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In the February 8/9 Maui News article about Mahi Pono's potatoes, the director of the Hawaii Farm Bureau suggests that pesticides use is OK because plants have natural pesticides, that pesticides are widely used, necessary and strictly controlled by federal and state laws.
There are too many factual errors to correct. The truth is that the Hawaii Department of Agriculture (HDOA) allows a wide range of restricted-use pesticides (RUPs) to be used on our crops, fields and roadways. The list includes alachlor, amicarbazone, atrazine, bromacil, chlorantraniliprole, chlorine gas, chloropicrin, chlorpyrifos, cyanine, cyantraniliprole, fludioxonil, hexazinone, metolachlor and its isomers, paraquat, picloram and simazine. Readers may search online to learn more about the toxicity of these RUPs.
While Mahi Pono has commendably declared they will not use glyphosate (Roundup), they did recently use paraquat, which is damaging when it comes in contact with mouths, stomachs or intestines. It can burn skin and damage kidneys, liver and esophagus. Until a few years ago, thousands of pounds of atrazine were used on Maui sugar fields every year. Atrazine is a potent endocrine disrupter; even small doses interfere with the hormonal activity of animals and humans. Atrazine is particularly harmful to our keiki's development.
As for enforcement, our HDOA has broad powers to limit communities' pesticide exposure if they would only use those powers. According to a lawsuit filed in 2017 by Earthjustice, "HDOA enforcement was lax, buffer zones around schools and parks were limited as was public disclosure of pesticide use."
Mark Sheehan
Haiku