Author: hawaiifarmersdaughter

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The Anti-GMO is Indeed a Crime Against Humanity

My dad and I exchange emails with links and stuff here and there and I get some good reads from what he is sent.  When I checked my email tonight, I was literally bouncing up and down.  It would seem really trivial to some but to me, I was ecstatic over it.  It was sent from Truth for Trade and Technology, which he is a member of.

Here’s what it read:

Allow Golden Rice Now!

Media Release –  October 1, 2013

Former Greenpeace leader Patrick Moore to lead demonstration against Greenpeace’s crime against humanity, their anti-Golden Rice campaign that perpetuates blindness and death among millions of children.
www.allowgoldenricenow.org

At 10 AM on October 2 the global campaign Allow Golden Rice Now! will be launched in front of the Greenpeace office at 33 Cecil Street. Dr. Patrick Moore will lead the demonstration with a banner that reads:
‘Greenpeace’s Crime Against Humanity’ ‘ Eight Million Children Dead’ ‘AllowGoldenRiceNow.org’

Details of the campaign and the demonstration will be released at an information session to be held tonight, October 1, at 7 PM at the Pauper’s Pub at 539 Bloor Street West.

The aim of the campaign is to convince Greenpeace that they should make an exception to their zero-tolerance position on genetic modification in the case of Golden Rice, on humanitarian grounds. The World Health Organization estimates that up to 500,000 children become blind each year due to vitamin A deficiency, half of whom die within a year of becoming blind. About 250 million preschool children suffer from vitamin A deficiency among the nearly 3 billion people who depend on rice as their staple food.

Conventional rice has no beta-carotene, the nutrient that humans need to produce vitamin A. In 1999 Dr. Ingo Potrykus and Dr. Peter Beyer, both science professors who were aware of this humanitarian crisis, invented Golden Rice after a nine-year effort. By inserting genes from corn they were able to cause rice plants to produce beta-carotene in the rice kernel. It is beta-carotene that makes corn golden and carrots orange. Golden Rice can end the blindness, suffering and death caused by vitamin A deficiency.

Field trials in Louisiana, the Philippines, and Bangladesh have proven that Golden Rice can be grown successfully. Clinical nutritional trials with animals, adult humans, and vitamin A deficient children have proven that Golden Rice will deliver sufficient vitamin A to cure this affliction. Yet Greenpeace continues to support the violent destruction of the field trials and trashes the peer-reviewed science that proves Golden Rice is effective and safe. We demand that they end these activities, stop fundraising on this issue, and declare that they are not opposed to Golden Rice. We believe that their continued actions to block Golden Rice constitute a crime against humanity as defined by the United Nations.

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines is coordinating the research and development of Golden Rice. The IRRI is supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Helen Keller International, USAID, and many agricultural research organizations. Golden Rice is controlled by non-profit organizations, and it produces viable Golden Rice seeds, so farmers are not dependent on any particular supplier.

“The Allow Golden Rice Now! campaign will carry this protest to Greenpeace offices around the world,” stated Dr. Moore. “Eight million children have died unnecessarily since Golden Rice was invented.  How many more million can Greenpeace carry on its conscience?”

Allow Golden Rice Now!
www.allowgoldenricenow.org

I was so excited to hear that Greenpeace is being called out as committing crimes against humanity because that is exactly what it is.  These well funded activists group oppose these attempts to help others yet have no plan to deal with this problem.  They never see the suffering of these children and the parents who see them die or become severely disabled by such a preventable disease.  If we were to wear these people’s shoes and see our infant slowly become blind and disable with nothing to stop it, would we want help to prevent this?  Of course!

Ask yourself, what has Vandana Shiva, Jeffrey Smith, Andrew Kimbrell, Bill Freese, Walter Ritte, Jessica Wooley, Gary Hooser, Tim Bynum, Brenda Ford, Margaret Wille, Tulsi and Mike Gabbard, Russell Ruderman, Hector Valenzuela, and Nomi Carmona done for solving a real world problem?  What is their contribution to helping others except for supporting the same thing that Greenpeace is supporting?  How about all of the activists who spread their propaganda of fear and claims of dangers resulting in wanting to ban all GMOs?  Are we so selfish to protest and not offer up anything to contribute to others around the world?  Sadly, yes, we are so fixated on “our” food and what is “best for us” that these folks along with their followers have lost sight of the potential to help others.  It really appears to be a crime against humanity, way worse then the claims and rumors they harbor towards Monsanto any day.

We westerners never see this and can argue about GMOs and block it because we are well fed and well nourished.  What about all the others in the world who suffer because our stupid fights over food and technology?  That’s selfish and ignorant to block this potential tool to help others live a better life that we take for granted.  We fight over food because we have it while others are lucky to get anything at all.

