Month: July 2015

The Food Babe Hates the Small Farmers of Hawaii
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The Food Babe Hates the Small Farmers of Hawaii


Just when I thought there would be nothing more for me to blog, it never fails that some anti-GMO post comes up that just infuriates me.  Who is the latest awardee of the anti-education/ anti-farmer movement? It’s none other than the Food Babe.

The Food Babe has decided to attack the small farmers of Hawaii that includes my dad, brother, and their farm manager, Neil, as well as the hundreds of others including the organic farmers.  She posted an article telling her dimwitted, gullible followers to avoid Hawaiian papayas because they are GMO.  She spells out the types that are GMO and the ones that allegedly aren’t.  She even tells people to buy papayas from other countries and claims that even organic ones are contaminated.

From her anti-Hawaii papaya post:

She never discloses any real facts about the Hawaii Papaya Industry Association either.  She only perpetuates the repeated, factless myths about biotech and tries to make a connection about pesticides to papayas.  I laugh because the Environmental Working Group found that papayas have some of the lowest residues of pesticides yet they quickly tell consumers to buy organic variety without any explanation! Nor does Vani mention that the people who grow papayas here are all small family farms!

Why I say the anti-GMO folks are anti-education is because she has no mention about the nature of the modification or how this technology saved the industry here.  These activists talk about people being in the dark about GMOs but they obscure any facts from their followers.  Facts make people think and thinking is dangerous to this house of cards.


She will never post real science or anything that actually educates people like this.

I’m starting to think that this anti movement is really anti-American at heart.  They attack an innovation that has saved the smallest of farmers that have no ties to big ag.  They attack the legacies of long time, multi-generational farms here in Hawaii.  Majority of the papaya farmers here came to the U.S. with nothing and built themselves up through hard, honest work and dedication.  Their families learned the same lessons and carried on those same dreams.  The Hawaii farmers are becoming fewer as many are retiring and the next generation does not continue those farms.  Vani and her ilk must want people to quit farming altogether with the way she blatantly spreads misinformation.

It’s really disgusting how people like the Food Babe and others like Nomi Carmona of our Hawaii Babes Against Biotech can bring nothing but factless campaigns to our state and feel good about their actions.  They perpetuate attacks against the hardest working people I know.  They can sit pretty and go on TV or spout their BS about their “expertise” against farmers.  How can anyone with a conscious ever do such a thing? Apparently it’s easier to make money lying than it is to farm.  These women know nothing about earning an honest living through actual hard work.  A broken finger nail is likely devastation to their careers.

I applaud the generations of papaya farmers that toil on their farms everyday to grow these miracle fruits that Vani Hari calls them.  Yes, it’s a really good product that millions have enjoyed for nearly 20 years thanks to biotechnology.  Our customers who buy our papayas for decades know how healthy these biotech miracles really are.  Vani probably doesn’t even know that papayas are staples here and might contribute to why Hawaii has the highest elderly population in the US.

So Vani Hari and the other anti-education activists out there need to get a clue and either work on a farm and grow a comparable crop.  They need a lesson in honesty and some work ethics before them come criticizing my fellow farming friends.  When the Food Babe can grow a sweet papaya like our Hawaii farmers and talk real science, I might stop criticizing these charlatans of Google.

P.S. Food Babe better adopt her precautionary principle with the imported papayas.  Many countries have their own strain of PRSV infecting the papayas making it a natural GMO.  Guess she’s better not eat these fruits at all!

 

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Who Needs a Health Food Store When You Have Real Whole Foods
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Who Needs a Health Food Store When You Have Real Whole Foods

It’s funny that I see so many anti-GMO activists claiming that once they got off of GMO “processed crap,” that they suddenly are cured from their ailments.  These folks like to claim that eating organic has made a huge difference in their lives because it’s more natural.  That to me is pure bunk.

  
Let’s talk about those whole foods that are in its most natural form.   It’s supposedly much healthier for you.This is clearly a whole food in its freshest state.  Heck, these are as whole as you can get and fresher than that wild fish caught a week or two before and frozen! 

