Papaya vandalism . . . again.

[james weatherford]

...random?
How about a random guess...say, for example, gambling debt?

[james weatherford]

quote:

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Originally posted by Bullwinkle

From the trib:
"speculation"

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Yeah, and what else is new?

[Carey]

The fields last year and this were insured, for weather related crop failure & NOT for acts of vandalism, so this would only be an act of attempted insurance fraud by truly out of it farmers, which none of the four are.

Many of my papaya farmer neighbors have been talking about this for the last year, & there is talk at UH Ag Sci on the potential culprits, so the farmer coconut wireless has been very much abuzz on this... and a couple of the nearby organic farms have been involved in anti-GMO protests, so there are active, small kine local protesters... who also may have a desire to remove GMO crops without facing the large penalty....

Both years the farms were hit with very similar styles, and a fairly small very active crew was involved in both, using machete & cutting down new production crop (not before flower, and not older production fields), however, the fact that this year 3 separate farmers were hit on adjacent plantings, but not complete fields (these papaya field boundaries are not very noticeable, even when you are in the fields), makes a personnel issue seem less likely a motive as last years total planting cut-down.


ETA:
These leasehold plots are very interconnected, & some of the organic fields are fairly close... a small (it is estimated 4 persons) group can easily cross the fields on foot, without using the roads, even late (we did so in a fruit fly study a few years ago... and we had field test packs), with just a sharp knife... no probs...

Maybe there needs to be a financial incentive for violence/vandal free produce on this island!

[DTisme]

It just makes me sick. Wouldn't they have to have had lights, btw, to see what they were doing? So weird and so heartless.

[P.T.]

Can someone explain how a crew of workers was not seen or heard?
It had to be a couple of vehicles parked on the road,right?.I don't know that area.How far it is to the nearest road or a house?

[csgray]

It is a pretty isolated side road with no nearby houses, and on a full moon lit night it would be easy to drive in with no headlights. While the moon was up there would be plenty of light to do the deed too. I'm thinking a motion activated camera would at both ends of the road would be good, it would only need to be checked if there was damage. I know some people here put in systems to guard their homes, maybe one of them would volunteer to set something up. Of course nobody could know where it is, except the installer and the cops.

Carol

[Bullwinkle]

Consider a game camera or two:

http://www.amazon.com/Moultrie-Gamespy-M...B003JTGH60