Penn and Teller minces no words about Greenpeace and the anti-GMO supporters either.

When I traveled to Thailand and visited the cities, my eyes opened up to the problems these countries have with the disabled.  They would all be begging and either hobbling on their arms dragging their legs, blind, and their clothes would be shredded.  One kid walked on his hands with his legs straight out in front of him and the rest were all blind.  It was terribly saddening to me to see this.  If we westerners could somehow help these people, why not?  That is how I see Golden Rice as a tool to make someone else’s life that much better.  It is a great reason for why I support science and research.  I donated money towards this cause that I do believe in.

Hawaii people are stuck on their rock making claims of poison and spreading anecdotal evidence.  They have become blind to the needs of others that can be helped by this technology.  Are we too stuck in our own world to look beyond at the bigger picture?  Have we become selfish, self absorbed people blind to the world’s problems?  Think beyond the rock people, there is more than what you see about being anti-GMO about “your” food.

Mark Twain summed this issue up nicely in his quote:

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

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Tokyo Rose and the “Antagonizing” of Bryna Storch

`Ever since the Kanu Hawaii post on papaya several months ago, I had the opportunity of some commenter named Bryna Oliko Storch accusing me of various things.  Kanu had a really ill informed post up on their Facebook page (which is no longer posted, thank goodness!) about where to find non-GMO papayas.  I really despised how the wording was put on the post as if to imply that non-GMO is better than the disease resistant variety when the evidence shows that there is little to no difference.  Of course all the anti-GMO commenters decided to have a field day on there including Bryna Storch, who I encountered there first.

Kanu is a public page that had been leaning toward the anti-GMO side which I was very disappointed in.  When I saw this post on the Kanu Facebook page, I was immediately turned off.

antievent

There was posts on there for the anti-GMO event disguised as a “green” event sponsored by many of the same groups and Tulsi and Mike Gabbard, Hawaii Organic Farming Association, Hawaii SEED, and others.  (You can read some of my other posts linking the Gabbards to the Babes Against Biotech and some of the nasty comments made by Daniel Anthony about drinking RoundUp to people who speak out about farming.)

I decided to quit Kanu as a member for their unbalanced view of agriculture and the issues around seeing that event posted.  I stayed away from it all and checked back several months later to see if anything had changed.  I was not wrong because sure enough there was a post on papayas filled with the most ignorant and idiotic comments I have ever seen! (Those posts are removed from the page from the last few times I have checked the page.)

keone1 frest1dumbcomments

Of course Bryna starts up again on her issues with papaya that shows her knowledge about the ringspot virus to begin with, none.

kanu

She apparently thinks that the virus came from Mexico which is completely false and she doesn’t even know how it is spread.  If you do research, you’ll find that it originated in a completely different country.  Her prior comment shows that she has the same idea of “contamination” in her head which nearly all anti-GMO folks will claim.  A simple Google search disseminating the propaganda and targeting info from legitimate sites will tell one a lot about the history of papaya and the ring spot virus.

According to Wikipedia with resources cited:

“Using genetic phylogeny studies, researchers suspect the virus originated in Asia, likely India, about 2,250 years ago. From there it slowly spread through the continent reaching China about 600 years ago. It was also introduced directly from India to Australia and the Americas within the last 300 years. Papayas were introduced to India only 500 years ago, at which point the virus made the jump from cucurbits. However, the virus has switched back and forth between pathotypes many times in its evolution.”

Bryna is dead wrong about where it came from.  And as for the transmission of the virus, the info shows that the vector is from aphids from the same referenced entry in Wikipedia.  She claims she’s a farmer yet doesn’t even know this?  What’s up with that?

I find it very hard to believe that Bryna has been farming papaya for 40 years and doesn’t even know the basic facts on the virus history.  However, what she does say, will only spread more misinformation about the issue even further, which is what prompted me to comment on the Kanu post to begin with.  I emailed the executive director about the issues I had with the post and sent tons of links and resources to back up my statements too.

So several months later, I got to encounter Bryna yet again on the 4AgHawaii Partnerships when my nephew’s photo in his papaya costume was posted right after the Hawaii Farm Bureau Farm Fair.  There were two anti-GMO commenters on there making comments and I had to say something.

storch

I took the snarky approach to Bryna and her crony didn’t like it and chimed in.  Some people just don’t have any sense of humor or even think about who and what they are commenting about too, which I find distasteful in so many ways. After my last comment she makes this statement to me:

ignorant warren bryna

Now how is it that once can go to an open page that doesn’t take any sides to the biotech issue be considered a troll?  Who knows.  All I know is that the tactic is played when one has no other evidence to support their stance and it is the last thing they can do in a public forum as such.  It’s weak and just like what kids do when you get called a “booger head” at the end of a confrontation.

