Hawaii is on its way to allowing a dangerous threat to influence how laws are made. That threat is called ideology.

Ideology has no basis in evidence or reason. It is based in a core set of beliefs, just like religion. As a result of these shared beliefs, many people of different backgrounds are easily swept up into this movement. Some people will easily repeat the widely held beliefs without question, while others will question and not believe those statements.

Applying ideology has been problematic in making laws as it required good reason and evidence to base the need for it. Examples where ideology was used to pass laws include slavery, no child left behind, internment of the Japanese, and discrimination of minorities throughout history. Behind each of these laws was a strong idea and belief that there was something wrong, however no real reason for the need to pass such laws.

Herein lies the problem that the people have turned to the courts to overturn such laws. The law itself cannot be discriminatory in nature to begin with. People can discriminate but the courts have shown that discriminatory laws are illegal.

When our Hawaii politicians start being influenced by ideology, it ultimately harms us all. It takes away resources and energies from the folks who have to defend themselves from these ideological assaults. Reputations are harmed and time is lost as a result. How does that make Hawaii move forward? It doesn’t!

If you think back further, has ideology in politics ever moved us forward? In some ways it has when we all share the common beliefs set forward by out founding fathers that all men are created equal. We also share the belief that we have freedom to pursue our passions and ideas. Those common ideas is what makes the U.S. the leaders in the world of innovations.

Our societies have greatly benefitted from free thinkers. From the development of the lightbulb to the plane, to cars, and to our IPhones, and even the Internet, it all came from members of our society who took on the challenge to innovate.

What would have happened if we held onto the belief that everything old is good? We would never become home to any of these innovations that revolutionized our world society. Unfortunately, there is a well-funded, highly organized group of people trying to push this idea upon Hawaii politics, and it is disturbing to me.  Knowing our roots helps us to move forward and grow as we know where we came from and where we need to go.  We cannot forget that part of us.

The basic human desire is to create, innovate, and do something. We all want to be a part of something. That is our nature. We are at a time where technology is rapidly advancing us at a pace in which we have never seen. A large population of people have not been able to keep pace with the literal explosion of information and as a result, have decided to stifle it.

We no longer live in the days of the Salem Witch hunt, however, the patterns that we are see are eerily similar. We have people fearful beyond belief about what’s happening in this world and they are ready and willing to support for the loss of lives to satisfy their need to stop this. There is no sort of evidence for them to stand upon other than this new and strange thing is inherently bad. There are real casualties happening each time the well fed, healthy witch hunters declare a win as they forget their role in the global community.  It’s selfish and harmful that we live in abundance while the rest of the world is left to suffer.

In this election year, my wish is that people start really seeing if we want the “witch hunt” ideology based “leaders” in office. The voters sent a message to the blockers of innovation who were holding up a sword to direct and fuel mob mentality towards a technology. I don’t buy into your ideology of beliefs that are not based in facts or logic. I refuse to keep Hawaii out of touch with the world’s revolution, and I seek the cultivators of innovation to move our state forward, not backwards. I will always seek the latter as that’s the world I want my kids to have in their future.  That’s my intent in speaking out against this ideology!

I’ve read and heard so many people tell me how they are cutting back on chemicals in their food by eating better. I can’t help but shake my head because it it telling about how people do not understand the basic concept that everything is made up of chemicals.  Our body operates on chemicals and is made up of chemicals!

As I was making cookies today, I realized how we forget about what chemicals are and how they play a part of our daily lives. To say that something is bad and dangerous because it’s a chemical is pure fear mongering at best.  Just the world alone invokes fear in those who don’t have a good grasp on the basic science of chemistry.

Take for example two important chemicals in my chocolate chip cookies, baking soda and salt. They are essential to making my cookies good but at the right amounts, they can be toxic. Hard to believe but very true.  If you remove these chemicals from your baking, you get a nice messy goo of dough that will not taste like a cookie.  They are essential for creating that reaction that bakes into a cookie.  Nor can we forget about the delicious chemicals in chocolate called theobromine and caffeine that is deadly to dogs but not to us in the right dose.

It’s also interesting to note that some seemingly “safe” chemicals aren’t as safe as we’d like them to be when you take a closer look at them.  Baking soda and salt are might higher in toxicity than a commonly known weedkiller known as Roundup.  Even the chemical found in those dark chocolate chips (caffeine and theobromine) are much more toxic than the weedkiller! What’s important to note is that the amount is what makes it toxic!  Hard to believe but very true.  Just take a look at a table outlining this.

So when you start to bite in to that delicious crispy chocolate cookie, remember that it is made up of chemicals and the reactions made by mixing them together.  Baking is literally a scientific experiment! Every time your take a bite of your food, remember that you’re consuming CHEMICALS!!!  Hopefully, doing this every time you eat and drink can help to alleviate your fear around it and make you realize that you’ve got some learning to do.

By the way, those cookies pictured above were quite delicious and you might just want to try mixing up your own batch of chemicals and create some reactions!  Bon appetite to chemicals!

It’s been nearly a year since I started this blog, and I’ve come to realize that I never quite told my story as to why I decided to start it up. Having celebrated a year of blogging, I’d like to share my story.

My journey into speaking out for my dad’s farm actually started back in 2012. I remember back then seeing tons and tons of memes on Facebook being posted by a friend who was following the Babes Against Biotech. It never bothered me much and I pretty much dismissed it for some time. It was only after seeing their memes trying to lobby to make laws that made me realize that something bad was going to happen. I called my dad and told him what I had saw and had been reading and he pretty much said, “Ah, it’s just activists. They do this all the time and they won’t get anywhere.” I implored him to start talking to his ag folks and get organized because I felt that this was something bigger than thought.

Boy, was he wrong back then as the GMO labeling law was pushed by an activist politician, Jessica Wooley. I remember a friend asking me to support her prior to her being elected and I already knew she was bad news since she was married to an Earthjustice lawyer, David Henken. My dad had many interactions with Earthjustice when trying to get the irradiator plant started to help with the export of fruit. My husband also knew the tactics of Earthjustice and how it stalled up his work in the Agribusiness Development Corporation. I knew that she was not a friend to agriculture at all even though she claimed to be.

That year was a year of constant testimony writing, and my dad having to leave the farm and go down to the legislature to testify. Many hours were lost and the activists were attacking farmers constantly online in the social media. I remember seeing any GMO article on Civil Beat being just bombarded by the antis with their same repetitive bogus links and scare studies about how bad it was. These people made up all kinds of lies about the GMO papayas and the farmers who farmed them and that was it for me. The antis made as if the biotech papaya ruined the industry and that it didn’t save it. They also made statements that any farmer who used GMOs were lazy and killing people. 2012 was the year that GMOs were bad.

I was ticked off seeing those kinds of nasty comments on the Star Advertiser and Civil Beat as well as all over the social media. I decided to start commenting on there. Well, this is Hawaii and it’s a small world and it got back to my parents that I was on there saying things publicly. My parents both told me to not speak out as it would make our farm a target. I told them, “What do we have to hide from? We already are a target whether we like it or not!” To make them happy, I changed my name online from my legal name to my alias, Joni Rose. That’s how I began my journey into speaking out for my dad’s farm and biotechnology.

What bothered me even more was when activists made as if scientists were doing something really horrible in the lab to saving a crop. I used to work as a student assistant in the lab that worked on the initial research towards saving the papayas. I was in there using my chemistry knowledge to mix buffers, set up ELISA trays, extract cucurbit viruses, plant and prep seedlings, take care of the plants in the greenhouse, go out to the fields and plant the trees, and so much more. I remember planting some several thousand seedlings over the course of a few weeks and it was hard work. The activists made as if this entire research was easy and nothing to it, which was far from the truth. I wanted the public to know the reality about all of this, and not their made up stories.

After seeing so much anti-GMO misinformation and fear mongering, I had decided it was time to officially launch something to speak out, which mean the birth of this blog. I was so fed up and frustrated that I had to speak out and this was my outlet. People needed to know my dad’s story and the stories of so many other farmers he worked with. To allow people with no farming background and a poor ability to decipher fact from fiction to dictate to farmers how to farm was totally absurd to me. It was time to be out there. I knew that it would not be easy and I’d have to worry about what activists would do unfortunately but I had to do something.

Speaking out has had it costs however. I’ve had my share of hate mail and horrible things beings said but that’s just words. These people don’t know the truth of the reality of agriculture and big picture systems thinking. They are focused on the kind of food they are going to eat because they are afraid. The worry about being poisoned but still live near the farms that were there decades before they were there. The swim in the waters around our island and then yell about the oceans being poisoned. They talk about saving the a’ina and doing what is pono, but then make false accusations against others to try to harm reputations. Their nastiness towards those who stand with the evidence only reflects on the sad mindset that has been perpetuated by politicians like Gary Hooser, Tim Bynum, Kaniela Ing, Margaret Wille, and Russell Ruderman.

What has bothered me a lot was a story my brother told me about one of his workers who was barred from attending a family member’s wedding because he worked for a GMO company. Even though my dad’s farm isn’t a big ag company, just the fact that it was GMO meant that we were on the same standing as Monsanto, the perceived evil of of the antis. I could not believe that the bull was tearing families apart! Unbelievable to me. I was even more compelled to call this stuff out already.

Once 2012’s hot topic issues cooled down, 2013 was just around the corner and the conversations started turning into “GMOs means pesticides.” All I could do is smack myself in the head when I heard this. The environmentalists, who want a cleaner and greener earth, are blocking a technology that could help with decreasing pesticides?! I can’t imagine why a greenie would want to block high tech agriculture but then okay for high tech alternative energy. What an oxymoron?!

The misinformation campaigns are still continuing again this year with a new tactic of using petitions to seek laws. People from around the anti-GMO world has made their way to Hawaii to spread their “truths” and add more fear to the pot. It’s not about sitting down at the table to discuss food security and sustainability, it’s about how to take things away from our agricultural communities. There’s no fact findings given on their side, only fear which is one of the most powerful emotions used by this lobby. We can’t use fear to move forward in our state. We have to use evidence that’s available.

Here I am, an entire year later still blogging my thoughts and ideas. By speaking out, I’ve been able to network others who share my thoughts about the Hawaii we want and it gives me hope. I want my dad and brother and their workers to be able to work on the farm and keep it going for years to come and not be subject to defending their work. Farmers work so hard and are so dedicated to what they do and should be allowed their right to farm. If the activists don’t like what I have to say, then stop attacking the farmers and dividing agriculture. We can’t work divided, we all work together. That’s the Hawaii I want to see!

The state of Hawaii is currently under a hurricane/tropical storm warning.  Like so many folks, many are just not prepared for it.  We have seen stores just packed with people buying the basics like toilet paper, rice, spam, quick to eat food, lots of canned goods, and bottled water.  Even gasoline is out a many gas stations across our state.

If you look carefully at people’s carts, you can see that when there is a disaster, no one cares about eating healthy or organic.  They are buying whatever is cheap and whatever will last.  The high end expensive foods and snacks are still sitting on shelves while the local favorites are all gone.  All the expensive waters are all that’s left in the stores while everything else is just gone.

This shows a very interesting behavior among consumers.  When people say that the need to know what they are eating, why does it change when there is a possible shortage of food or supplies?  We as Americans want to label GMO foods as if it is something bad which sends the same message around the world, but then when there is likely no food, we don’t care what we get.  It’s about survival and being ready for what may come.  It isn’t time to be picky or finicky and we have to go what is affordable and what is plentiful.

So, did you go shopping for GMO free organic and pesticide free food, BPA free bottled water, and gluten free bread when preparing for the storm?  Did you look for organic, chemical free toilet paper? Was your first stop to stock up for food and supplies Whole Foods or Down to Earth? I somehow doubt it.  When we have so much abundance around us, we forget that we actually do have choices and your choices change on the circumstances.

