Critics of restricted-use ag chemicals wildly exaggerate their use on Kauai

It is great irony that Kauai, the county that uses the least amount of restricted-use agricultural chemicals of any Hawaii county, has been smeared as the ultimate pesticide bad guy.

I write this as a Kauai resident proud of our agricultural heritage, and tired of our farmers being characterized locally, nationally and internationally as a bunch of bandits who don’t care about their neighbors.

If you believed what you read on Facebook, in a lot of media, and on signs at anti-GMO rallies, you’d think Kauai was the most pesticide-laden place in the state — and maybe on the planet.

But that has been based on anecdote, supposition and downright falsehood.

And it’s wrong.

There is actual evidence that the opposite is true.

A new state Department of Agriculture spreadsheet, entitled "Summary of Restricted Use Pesticides Sold in 2014" and available online (808ne.ws/1Lp094b), shows that Kauai folks use a fraction of the amount other counties do.

Kauai uses less than the other counties on an absolute basis.

Less on a per-acre basis. Less on a per-capita basis.Less than the statewide average.

This is not meant to throw the other counties under the bus, but to suggest that we ought to show up before the County Councils and the Legislature to make public policy based on fact, not unsupported allegation.

This report shows that of the 906,891 pounds of the products used in the state, less than 2 percent were sold on Kauai.

The Garden Island’s restricted-use pesticide sales totaled 15,949 pounds of active ingredient. Every other county used far more.

Broken down by population, Kauai’s use was .23 pounds per resident. Hawaii island’s was .714, Maui’s 1.05 and Oahu’s .42. The state average was .64 pounds per person.

On a countywide per-acre basis, Kauai was lowest at .04 pounds per acre. Hawaii island was .05, Maui .40 and Oahu 1.05.

Let’s rephrase that.

Kauai, with 5 percent of the state population and 10 percent of the state land area, buys just 2 percent of the state’s restricted use pesticides.

Certainly, there are numerous caveats here.

>> These numbers don’t cover unrestricted pesticides.

>> Most of the restricted-use pesticides sold on Kauai are not even agricultural pesticides at all. Half is chlorine, used in various applications, including drinking-water treatment.

>> And the state list does not include restricted-use pesticide applied for termite fumigation.

It is possible that some Kauai sales were actually reported for Oahu, the urban center. However, that is unlikely to be a significant factor, said Scott Enright, director of the state Department of Agriculture.

It is useful to note that these numbers won’t directly correlate with the numbers reported by the Kauai seed companies (and soon Oahu’s as well) in the state’s Good Neighbor Program (ne.ws/1LCfR2n).

Partly that’s because these are sales data, and those are actual usage data. And these are actual active ingredient numbers, and the Good Neighbor numbers may not be.

Ultimately, these island-by-island numbers make sense.

Maui and Hawaii island have much larger agricultural sectors than Kauai and so would use more crop protection chemicals.

And since the Environmental Protection Agency reports that urban and suburban use of pesticides averages 10 times agricultural use, the higher Oahu numbers make sense as well.

But you wouldn’t know that from reading the media reports about Kauai.