Well, no sooner did I realize that Bryna is REALLY watching what I say.  When Pacific Business News came out with a question for the editorial board about Bill 2491, several pro-biotech comments were made and the anti-GMO mob of course did what they do best, is mob the social media as always.  So when I simply posted my question that I would like to ask the board this is what ensued.

bstorch3

And I mustn’t leave out Bryna’s lovely comment to me yet again.  That’s when the word was out about my new nickname!  I actually knew about it because someone had already emailed me about it several weeks prior.

bstorch4

I once again got an ad hominen attack from Bryna with this terrific comment.

bstroch5

When you got nothing in the form of evidence to back up your statement, attack them personally, for that is the way of the A’ole GMO mob here in Hawaii!

(This may bother some folks to read this, but honestly, it doesn’t bother me at all because it just shows the level of maturity and intelligence that they people lack at all angles about the entire agriculture issue in Hawaii.  For every statement and derogatory comment directly made at those speaking out for agriculture in Hawaii, you should be held accountable for it!)

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Tulsi Gabbard does not Care about All Farmers

As a voting constituent, I feel that I have a right to voice my opinion to my Congressional Representative, Tulsi Gabbard.  I have noticed how she’s been posting lots of things with the Babes Against Biotech pages from months ago.  (She apparently drinks from the same punchbowl as the anti-GMO mob all do when she starts using the terms Monsanto Protection Act.)

BAB Gabbard link Gabbard and babs

Honestly, I was shocked to see that this representative was okay with being associated with activists that endorse crop destruction.

babs crop destruction

So, I decided to no longer be quiet about this at all because I have seen and felt so much hate and ugliness being directed towards farmers here locally.  That is not okay with me at all.  How can such a representative of the “people” avoid all the evidence presented?  Is it ignorance like what the anti-GMO mob clings on to or what is it?  I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and simply voice my opinion of the issue to her.

Screen shot 2013-10-02 at 9.33.55 PM

This is the response I got back from her:

Screen shot 2013-10-02 at 9.38.21 PMOkay, so she visited one farm and went to this anti-GMO event:

antievent

So I pressed her a little more:

Screen shot 2013-10-02 at 9.42.44 PM

Others jumped into the thread too with these comments:

Screen shot 2013-10-02 at 9.45.21 PM

Her team’s response to me was that I should contact her about visiting the papaya farm.  Which I immediately did that day.

Screen shot 2013-10-02 at 9.44.59 PM

Well, that was several months ago and our farm has yet to hear a peep from our representative regarding this issue.  That tells us farming families a lot about who she’s listening to and it’s not us.

I went back to her page to attempt to post something and lo and behold, I discovered this!

Screen shot 2013-10-01 at 11.10.53 PM

When you get this kind of post that only allows you to “share,” you know you’ve been banned.  We know who she’s really looking out for now.  It’s her Babes Against Biotech anti-GMO mob and not certain farmers in our islands.  Ignorance not only runs in the general public but also in our own congressional representative.

So Team Tulsi and Tulsi Gabbard, if you should find my page, I am all about getting educated.  Please take the time to learn about biotechnology through some simple videos like this one.  The world needs more research and science, not the perpetuation of ignorance and fear that you support with your stance.

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The Tag Teaming of the Hoosers

Hooserlooser

Quote of the day from Paul Watson, former Greenpeace activist and board member of Sierra Club, the parent of Earthjustice.

Screenshot 2014-02-01 22.06.42

Gary Hooser is at it once again, January 29, 2014, spreading his toxic gospel over and over again.  When he should have been at a Kauai County Council Meeting, he was among his favorite bikini clad calendar chics at the State Capitol.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=587668934643212

Not only is he repeating himself once again, but his son, Dylan Hooser, is also starting to repeat it the same mantra in Civil Beat.  Dylan has significantly cleaned up his image with a good shave and covering up his tattoo laden extremities to fit back into the political scene with his father, as long as he stays out of trouble with the law.  Here’s son and father together at the capitol from their new page, Defend Kauai #shameonyou.

COSTCOCLUB

Hooser also extended his presence at the most recent Filipino Chamber of Commerce Dinner.  That takes a lot of gall to be there, right after he and his mob said the most ugliest and heinous remarks about these workers and companies, whom he is attempting to rid the island of.  He must think that people have forgotten what he has done.

So what is happening now, is likely going to be a repeat of what happened last year in October.  Just take a stroll that down memory lane to recall the events that unfolded just a few months ago…

October 3, 2013

Last month, PBS Insights had to cancel the GMO panel that would include the Gary Hooser, Kokua Market GM Lynette Larson, Senator Nishihara, and of course my dad, Ken Kamiya.  PBS never got a reason for the cancellation but if you just see what Hooser does, you’ll see why pro-biotech folks would cancel on this guy to begin with.  (Note that this is my sole opinion of the whole issue.)

