HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0212.410 1996-1998 1~+~1 <~~.D
.The ~ ~ ~
~~W~1`i Count
Gruen party ~
Ecology ~ Nonviolence
Grassroots Democracy Social .Tustice
PO Rox 3220, Kailua-Kona HI 96745
Big Island 32-GKEEN, or 8d0-288-33?7
Over 75 percent of the food we eat on these tropical islands is imported. Since its
beginnings in 1992, the Hawaii Green Party has worked to promote sustainable
agriculture and food self-reliance in Hawaii. This means we should adopt intelligent
farming practices that discourage the use of dangerous pesticides and polluting
chemical fertilizers; support small-scale, diversified crop-producing family farms; and
end tax policies and other give aways that favor big plantations and corporate farming at
the expense of smaller growers.
Unfortunately a clique of corporate farmers, agri-businesses, and State and county
officials are pushing us in the opposite direction, and actively seeking to build aCobalt-
60 powered irradiation facility on the Big Island, to treat fruit for shipment to the
Mainland. Mayor Yamashiro is asking for $2 million dollars of taxpayers' money to
either build such a facility, to promote marketing of irradiated fruit, or to subsidize their
radiation contractor, Isomedix, Inc.
Many small farmers and business people, Native Hawaiians, and concerned citizens
testified recently during a marathon 12 1/2 hours session before the Council. They
opposed the entire project because of many safety concerns to humans and the
environment associated with nuclear fuels and the treatment of food via radiation,
potential catastrophic economic costs arising from consumer boycotts in Japan and the
U.S., and the fact that the major benefactors are food exporters. The Green Party
likewise opposes the irradiation project because it is dangerous and unnecessary. As
the Hawaii Organic Association and Maui chapter of the Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers
state: "Other less toxic, less hazardous and less capital-intensive methods exist for the
control of fruit flies and other post-harvest pests that currently limit export of our locally
grown fruit."
FOOD SAFETY QUESTIONED. The proponents of food irradiation would have you
believe that troubling questions about food safety and nutrition are adequately resolved.
Not so! A seemly positive report issued by the Federal Drug Administration issued in
1986, cited by pro-irradiation forces, selected only 5 studies (out of 446 irradiation
studies) as the basis to conclude that irradiation is safe. Dr. Marcia Van Gernert, a
toxicologist who chaired the review, noted recently that, "the studies reviewed in the
1982 memo from the FDA were not adequate by 1982 standards, and are even less
adequate by 1993 standards to evaluate the safety of any product, especially a food
product such as irradiated foods." Many reputable physicians and scientists have
serious doubts about concluding that irradiated food is safe. The Hawaii Medical
Association recently expressed reservations about building an irradiation plant on the
Big Island. Many question the fact that there have been no long-terrr~lie~~of the .yy
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effects of irradiated food on human health. The February 1997 issue of Environment
Hawaii summarizes a host of recent negative studies.
GRAVE THREATS TO OUR AINA. A~any serious accidents have happened in
irradiation facilities that have resulted in injury, contamination of land and water, loss of
life, and huge clean up costs born by taxpayers. The Hawaii Development Irradiator in
Honolulu, operated in the late 1960s, had to be closed when several of its Cobalt 60
strips leaked and caused radioactive contamination of the whole facility and areas
surrounding the plant. Contamination lasted 12 years before it was finally cleaned up.
Cesium 137 contamination cleanup at the Radiation Sterilizers' plant in Decatur,
Georgia cost $47 million. Even when operating properly, these plants are allowed to
emit 3 to 5 times more radiation than the natural background levels. Issues related to
transporting and storing radioactive materials are especially troubling. Cobalt 60, the
fuel suggested for a Big Island irradiator, must be stored or used for 120 years before
recharging within a nuclear reactor. There is no guarantee that this nuclear waste will
have a "home." One could say that the nuclear industry, including food irradiation, is
like a Ponzi scheme where profits are being collected now by a small clique, without any
regard for the ultimate costs to be borne by the public at large. An unending series of
accidents, cover-ups, failures to protect human health, and mushrooming costs for the
public typify this industry.
PROMOTING GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY. Listening more to citizens and not just
powerful special interests, is another core principle of the Green Party. The nuclear
industry is facing an increasingly wary public around the world. Hawaii County officials
has received over 7,000 letters and postcards from Mainland consumers stating that
they vdill not only boycott irradiated food, but will consider all Hawaii fruit and vegetables
as suspect. A consortium of Japanese consumers sent a letter to Mayor Yamashiro
stating that consumers would back away from all Hawaii produce if irradiation is
implemented. Germany, Austria, Sweden, and Switzerland have banned irradiated fruit.
The cat is out of the bag in terms of public opinion on irradiation, and no amount of the
wishful thinking or slick marketing (subsidized by taxpayers) will overcome well-
informed information.
Despite tremendous efforts by the Yamashiro administration to promote the idea of
food irradiation, most advocates have clear vested interests. Many small farmers have
questioned whether irradiation will benefit them and feel that there are a myriad of ways
$2 million dollars could be used to help them without putting our whole agricultural
industry in jeopardy from boycotts. Opposition to irradiation is broad and widespread on
the Big Island. Our people simply don't want to take on the health and safety risks.
They also intuitively know that, as our island becomes known as a home of one of the
pioneering food irradiation facilities, this could scare off our coveted health oriented and
eco-tourists we seek to attract.
A FEW WILL BENEFIT, BUT MANY ARE AT RISK. There is no health and safety risk
to continuing to use an effective post harvest treatments such as vapor heat. Private
industry has already invested $20 million in such facilities. There is no risk to making
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sound marketing analysis before embarking on agricultural endeavors. ~fhere is no risk
to developing better systems of marketing our local agricultural products. It is a
profound social injustice to force on our people the health, safety, and economic risks of
irradiation merely to allow corporate farmers to prosper in the short run and enrich
private irradiation companies.
Ka Lahui has taken a position opposing food irradiation. Hawaiians in other groups and
as individuals oppose irradiation and have grave concerns, including questioning why
Hawaiian Home Lands should be considered such a facility, as was proposed during the
irradiation debates in the Iate1980s.
Generations of people all over the world are affected in some way by such deadly
radioactive boondoggles. Every part of the process, from miners and residents living
near uranium mines, to workers at the reactor creating the Cobalt-60, to the
transportation and dockyard workers bringing it to the plant on the Big Island, and back
again to a storage site for used Cobalt-60, exposes people to life-threatening risks.
Spills of nuclear waste may seep into the groundwater or surrounding ocean and leave
us all a legacy of cancer, suffering and death. Violence is not just perpetrated by fists,
knives or guns. The people of Big Island and Hawaii have the right to be protected
from the unwanted risks of the nuclear industry. Tell our politicians to say NO! to the
unneeded and dangerous Big Island irradiation plant.
The Hawaii County Green Party Leadership Committee:
! ~ ~
Tim Mann, Co-Chair
Julie Jacobson, Co-Chair
Ellen Takazawa, Treasurer
Jay Scharf, Membership Chair
Robert Ritter, Recorder