a blank cheque to a regulator to tell us what herbs and supplements we can use and in what quantity [or dose],” says food safety and natural medicine advocate Dr Guy Hatchard. “They are also allowed to tell us what herbs we can’t use.”  

Rongoā Māori are not mentioned in the bill, but the regulator must ‘give effect to the principles of te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi and take account of mātauranga Māori and Māori perspectives’.  

The bill gives wide decision-making powers to whoever is appointed regulator, with no guarantee that person will have expertise in natural health, traditional medicines and different cultural approaches, or consult with appropriate people who do. It’s more likely a Western medical and pharmaceutical framework will dominate.  

In 2017 Medsafe drafted a list of over 7000 NHPs to be permitted substances (which may be adopted and adapted for the new regulations) that included many synthetic substances such as additives with known health risks.  

It’s not only about natural health products. Some are concerned the bill could allow increased use of biotechnology, such as gene therapies. Regulation is needed, but can it keep up with this rapidly changing field? 

Another question is around liability: currently the Crown can’t be held criminally liable for breaches of the current Medicines Act – should this be changed in the new bill, as the Crown is a large user of therapeutic products in our health system? 

Also, the bill would continue to allow direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines. What do you think about this?  

The scope of the bill is wide and there is much to consider. The regulations have to be workable for small businesses and practitioners such as naturopaths, and allow for safe, effective, affordable, culturally appropriate healthcare products and a range of choices.  

“We can’t sell laxative teas, or at least can’t say a tea has that effect,” an organic shop staff member said recently. “How does that help people who could really benefit from it?”  
Health benefit claims are just part of the Therapeutic Products Bill currently before parliament. The bill would allow the makers of those herbal teas to claim laxative effects on the label – if they gain approval of the product, approval of the therapeutic claim, and pay whatever fees are set.  

Nourished for Nil’s mission to turn waste into food

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New Zealand’s yearly food waste produces 409,234 tonnes of carbon emissions. To offset this we would need to take 150,453 cars off the road for one year or plant 163,693 trees. Rescuing this waste to feed people is a win-win. Christina McBeth tells Bonnie Flaws how she co-ordinates Hawke’s Bay businesses, government assistance, sister organisations, and volunteers to redirect waste into food for over 1200 families.

Photography by Nourished for Nil
 
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Help our native butterflies

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There are 26 different species of pēpepe butterflies in New Zealand. most of them are endemic (found only in New Zealand) and some are struggling to survive. Jacqui Knight explains how and what gardeners can do to provide the habitat and food they need.

Photography by Sally Phillips
 
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Introduction to biodynamics

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Biodynamics is a holistic organic practice that views a farm as an entire organism. Rebecca Reider explains the fundamentals of this earthy yet cosmic system of growing.

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