Here’s a nice video, by Kauai Rock Chick aka Bus Driver Chick of Hooser, being the hero for supposedly pinning down the seed company managers about disclosure.  (Note that these people are not in positions to speak for these lines of questioning, but it makes for a great Hollywood courtroom drama scene as the hero lawyer finds ultimate guilt!)

First of all, why would Hooser want to discuss GMOs, pesticides, and “right to know” issues with someone who lives on a completely different island in a industry that isn’t really strong on Kauai?  Could it be that he just wants more TV time to win over more voters for his next calling to office?  Well, let’s just do some investigating of this further to see what the evidence shows.

Hear it from both sides on this clip.  Hooser, Mark Phillipson of Syngenta, MMA fighter Barca, and Tim Pastoor, toxicologist for Syngenta:

Hooser was already on Olelo’s GMO panel several months back too stating the same things and getting friendly with Bill Freese of the Center for Food Safety, Hector Valenzuela, William Steiner, and Walter Ritte too.

http://www.olelo.org/gmo-week-proanti-gmo-debate/

How many hours have been spent going around stating the same thing, where he makes a statement that he consulted with attorneys from Earthjustice and Center for Food Safety, well known, well funded anti-biotech organizations?

Mana March he starts up again too.  (Has his mob paid their bill to the county for this march yet for not having the permit in place?):

And again for Big Island Anti-GMO Bill 113 at 2:20 speaking at his own behalf in the Brenda Ford circus.

Then he’s on yet another video also saying the same thing over and over again.

And again:

Then take a listen to his fellow followers and how they say the same thing over and over too nearly word for word.

Fellow County Council Member Tim Bynum repeating the same misinformation over too

Recall that Tim Bynum did once stated the he’d consider the evidence but apparently that’s out of the question now.  “I trust that it is science’s job to get to the truth.”

Screen shot 2013-10-02 at 7.53.09 PM

Then come more of the same anti-GMO club members saying the same thing over:

Here’s another one repeating practically word for word what Hooser states:

Then there’s the MMA fighter giving his expert advice about GMOs.  (Note that he goes through all the Monsanto myths and they aren’t even on Kauai):

Then there is Andrea Brower, who is a PhD candidate in sociology suddenly has expertise in feeding the world issues repeating the corporations and regulations.  She’s also has an article in the HuffPo about pesticides too, repeating the same things Hooser states. (Interesting how she puts her PhD candidate credentials on her Huffpo post but fails to state what it’s in.)

And here’s another one stating over and over Hooser’s doctrine:

Well, we know that he has probably coached many of these folks on what to say because he’s well known in the GMO Free groups across our islands.

Hooser Loooser GMO free GMOfreehooser  hooserlooser1

Note that he must not have much evidence to base his bill and and openly admitted that testing would be done after!  He did ignore prior studies that were done that showed no high levels of the pesticides he claims as being dangerous.  So do we make laws first and then figure out if there really is an issue while ignoring all other evidence collected?  Yes, if you’re Gary Hooser that is.

Hoosertesting

Despite the “Stink Weed Study” (pdf) or here and the latest DOH paper finding that cancer rates are actually lower in Kauai than the state, he refuses to acknowledge this anywhere and continues on the rants.  He completely ignores any of the evidence presented!  Has it ever been mentioned at any of the testimony or videos?  Never.

But then again, Hooser is definitely on the bandwagon to political opportunities when people say this about him.

Hooserjoke

Some people are getting pretty sick of his ways and he knows it when he has to post stuff like this too.  (Some others are starting to feel like he’s family when he get’s the name “uncle.” Also note that he even refers to people who don’t agree with him as “trolls,” which is a typical term anti-GMO mob folk love.)

Hooser Post

When you start hearing from your constituents that they are not happy with you, guess you’d better get back on TV again and win more people for your mob!

Hooser Emailedited

The anti-GMO mob does need more supporters now especially after the recent papaya vandalism!  It doesn’t bode well for these folks after they have been caught making threats of crop destruction for the past year or more publicly.

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/category/240193/new-video-landing-page?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=9357977

Hooser and fellow mob members are starting to sound a whole lot like this which explains why it has to be repeated over and over.

Screen shot 2013-10-03 at 9.44.30 PM

<meta name=”google-site-verification” content=”DO_ot2wyAqeU_6iPy-X700mPrnTP27EjuyUBqr4vE30″ />
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My Adventures with the Anti-GMO Club

I remember back last year when the hot topic issue was the labeling of GMOs in the legislature.  I really didn’t care too much about it until I got meme after meme about the dangers of GMOs from a Facebook friend of mine.  I thought, wow, this must be bigger than I expected.

Having worked on the research myself, I knew the safety and testing and had no qualms about it.  I even ate the transgenic stuff myself and the PRSV infected papaya as green papaya salad with no problem.  DNA was nothing I considered terrifying because I knew what is was and what it does.  So when I heard that papayas were now being touted and “poison” and “dangerous,” I thought I’d better learn about this issue more.

One of my first searches on the internet about these so called claims of dangers was on the claims of these movies being watched.  The searches come up chock full of Natural News, Collective Evolution, Green Med Info, Institute for Responsible Technology and so on.  After sorting through all of that stuff, I found this blog talking about the anti-GMO movement.  The more I learned about the issues from Bt genetic engineering, organic farming, and regulation, the more I realized that the information was so easily distorted by the social media.

Ready to start speaking up in the forums, one of the first places I started was with Civil Beat.  Little did I know that it was a haven for anti-GMO commenters.  It was amazing the sheer numbers of commenters I found on there every single article on GMOs.  Everyone was fixated on this evil called Monsanto, corporations, and poisons.  The more these repetitive comments repeated itself over and over, I started to realize how these folks just read things right off of a Google search and never even bothered to check the source.  It becomes really evident when the majority of the commenters use the same phrases over and over.

As I read the stuff from Natural News and so on I realized how easily someone with very little scientific knowledge could be beleaguered by the information presented.  I thought if I didn’t get some science background, it would be so easily believe the fearful and terrifying things being posted on these sites over and over again.  I’m too much of a skeptic to believe it and searched and read more about the so called claims and sure enough, debunked by noted scientists with ease.

Then of course, the big gem of the anti-GMO movement came the Seralini rat study.  The media was a ruckus over their final proof of the dangers.  Instead of reading the news interpretations of the study, I went straight to the study itself.  I also did searches on it by putting in “debunk Seralini study.”  And I found out a totally different side all together.  One of the first outlets to debunk his study was the media itself.  Shortly after I stumbled upon a wonderfully insightful site called Biofortified.  It had great articles by highly educated scientists and scholars.  I found it way more trustworthy than any of the other sites popping up.

After doing a lot of research and comparing articles across the internet, I’ve come to realize that the regular folks would not be able to understand half of the stuff being presented.  The Latins recognized this behavior eons ago when they coined the phrase, “Damnant quod non intelligunt.” They condemn what they do not know.  The scare mongering is so great on the anti-GMO side that it can really make you start to believe it.  Just like the phenomena when you leave a movie theater after watching a horror flick, you get a little spooked out for sometime.  Emotions are powerful strategies that work.

Screen shot 2013-09-21 at 10.22.38 PM

The only thing with the anti-GMO messages is that if you’re on FB or Twitter a lot, you get bombarded with hundreds of images every single day from multiple sites that it becomes all you can see.  It is almost like a brain poison that these marketers know how to prey upon.  Then when you walk into the grocery store and see that clean, neat little label that proudly states, “GMO-Free,” you feel relieved.  Some things marked GMO-Free are indeed that to begin with like coconut milk and almond milk.  There’s no such thing as GM coconuts or almonds!  It’s a scam to me and I despise the fact that it makes people feel bad about their food for no reason.  And especially here in Hawaii where food is even more expensive, making the people most prone to this kind of messages only takes advantage of their lack of knowledge.

The more I talk to people who repeat the myths, the more I’m able to see where their hang ups are about this “new science.”  It really isn’t new, it is just more precise and better controlled despite the anti-GMO club claim.  We have to do more on our part to educate people about this issue.  We don’t eat like we did 100 years ago and why would we want to go back to those ways.  Research, education and scientific evidence moves us forward.  That’s the direction our society should be moving towards a better future.

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Google and the Agent Orange from Ace Hardware

I am so glad for the nice feature on here with the comments that can be moderated.  It never fails that you will get some winners lurking out in the social media to post some winning comments on a blog.

Meet someone named John D Blair who posted these two lovely comments.  This is exactly what I’ve been talking about with the anti-GMO club’s tactics with commenting.

Screen shot 2013-09-30 at 8.37.00 PM Screen shot 2013-09-30 at 8.37.22 PM

Here’s some simple research about the active ingredient in Agent Orange that John is referring to just by doing a simple Google search:

Screen shot 2013-09-30 at 8.53.35 PM

Then if you do another search of where you can buy this active ingredient, you’ll easily find it at Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Lowes, pest control stores, and other similar stores even Amazon.

What people like John Blair do don’t like so many other anti-GMO club members is more research.  Think!  If the active ingredient in Agent Orange is still around, why is it being sold in stores?  Well, you can’t even get to that step if you don’t research in the first place.  Well, I like to educate so here’s what I found while searching the issues with Agent Orange.

Look up it up in Google, “Why was Agent Orange so toxic?”  Well, if you read the whole entry you’ll find this as your reason for the toxicity.  The answers are all there, if you take the time to read and know your stuff.  (I am purposefully having you click on the links listed to read for yourself what it says.  This is how one can learn to research.)

The thing with these kind of folks is that they can never believe that someone who speaks out for biotech is not paid.  It’s an easy dismissal in one’s mind to say that.  How could anyone even consider such a thing?  The truth is that more folks are speaking out about this issue and doing it for free is unfathomable.  I can honestly tell you that I receive no monies whatsoever from the biotech industry for writing this blog.  It did however set me back about $150 or so out of my own pocket and it is not a going to be a tax deduction either.   I haven’t formed my own non-profit activist group status either.  I’m just a farmer’s daughter who is willing to speak out and clear up the muck.

So Mr. John D Blair, if you could kindly take off those Monsanto glasses, you may actually think a bit more clearer.  And you might want to take a lesson in how do to a simple Google search to find an answer before making a comment.

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An Open Letter to Hawaii Politicians about Agricultural Technology

Dear Governor, Legislators, Senators, Representatives, County Council Members, City Council Members,

I am writing to you as a daughter of a long time farmer, Kenneth Kamiya.  Our family has been long time farmers for over 4 decades on the Windward side on Oahu.  My grandfather farmed the land with beans, Okinawan potatoes, cucumbers and finally papaya, which my dad and brother continue to this day.  I am asking for your support in these contentious times of dealing with the issue of agricultural technology, specifically GMOs.

The First Kamiya Farmers

I speak out not only for our family but for all other families in our islands who use this technology to run the farms that they do.  Our state cannot afford to be left behind because of the maligned fears of the public of this technology.  You as a leader also have to be able to separate fears created by the black marketing strategies and consider the evidence that is presented.  That is your responsibility to us as your constituents, even though the farmers and ranchers make up 1-2% of the public.  Those are the voices that should ring loud and clear in your minds.

What does the evidence show us?  Worldwide, there is a consensus that biotechnology is safe.  Read below for the worldwide organizations that have made statements about biotechnology in food:

GMAuthoritiesnew1

Given this evidence, will you accept what the worldwide scientific community states?  Or will you fall prey to the fear mongering of the environmentalists and the organic industry’s tactics like this:

facemaskScreen shot 2013-06-29 at 9.45.24 PMscaremongering

The public sure has become beleaguered with fear which is evident when you see these kind of events happening across our islands:

Screen shot 2013-06-29 at 6.04.11 PM protest

The same people that join in these protests are so fear mongered that they have even done this to farmers or anyone who speaks out for biotechnology:

KB crop destructor  DF fertilizer momi LM

ly

namastestpeh MV RGV tw2 tw TC manaai agroterrorism

Activist groups too are guilty of promoting hate and crop destruction as in this meme from the Babes Against Biotech with Roseanne Barr’s quote:

babs crop destruction

Notice how much hate there is because fear has made many people irrational already.  Ignorance is evident here in many of these comments.  And it’s not pretty to be at the receiving end of it.

We know that many of you have become the receiving end of these activists, especially the Babes Against Biotech who went after Senator Nishihara last year.  We know that many of you have also been portrayed as targets too.

nishihara target

As a result, not many people want to speak out for agricultural technology here and when you do, many times, you get threats like this sent to you.  Here’s one I personally received a few days ago:

Screen shot 2013-09-28 at 2.49.19 PMmike strange

Or you might get called a name or something, but it doesn’t bother me for I know what the truth is:

tokyo rose

So when leaders like you decide to reject the evidence presented, you are feeding and fueling fear.  This same fear happens because so many people have little to no knowledge about agriculture or the technology around it.  They may be loud and demanding but you must also listen to the quiet ones who toil in the fields every day.  My family like so many others are just regular people who want to have access to the tools to do the job we have at hand, which is to feed people the best way possible.

Kenneth Kamiya, my dad Kenneth Kamiya, my dad

When it comes time to listening to your constituents, all I ask is that you listen to your most valuable ones.  The farmers!

Aloha,

Joni Rose

The Hawaii Farmer’s Daughter

by

What can a Farmer do?

Kenneth Kamiya, my dad

Kenneth Kamiya, my dad

Growing up as a kid and having to work on the farm, it is easy to not appreciate the things you have until you’re older.  As a kid, I hated having to wake up early on the weekends to go down to the farm.  We never had the chance to lounge around watch cartoons in the mornings.  I used to think that this was so unfair that we were the only kids who couldn’t do this.  It was like drudgery every weekend to know that we were the workers.  From the time I was about 8 until I was well into my twenties, it was working on the farm at least once a week.  Even during the summers it was working for me and my siblings.  The work got easier when we realized that we could negotiate being paid.

