Article: Approval of Irradiated Sweet Potatoes Has Critics Steamed

[John Jacobus <crispy_bird@YAHOO.COM>]

This appeared in today's Washington Post, and I

thought it would be of interest.

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 Approval of Irradiated Sweet Potatoes Has Critics

Steamed

 

 By Cindy Skrzycki

 

   The purple potato has caused a spud war.

 

 A recent decision by the U.S. Department of

Agriculture's   Animal and Plant Health Inspection

Service to allow irradiation to kill pests in a

special breed of sweet potato raised in Hawaii has

left growers on the mainland trying to protect their

crop and opponents of irradiation fuming.

 

 The fuss is over a tuber called the Okinawan sweet

potato  , which has light skin and lavender flesh and

is of Chinese and Japanese origin. The potato is not

well-known or easy to get on the mainland, except in

specialty or ethnic markets on the West Coast. But now

that an irradiation facility in Hilo, Hawaii, is

treating the vegetable, it may one day come to a table

near you -- though it might seem an unusual addition

to a Thanksgiving repast.

 

 Last June, the Agriculture Department proposed

allowing Hawaiian farmers to treat their potatoes with

a high dose of radiation, as an alternative to methyl

bromide fumigation -- a step that was required to

allow entry of the crop onto the mainland. Both

treatments are designed to eliminate pests found in

Hawaii, such as the West Indian sweet potato weevil

and the sweet potato stem borer (also known in

entomology circles as the sweet potato vine borer).

 

 This was a relief to Hawaiian growers, who found it

inconvenient and costly to ship their sweet potatoes

to a fumigation facility on the island of Oahu. Plus,

they had to pay overtime to have Agriculture

Department inspectors present for treatments done

after 4 p.m. or on weekends.

 

 Growers also faced the increasing cost and the

eventual phaseout of methyl bromide under the terms of

an international environmental agreement.

 

 In the recently issued final rule, the USDA reassured

growers on the mainland that their production -- 1.3

billion pounds annually -- dwarfs Hawaiian output, 1.8

million pounds. The   U.S. Sweet Potato Council in

Columbia, S.C., looked at the same figures a different

way. It said in comments to USDA: "Hawaiian production

is a mere pittance . . . and therefore, Hawaii should

be able to consume every sweet potato they produce and

then some."

 

 Sweet potato consumption has been declining over the

years. In 1932, when it was considered a poor man's

food, Americans consumed 30 pounds each per year. Now,

it's closer to 4 pounds, though the tuber has become

more appealing because it's a favorite of Oprah

Winfrey and television chef Emeril Lagasse. 

 

  North Carolina is the No. 1 producer; the sweet

potato is the official state vegetable.

 

 The USDA, which has approved 15 fruits and vegetables

in Hawaii for the treatment, said the new rule has

many benefits.

 

  It said irradiation costs less; growers would incur

lower transportation costs; irradiation does not

affect the quality of the crop as methyl bromide does;

and the irradiation plant will have plenty of work

since Okinawan sweet potatoes are a year-round crop.

 

  "A steady source of revenues from treatment, such as

revenues from treating sweet potatoes to be moved

interstate, would help assure this facility's

continued operation and availability for all the

producers in Hawaii who can use it," the rule said.

 

 The facility, called Hawaii Pride, opened in 2000 and

was financed by a $6.75 million loan, three-quarters

of which is guaranteed by the USDA.

 

 John Clark, president of Hawaii Pride, said the

company urged the USDA to approve irradiation. "It was

our request to move on it and our diligence in sitting

on them to see that it kept moving forward. We hired

people to make sure it was moving from desk to desk.

We pushed it," said Clark, who is trying to market the

purple potato to big stateside retailers.

 

  The happy news doesn't reassure consumer groups.  

Public Citizen, which opposes food irradiation, said

the USDA didn't do enough research to see whether the

dosages would kill specific pests associated with the

sweet potatoes, and it didn't look closely enough to

see whether the Okinawan would harm the domestic

industry.

 

 "We see this as another bad decision as our own

government exercises poor judgment on the issue of

food irradiation," said   Wenonah Hauter, director of

Public Citizen's   Energy and Environment Program.

 

 California growers aren't pleased either. They know

they can't keep out shipments from another state, but

they are worried about the pests that come with them.

 

 "The question here is, we are not sure irradiation is

taking care of the insects it is supposed to take care

of. We don't need a new infestation in California or

the mainland," said Robert Weimer, a sweet potato

grower in Mercer County, Calif.

 

   Peter Follett, a research entomologist in Hawaii

for USDA's   Agricultural Research Service, said

30,000 to 50,000 pounds of the potatoes are being sent

weekly to the mainland from the irradiation facility.

In addition, the amount of sweet potato acreage in

Hawaii has doubled since the facility opened.

 

 Paul Gadh, import specialist for the Animal and Plant

Health Inspection Service, said the USDA decided on

"the upper limit of the range of [irradiation] dosage

suggested by internal bodies and our researchers."

Irradiation would be used on three internal pests,

while inspectors would handle the gray pineapple

mealybug and the Kona coffee root-knot nematode the

old-fashioned way, by looking for them.

 



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""A fanatic is one who cannot change his mind and won't change the subject."  Winston Churchill



-- John

John Jacobus, MS

Certified Health Physicist

e-mail:  crispy_bird@yahoo.com



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