Big businesses increase income by importing their plants and produce from afar, while inspection of those imports is minimal or nonexistent. It’s cheaper to bring in potted plants from Puerto Rico, Thailand or the Philippines, where labor and materials are cheaper, but every item should be carefully inspected by trained personnel. That is the real cost.

Every Christmas tree should be hand-checked. It’s expensive to do so, but it’s more expensive as a quality-of-life issue to deal with bunchy-top, ringspot, coqui and other frogs, little fire ants, avocado mites and rhinoceros beetles. Economic life is affected by the loss of local nurseries and farms, or viable yards. The environmental impact to forests and water reserves is immeasurable.

The state shirks its duty in order to benefit businesses that prefer importing, and all the cost falls on the quality of life for everyone in Hawaii. Make full inspection of all imports a requirement, and stop the economic benefit of carelessness.

M. Puakea Nogelmeier

Kalihi

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