Crisis re: Plant Quarantine Inspectors, and a Solution

Richard Ha writes:

The Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture will keep 22 of the 50 Plant Quarantine Inspector positions it proposed eliminating during its August “Reduction in Force” announcement.

From the Department of Agriculture press release:

The rescission of the 22 notices will allow the department to further support core inspection services at all ports statewide; however, inspection capacity will still be significantly decreased from current levels.

It is unacceptable to simply let food crops into Hawai‘i without being inspected, using the excuse that we cannot afford the inspection.

“The department continues to look for alternative sources of funding,” said Sandra Lee Kunimoto, Chairperson of the Hawai`i Board of Agriculture.  “In addition, we are working on increasing coordination of inspection services to make the most efficient use of our work force and minimize the disruption to our important agricultural, food and shipping industries.”

We should charge importing companies the cost of inspection. It is definitely not fair to expect farmers to pay for the inspection of foreign-grown produce, by way of taxation.

Comments

[Ken]

This is so true Richard -- look at the new NASS statistics book.
5 cents per pound on imported produce that we grow (that could be affected by imported pests) would bring in more than $40 million.
16.028,000 lbs of bananas were brought in -=$801,400.00
That would pay for a few banana inspectors. Only 10,671,000 lbs of oranges came into the state == $533,550.00
I'd inspect oranges for a year for that salary.

I dont understand why her majesty doesnt even consider this.
the container fee is a joke and the gas tax hurts us more than helps.