  
The anti-GMO folks also claim that there is so much food waste that GMOs aren’t needed to feed the world.  The odd thing is that if you sold this at Whole Foods or other health food stores, no one would buy them.  These are chicken feet, a classic Asian delicacy! 

  
In many Asian cultures, nearly every part of the animal is eaten.  That includes the innards of animals.  My grandpa loved to eat his pork intestines in a rice soup! 

  
When I say everything is eaten in many Asian cultures, I really mean it.  That includes if ears and the snouts.  These are regularly found in the Chinese and Filipino grocery stores.

  
As I walked around the Filipino market, there was an array of goodies too.  One of my favorites is halo halo, which is a sweetened mix of beans, coconut strands, and jackfruit.  It sounds odd but is so delicious.

  
I also managed to find some processed yummies called polvorone. It’s made of wheat, sugar, and various flavors like coconut and sweet potato. 

I walked around this entire market and saw so many unusual vegetables and fruits that one would never find in a regular supermarket.  I did notice that I did not find a huge section for vitamins or supplements in this market, which got me thinking.  Stores like Down to Earth and Whole Foods all have huge sections for unlabeled, unregulated, and untested supplements. If the GMO free, organic food sold there is so superior for your health, why should you ever need to buy supplements?  

The Filipino favorite veggie, malungay, is now a hot commodity by the new age foragers.  It’s called moringa to them and the dried form of it can sell for $35 a pound! Heck, the Filipinos have been eating this for generations and not for the sole sake of being healthy.  It’s good stuff with mungo bean!

  

I smell a scam when the anti-GMO, just label it, right to know folks say eat clean, healthy, and whole foods but then try to sell you the most processed foods in the form of supplements.  Could it be that these people really do know something about the nutritional content of their products?

I think the largest workforce at the seed companies know better than the Whole Food patrons about the truth with eating whole foods.  These folks have been eating this way for centuries and they don’t need to have 4 aisles of their stores dedicated to supplements.  

Who needs buffet garnishes and exotic grains from distant areas of the world when you can get your food right here in Hawaii?  We mess up other people’s food supplies when we try to eat their “superfood.”  These folks know what works since they’ve been eating this way for ages.  And they are pretty smart to know that they don’t need to spend a pretty penny more to get good food.  There are no special labeling needed for these items either.  

It is ironic that the anti-GMO activists think that the immigrant ag workers aren’t smart, but then strive to eat what is their normal fare in the name of health.  The trendy eaters eat the things that these ethnicities have eaten for decades and think they are better for eating “healthy.”  I guess when you have lots of extra money, paying more for your health food gives you a higher moral standing than those workers that they’re trying to eat like.  I just have to chuckle to myself when I see this hypocrisy that really is unsustainable being a trend eater.
Take a visit to Pacific Market in Waipahu to see some real whole, fresh foods.

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The Evolution of a Family Farm

My family has close to 80 years of farming experience.  My grandfather started it all.

My grandfather, Thomas Yushin Kamiya, as a young boy.

  

My dad collecting grass for his water buffalo.

  

My Uncle Paul with one of their dairy cows.


 

Fields of bananas planted.

 

My dad with my grandmother outside their old house.

  

Cattle grazing in the pastures below the Koolau Mountains.

  

My grandparents cattle roaming the pasture.

  

My dad, as a teenager, driving an old military jeep.

  

Back in the 50’s, my dad learned to hunt.

 

My grandma tended to her dairy cows every morning.


 

The old family house that sat beside the Koolau mountains between rice paddies.

   

My grandparents farming in Waikane Valley. They grew beans, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, and bananas.

 

Our farm manager’s son helping out with the planting.

  

My dad plowing the field to get it ready for planting.

  

The trees that was saved by science.

  

Farming is a family thing with my mom and daughter processing the fruit.

  

Farming is a business and it takes HR skills and some marketing savvy to sell your goods.

  

Our farm manager, Neil, resting in the shade after a day of picking.

  

If it’s not picking or planting papaya, it’s fixing stuff.

  

My dad on his 1974 Ford tractor.

  

My brother, the next generation, planting next year’s crop.

 

My dad with my daughter, the next generation of farmers.