COM 0212.291 1996-1998 - Laserfiche WebLink

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XAMPLES OF APPROPRI,. fE PUBLIC SPENDINC'1'O PROMOTE blVERSIFIED AGRlCL'LTURE L Ik~'(•l~~ Below are some of my thoughts concerning appropriate public expenditures on technology, itlfrastruetuto, product developlileni, and market promotion which both county and state governments should invest in to promote the growth of diversiRed sustaittable%rganic agricultural practices (SOAP). These suggestions are very rough at. this time and I won't have time to expand on this until after the university finishes in mid-May. ¦ Money for the ¢ommercialiration of other appropriate noa-nuclear post-harvest treatment technologies including, but not limited to, both cold and dry heat treatments for pest control and hot water treatment for media aterillzation. These technologies have been tested a[ the research level, but are not commercially operational yet. Why not`? The dollar estimate vn eradication efforts has been concocted through the efforts of the EPIC (F,xotic Pcst Insect Committee) which has been a very dysfunctional organization. I would like to see a se;+arate estimate on establishment of fruit fly-free zones. Actually, the Drily fruit Fly we have in Hawaii which represents a threat to the southern mainland states is the Oriental Fruit Fly. I suspect there is no hard science which will back the quarantines un the other three fruit flies (Mediterranean, melon and Malaysian) in terms of their ability to establish on the mainland. The USDA APHIS regulations are not necessarily based on science which is clear when ortc compares internatyonal requirements with intersiale restrictioav. The Sharwil avocado case also clearly points to the fact that I3awaiian agriculture has been kept purposefully disadvantaged through the policital power of the California and Florida Fruit Growers Associations. There is a move to establish an internationally acceptable regulation since under GATT and NAETA differential applications of these regulations will be viewed as unfair trade practices. Therefore, it is my opinion that Ilawaii will be the proving gmund for irradiation on tropical foods which, if'passed by the USbA as an appropriate post-harvest technology for compliance with APHIS regulations, will lay the foundation for transferring I'vod irradiation technologies to all tropical food producing countries. This plan supports the fads desire to create a n:uket fur cobalt ti0 technology and also complies with Sethi Naya's (head of 1)liLDT) call For stimulating }Iawaii's economy through transfer of technologies to Asia. ¦ A4oney for the establishment of a research/commercial beneficial insectary. Currently, it is illegal tv import SDX beneficial insect into the state of Hawaii, One cannot do so even through a permitting process unless one is associated with a research arm of the university. )?ven then, it is extremely difficult. Most commercially available beneficials arc raised in a laboratory situation and aro considered 99.9% clean of possible parasites (with the exception of lady bugs which commercial insectaries gather from the wild due to their availability as a result of mating behavior and the complexity of their diet which would be hard to simulate in a laboratory situation). Also, only general parasites (Encarsia spp a parasitic wasp which gives fantastic control of greenhouse and silver back white (ties) and predators (lady bugs, green lacewings, praying mantis) which have limited benefit to tropical agriculture are being raised by mainland and European insectaries since these establishments cater to temperate climate agriculture. We need to support research of beneficials needed for tropical agriculture since many of the insects that cause economic damage in the tropics arc tither nut present or do nut cause serious economic damage in temperate climates. '1'imcly release of beneficials either as "incubation" meaning introduction of beneficials before the negative pest population is significant or "augmentation" which refers to the release of large numbers of M Eileon O'Hota-Weir, Dakini EAtmprises 5/INS 1 Comm. Np: Z/: