HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

209

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2002

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

requesting development and implementation of a strategy for statewide eradication of pest fruit flies.

 

WHEREAS, there is a quarantine on many of Hawaii's fruit and vegetable products because of pest fruit flies which attack these products, which prevent their commercial distribution in domestic and foreign markets and threaten further fruit fly infestation at other destined locations; and

WHEREAS, federally mandated quarantine of Hawaii's fruit and vegetable products serves as a disincentive for prospective farmers and hinders further diversification of Hawaii's agriculture industry; and

WHEREAS, although Hawaii's fruits and vegetables may be treated prior to exportation, the development of post-harvest treatment protocols that allow the shipment of Hawaii's fruits and vegetables to the continental United States and foreign destinations are expensive to develop, take years for development, and often lower the quality of the products; and

WHEREAS, the United States Department of Agriculture has experienced success in eradicating Mediterranean fruit flies in Guatemala using spinosad, a new and environmentally friendly insecticide, which is produced by soil-dwelling bacterium called saccharopolyspora spinosa; and

WHEREAS, the potential use of spinosad, which has been approved for use on more than a hundred crops, including apples, almonds, citrus, eggplant, tomatoes, and cotton, is being explored by Agricultural Research Service scientists in Hilo, Hawaii, and Weslaco, Texas; and

WHEREAS, spinosad, combined with other fruit fly eradication techniques, such as the use of sterile flies, could be utilized in a strategy for statewide eradication of pest fruit flies; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-First Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2002, the Senate concurring, that the United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, is respectfully requested to work with the University of Hawaii, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, State of Hawaii Department of Agriculture, Hawaii Agricultural Research Center, and Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation to develop and implement a plan for the eradication of pest fruit flies from the State of Hawaii; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Dean of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, Chair of the State of Hawaii Department of Agriculture, and the heads of the Hawaii Agricultural Research Center and Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title:

Eradication of Fruit Flies