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Ag Dept. says food and enviro safety is the major concern

Temporary ban only — closed it all down, now will go back and certify the good farms
fili@samoanews.com

Department of Agriculture farm inspectors are conducting follow-up visits to vegetable farms on island, while DOA works on ensuring the “safety of food” that is consumed by children, through the school lunch program, and the general public, says Agriculture Acting Director Peter Gurr.

In an Oct. 25 letter to Department of Education, Gurr recommended the suspension of supplying the school lunch program with locally grown vegetables except for local taro, green bananas, ripe bananas and hydroponically grown vegetables until further notice.

An identical letter went out the following day to local storeowners and managers, restaurants and roadside stands informing them of the vegetable ban and included the same exceptions. (See story elsewhere in today’s issue.)

The recommendation, which was agreed to by the governor who ordered the suspension be implement right away, in a memorandum released the same day of the DOE- SLP letter, came after DOA “uncovered numerous violations by some local farmers” during the DOA routine farm inspections during October.

“Our concern was all about food safety. We want to make sure that food is safe for the school lunch. With 17,000-plus kids it’s so important to us to make sure the food is safe,” Gurr said in a Samoa News interview yesterday to discuss the reason for moving to impose a temporary ban on locally grown vegetables that not only affects the school lunch program, but farmers who sell produce to stores and restaurants, and also at roadside stalls.

“We fully support the farmers, and the effort they’re doing. But if you compare farmer versus the kids — the kids are more important, with food safety first,” he said.

Among the violations cited by Gurr in his letters were: the use of toxic foreign labeled pesticides; use of pesticides with no Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) registration numbers; overuse and abuse of fertilizer; and use of illegal fertilizers with foreign labels.

The Acting DOA told Samoa News the illegal use of all these chemicals “raises serious concerns” and are “very toxic to the produce.”Additionally, the method used by some farmers dealing with the pesticides and fertilizers is “unacceptable” and not approved by EPA. “It’s scary when you think about our kids using the produce” treated with the illegal pesticides and fertilizers they found, he said.

Gurr said that one of DOA’s focuses right now is to explain to the public — especially the farmers and farm owners — the reason for the temporary ban because a lot of people are not quite sure what’s going on when it comes to illegal chemicals.

He suspects these illegal chemicals used by some farmers are being smuggled into the territory.

“Smugglers will always smuggle, but we need to be alert on what’s going out there and that’s why the governor is asking these seven agencies to help each other out,” he said.

DOA, American Samoa Environmental Protection Agency, Health Department, ASPA’s Water Division, Treasury’s Customs Division, Samoan Affairs Office and Education Department have been directed by the governor to among other things, inventory the amount of fertilizers and chemicals present at the farm; assess compliance with local laws particular to labeling requirements; and ascertain how fertilizers and chemicals are used.

The group is also being tasked to propose new legislation for submission to the Fono for consideration to improve local ability to monitor, control, and enforce the illegal use of these substances. The group met last Friday with future meetings to be convened soon, while DOA conducts re-inspection of farms.

“What we need is to come up with laws with teeth to fix this,” Gurr said when asked for suggestion of proposed legislation. “We cannot keep going on a merry-go-round, the way we’re going [with some farmers]. These people have been warned and warned but we are still faced with problems with illegal chemicals.”

DOA official Arona Palamo, who was with Gurr at the time of the interview, added, “I think the enforcement is not there. I think there are good laws [in place] and there are some laws that we need to adjust based on the new farming methods we have here.”

“The issue here is not just food safety, which is short term,” Palamo pointed out. “The long term issue, [which] is more serious to our people... is the overuse of these pesticides, the over use of fertilizers... because the over use of these chemicals will leak into our ground water, contaminate and toxic our soil.”

“We have a proven fact that the amount of nitrates that actually leak into the ground water is more than 2,000%, which is more than what is recommended under the code for use of these chemicals,” he explained.

“So these are the things we are concerned about — for the generations and generations to come, this short term farming that we have right now, the new style of farming, we’re seeing right now, is illegal, it’s toxic and it’s going to cause a lot of problems in the future — for American Samoa’s environment, in its soil, water and the ocean,” he said. “And that’s our major concern.”

Palamo pointed out that it wasn’t an easy decision for Gurr and DOA to impose a temporary ban “because we know there are good farmers, who don’t use” the illegal pesticides and fertilizers.

However, “because of the seriousness of the problem right now, we cannot stop one farm. So its better for us to put a stop right now for a short term suspension and then we can follow through and certify people that meet the compliance and meet the regulations and then we move forward,” he said. “And I think we move on to 2017 with a new leaf, clean and everybody follows the protocol.”

Gurr added that DOA is now conducting follow up with farms. “We want to clear up the innocent farms. We feel bad that when we shut it down, we shut down everybody,” he said, adding that the temporary suspension of locally grown vegetables being sold to stores, restaurants and roadside stands, “is for the safety of our people and that’s all it is, its about safety.

“If you really care about our people, then do the right thing. Shut down [farms] for a couple of weeks, we back-track, clean it up and then come back and certify the innocent farms,” said Gurr, who acknowledged getting calls from farmers who are happy about the temporary ban and also those who are unhappy, while others are calling him names.

Gurr credited the governor, who took this issue very seriously and ordered the temporary ban on supplying local vegetables to the school lunch program.

“The governor was really not happy, when we brought it up to his attention,” Gurr said. “The governor said ‘let’s do the right thing. And that’s why he appointed these seven agencies to be involved.”

He explained that each agency in the group has their own jurisdictions under the law that DOA has no jurisdiction over — for example, ASPA, and the Health Department. “We will continue to do our work and share it with the team,” Gurr said.

Samoa News will report on other issues from the interview in future editions.