My parents always taught us that if we ever wanted something, we had to earn it fair and square.  You couldn’t make deals with them if you wanted that new cassette tape of Wham! or Madonna.  If you wanted it, you had to work.  There was no other option to them.  We did learn that grandma and grandpa were great ways to just get things easer though.

Well, you can bet that as a teenager, when I had the first opportunity to get a job elsewhere, they were all for it.  It felt great to not be working in the fields, or in the shed processing papayas for hours.  To scoop ice cream in an air conditioned mall and decorate cakes was fun!  The work was way easier than the farm any day.  I was happy to be free as teen and later as a college kid.

As I step back, my views of the farm have changed now that I have children.  I realize that as much as I hated working on the farm, I truly had the best childhood growing up and an amazing farmer father.  He was a tough guy as a dad and very strict but the lessons I learned stick with me to this day.  He may have officially retired from his regular job, but he still works more than 40 hours a week doing what he loves the most:  farming and agriculture.  His family always comes first but those are his other true passions in life.

His own early lessons in life helped to build his values to what they are.  My dad grew up very poor.  His dad was a dairyman and farmer himself.  He spent his childhood playing around in the dump searching for handy reusable trinkets or other recyclables.  His way of recycling would put the modern day green person to shame.  They reused everything and saved many things.  He has some of the same tools that his father used on the farm that is still usable to this day, some 60 years later.  Talk about durable!

dadwaterbull-Mw

As a farmer’s kid himself, at a young age, he learned the ropes of how to do everything.  He could ride a water buffalo to use it to plow fields, tie knots of every kind, drive any vehicle, and fix it too.  He was always tinkering. Later when he realized that the military could give him an education and other skills that also shaped his life.  Soon he was in Vietnam fixing aircraft in the Air Force also.  Those experiences gave him the skills to do practically anything, which he indeed does.

My dad is unbelievably skilled at nearly everything which is no understatement.  He rigged up his own tractor to become a forklift, welded the picking platform, built bins, built the shed and processing portions, plows, drives a backhoe to dig up stuff or uses a bulldozer to grade the land, can diagnose plant pests and diseases, knows how much and when to fertilize the fields, lays out drip lines and irrigation systems, knows which cover crops to grow and when to plow them in, delivers and packs the fruits and can instantly spot a ripe one from 10 feet below, hauls 50 lb. boxes of fruit several hours a day, knows how to control any weed and what to treat it with, knows almost every kind of plant there is to know and how to grow it, can reuse old fence posts to build a new fence, fix big rigs and trailers as well as park those things, can maneuver in the tightest of spots in Chinatown when delivering the fruits, and so many more skills that I could not list.

Farmers like my dad and others across the world are truly amazing people.  Until you know one personally and see exactly what they do and how they do it year after year, you can appreciate the depth and dedication that these people live and breathe each day.  Farmers were considered one of the noblest of professions which should still indeed ring true today.

In the words of Thomas Jefferson:

“Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness.”

by

The Anti-GMO Club Needs a Lesson in the Golden Rule

Remember as kids were were taught in school the Golden Rule?  I think that once again we have to go back to small kid time and remember that simple rule that kept the world more peaceful and civil.

The anti-GMO activists might benefit from taking a lesson in walking in another person’s shoes.  Remove those Monsanto goggles for just a few minutes and think on your own two feet.  It might do some good here.

dadjeep-S

Imagine being a long time farmer.  We’ll call you Farmer Aloha.  Farmer Aloha’s parents and grandparents did it and now you have taken on the farm.  Your family has a proud heritage of farming and you want to continue it.  Well, one day, some disease crops up in your orchard and little by little it destroys it.  All that work you did to plant it, nurture it, are all gone despite much of an effort to control for this disease.  In a matter of months,  your entire family farm is decimated.  You are  pretty darn sad and depressed.  You don’t make a whole lot of money from farming but this is your life’s passion.

Soon, Farmer Aloha gets word that research is being done to help solve this disease and possibly restore your crops.  It is a glimmer of hope of continuing the family legacy to help bring back your farm.  You go on for years without a farm, taking on a different job, but it is in your blood to farm the soil and land.  You try different crops but the very one you want and love is still out of reach.  All your long time loyal workers and customers are at a loss because your farm is gone.  They know you and your product well and want it back.

