Organic farm sues over spraying
By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
HILO, Hawai'i — The owner of an organic farm on the Hamakua Coast is suing the manager of an adjoining eucalyptus tree farm over herbicide drift.
Mikki Hastings claims that her small family-run operation, Island Organics, lost its certification as an organic farm, and family members experienced health problems after a herbicide spraying in 2000.
State Department of Agriculture tests found herbicide on guava leaves at the farm, and the department fined Agri-Spray Inc. $600 in connection with the spraying done June 12 and June 30, 2000.
Agriculture officials said that by allowing chemicals to drift onto a neighboring property, Agri-Spray violated state law by failing to follow instructions on the herbicide label.
The lawsuit demonstrates continuing tension between large-scale tree farming on the Big Island and some of its neighbors.
Towering stands of eucalyptus trees have grown up in the Pa'auilo and Honoka'a areas in recent years, and many look to forestry as an industry that can replace some of the jobs lost when the sugar plantations closed.
Public opposition in 1997 stopped a plan to lease thousands of acres of state and county lands in Hamakua to Oji-Marubeni Co. of Japan for a eucalyptus tree farm. Among other things, critics said they were worried about herbicide spraying, traffic from logging trucks and the fire hazard the trees might pose during dry periods.
After the spraying incident at Island Organics, the Hawai'i Organic Farmers Association withdrew the organic certification for Hastings' farm.
That forced Hastings and her family to dump more than 1,000 pounds of macadamia nuts as well as hundreds of pounds of guava, bananas and honey because they could not sell them as organic produce, according to court documents.
David Frankel, a Legal Aid Society of Hawai'i lawyer who is representing the family, estimated the crop loss at more than $25,000.
Family members also suffered breathing problems, headaches, skin reactions and other health problems after the spraying, according to the suit.
The farm later regained its organic certification, but Hastings sued Agri-Spray and Forest Solutions Inc., which is managing the tree farm for partnerships run by Prudential Insurance Co.
E. Mason Martin III, lawyer for Forest Solutions, argued yesterday in a Hilo Circuit Court hearing on the lawsuit that Forest Solutions was not responsible for the herbicide damage because Agri-Spray contracted directly with Prudential, and Forest Solutions did not have control over the spraying.
Additional arguments have been scheduled for a July 9 hearing before Judge Terence Yoshioka.
Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.
