US House Agriculture Committee chair joins ribbon cutting for Garapan public market

Visiting U.S. House Agriculture Committee chairman Frank Lucas (R-Ok) joined Gov. Eloy S. Inos and Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) in leading yesterday’s ribbon cutting for a $200,000 permanent public market on Saipan that Lucas said is a bridge between food producers and consumers at a time when so many parts of the United States experience a disconnect between the two.

Visiting U.S. House Agriculture Committee chairman Frank Lucas (R-Ok), second from left, joins Gov. Eloy S. Inos, center, and Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP), left, and other local dignitaries in cutting a ceremonial ribbon to mark yesterday’s opening of a permanent public market on Saipan that’s funded through a $200,000 congressional earmark. (Haidee V. Eugenio)

“What you are doing here is the kind of thing that we struggle to do all across the entire United States,” Lucas said, referring to a “disconnect between the people who raise the food—the farmers, the fishermen, the folks who make the food available to us—and the American consumer.”

The newly opened Garapan public market is funded through a $200,000 congressional earmark that Sablan obtained during his first year in Congress.

“This is part of what you do for us here in the Marianas,” Inos said as he invited visiting members of the U.S. House of Representatives to see for themselves the interior of the public market shortly before the cutting of the ceremonial ribbon to officially open the facility.

U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wa), who led an eight-member congressional delegation that visited Saipan on Sunday and Monday, later echoed Lucas’ description about a public market that provides an opportunity to connect producers with consumers.

For several years, the original concrete structure that is now a permanent public market was an “eyesore,” as Department of Lands and Natural Resources Secretary Arnold Palacios described it. Palacios, now on administrative leave, said this public market “belongs to the public and rightly so.”

Inos said the public market will be expanded to include fresh products from fishermen, in addition to the fresh fruits and vegetables now being sold at the facility.

Saipan Farmers Cooperative president and former senator Frica Pangelinan said they look forward to being the model on how to develop island resources with government and community support.

Fresh from passing a comprehensive farm bill, Lucas said connecting producers and consumers “is a big part of what projects like this public market is all about,” with farmers and fishermen providing consumers with some of the most nutritious food available.

He said part of the challenges of passing a farm bill is also the members of Congress without regard to political party, whom he said sometimes “perhaps were not as focused on these issues as they should have been, but your member, Congressman Sablan, was very supportive from the very first step in the farm bill.”

“He showed a willingness to want to know and work on issues that are not only important to the Commonwealth but also important in passing the overall farm bill, important to meeting the needs of everyone in this great country,” Lucas added.

Lucas congratulated the CNMI community and its leadership for bringing about a public market.

Hospitality, CNMI’s beauty

The House Agriculture Committee chairman also spoke about the “warm hospitality” that the CNMI has shown to the congressional delegation.

“Thank you for giving us a good person to visit with, thank you for moving in the right direction of that farmer/fisherman-consumer connection. This is a wonderful day,” he added.

Hastings, who also visited Saipan for the first time, said Saipan is a “wonderful part of the world; there’s no question about that.”

“And this part of the world has been very friendly to the United States for years so I think it’s important for members of Congress when they can, to travel to other parts other than the 50 states, and that’s what this delegation did,” Hastings said.

The eight-member Hastings delegation also went to Australia and New Zealand for talks on free trade, energy development and realignment of U.S. forces in the Western Pacific. The congressional delegation also briefly stopped in American Samoa.

Hastings said the Sunday night welcome dinner reception—co-hosted by the governor and Sablan—was “very good” and showed the islands’ hospitality.

U.S. House Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs Subcommittee chairman John Fleming (R-La), for his part, said he first visited Saipan some 35 years ago when he was stationed in Guam as a U.S. Navy doctor.

“I’m glad to see that there’s even more people and more things to do. It’s a beautiful island and we should really take advantage of that,” he said.

Also at the opening of the Garapan public market were chairman Jack Kingston, the third-ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee and Chair of its Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies; Doug Lamborn, who chairs the Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee; Richard Hudson, Chairman of the Transportation Security Subcommittee; and Rob Woodall, Chairman of Rules Subcommittee on Legislative and Budget Process.