Eventually, the research turns out be that hope indeed and within several years, you slowly start up your farm again.  Many years and tons of testing was done to get the fruit ready for market and then there is a press release that is sent out with very little hullabaloo.  No one really pays attention to it at the time.  So many a happy customers are glad to see their beloved fruit again from their favorite Farmer Aloha in the stores.  Your business continues to regrow again bit by bit from the initial losses that you are still recovering from.

All the meanwhile, a bunch of radicals starts to get together and decide that this new fruit of Farmer Aloha’s is the next best thing to protest and target.  These folks start hooking up with each other and start telling each other many a stories about this thing they don’t understand.  It is just too scary to consider that science can change plants.  The anti-Aloha group consists of a fringe scientist, surfers, sociologists, bus drivers, hotel workers, green people, lawyers, etc.  Because there are hundreds of ill informed frightened people around, the masses grow.  Even some of the politicians are fearful of the technology and don’t do their own research on the issue.  These people just believe and refuse to accept the evidence.  Pretty soon thousands are believing that Farmer Aloha’s crops are indeed a threat.  The small minority of other farmers and scientists are amazed at this horrible hate and wrath of misinformation.  If one of them should speak up, they instantly are targeted by the anti-Aloha club.

DodoGMOs

Then comes the advent of the internet and the filth spews even more across the world.  More hateful things are being said all over the place and everyone and their grandma is saying the same thing about Farmer Aloha.  The hate is all the same things being said over and over but Farmer Aloha continues to work for your faithful customers and clients.  It gives you pride to be able to continue to feed them.  You hope that this issue will settle down in time.

Farmer Aloha decides to support other farmers too by going to the Farm Fair. You serve up thousands of samples of his delicious sweet fruits.  Lots of people appreciate it and will say so.  The true local people of course come up and pleasantly ask for a sample first and then take one.  Then come the anti-Aloha people who come up very defiantly and lift their noses up and ask, “Are these GMO?”  To which Farmer Aloha states, “Why yes they are.  Please enjoy a sample.”  Some of these anti-Aloha folks tip their noses to the air and stiffly walk away quite snottily or some crouch down to hide this special sweet sample and savor it secretly.  Other fearful anti-Aloha people will come up and say, “You are selling poison!”  That person starts going off in front of others clamoring for samples and eventually gets pushed away.  He never notices the weird looks that others are giving him.

Because of Farmer Aloha’s support of this new technology, the disease pressure is reduced and almost obliterated.  The anti-Aloha people discover that farming is the new thing to do after moving to Hawaii and start their own farms.  With no disease and a lot of people fearing Farmer Aloha’s fruit, they can sell aloha-free fruit to these folks.  These same anti-Aloha folks proudly go about the social media to talk stink about Farmer Aloha and his workers and family.  They even put their faces to their comments too so that you know who they are!  They even posted really mean and nasty comments on a picture of your kid wearing his aloha fruit costume too!  These anti-Aloha people are everywhere on the social media bombarding the whole conversation.  No one is listening to you, Farmer Aloha.  You are not even part of the conversations.  And that is where our stories ends at the moment.

So, lesson from this story is have you ever heard of Farmer Aloha ever saying something derogatory to these anti-Aloha farmers or even posting nasty comments on their farming pages?  Or has Farmer Aloha ever gone on the record to tell these anti-Aloha farmers how to farm and what to grow?  No, never, ever because he’s too busy working on his farm.  Farmer Aloha is all about aloha and education.  The anti-Aloha farmers and their club members are famous for this kind of behavior and tactics.  Easy to find all over the place sadly to state.  We have never seen any Farmer Aloha stooping down to that level.

Simply put, what if people started protesting organic foods?  Then spreading nasty rumors about the dangers of organic foods and scary pictures of what it can do to you?  Then it would make people really scared and irrational about this food that they consider organic.  The organic farmers would be subject to hate and unkind remarks as well as harassment over the social media and at farmer’s markets.  This would go on for years and years with no end in sight because more and more people start to believe these rumors as truths.  And what if that pretty green organic label incited fear in people to cause them to not buy it based on marketing of misinformation?  What if consumers started to demand the right to know how your grow and demand a label if it was fertilized with manure and had the potential for fecal contamination?  Would the organic farmers support it?  Then, would they like it if there was an organized march against them called MAO, March Against Organic?  I doubt it.

mao

I think that if we have others walk in the shoes of the farmers they are protesting and directing their hate and harassment at, it might just shed a different light on where and what we need to do for agriculture in Hawaii.  How would you like it if your livelihood was being targeted for completely baseless reasons?  You would not like it either!

The golden rule is no longer taught in Hawaii schools but there is something new called the 5 Rs that the anti-Aloha club might want to review in the conversations around agriculture and farming.  This is the direction that Hawaii agriculture has to move towards…  One of respect, responsibility, resourcefulness, relationships, and resiliency.  That is the future!

5Rs