Just the other day, there was an update news post that the same funders of the anti-GMO movement here in Hawaii had made considerable contributions to the Vermont labeling law defense fund. The trustees of the Ceres Trust, Judith Kern and Kent Whealy, donated some $50K to the fund, helping it top $160K.  It is estimated that the state’s defense of this bad law will cost it some $8M!  If people have so much money to burn, why spend it like that?  Wouldn’t it be better spent to actually help people?

It makes me pretty mad that these rich mainland folks drop money like rain to influence bad laws that ultimately take away from our taxes that should be used for us local folks first and foremost.  They make as if GMO regulation is the ultimate priority here and our own politicians have been bought hook line and sinker to this message and it’s pretty disturbing to me.  Can no one see the priorities here in our state?

On a Star Advertiser poll done several months ago, one of the priorities that were recognized was that of homelessness.  Just take a drive through Waikiki and our own capitol and you see why folks don’t like it.  We’ve got sidewalks covered in makeshift tents, urine reeking parking lots, human feces in public areas, people lying on public property, and it all adds up to blight.  In a city and state where our beauty is touted and people imagine paradise, we get nothing of the sort when you visit our state.  The public bathrooms at our beautiful beaches are smelly with broken faucets, litter, and vandalism all over. Some bathrooms can’t even be used because its been taken over by homeless people living there and you get greeted by their lovely pit bull protecting them.  It’s a major problem and yet our politicians like David Ige and Russell Ruderman wants to push for GMO labeling and regulation.  Forget what the city and state look like, they’ve got a different priority at hand.

If you follow the issue with the public schools system, you also see that there are major problems there.  Kids have to endure long hours of school in 95 degree classrooms only to have a fan blow hot air at them.  Teachers spend their own money to add to their classroom lessons because there is no added funds.  My mom, as a teacher, had to keep snacks on hand because many kids did not get enough food to eat and couldn’t concentrate in class.  Screens and facilities are dirty month after month only to be cleaned when a church group rents the facility out and does the work for free.  Some schools have no books and teachers have to purchase paper to create lessons taken from the computer instead.  Our children should be our priority to politicians but some choose to shift the issue to GMOs because that is more important than what happens in our schools apparently.

Another recent news story was that our local farmers are getting older and the younger generations aren’t willing to take over.  The average age of farmers here are about 65 years old.  Farming is such an attractive occupation lately when politicians like Brian Schatz, David Ige, Kaniela Ing tout home rule.  Farmers not only have to comply with federal mandated laws like the burdensome Food Safety and Modernization Act, state laws, and now county level laws.  Add on to that the increased cost of health care, taxes, property taxes, energy costs, and supply costs to the mix that really make farming a great job.  These politicians somehow think that increasing legislation on farmers and their businesses are really going to make lots of people want to take on this risky and laborious job that has plenty of money to make.  Wanna be politicians like Robert Harris also have a way to increase local food supply more by just coming up with a magical number of 20 to 30% but somehow forgot to talk to the current farmers about how this will happen.  I guess an act of god will magically solve this problem or maybe more millionaires will come to our state and grow our food for us.  Once again, the politicians are all about problem solving and going after biotech foods is going to give us more farmers and more local foods somehow.

With so much more GMOs in our food supply, we shouldn’t be surprised of some eye opening statistics.  Many anti-GMO activists keep claiming that GMO foods are killing us with all kinds of diseases but amazingly the people who eat this the longest are living longer! It’s estimated that by 2030, 25% of the population will be over the age of 65, and Hawaii will have the largest population of 80 year olds in the nation!  Yup, those GMO foods are indeed killing us all and making us live long lives.  As a result of this growing elderly population, more families are having to lose hours of work or quit work all together to take care of these folks.  It’s not easy work taking care of an elderly person and raising your own family at the same time.  I know because I’ve been doing this for over 8 years already and so many others are in the same boat as me.  The cost of care is going up so families have to sacrifice much to care for their kupuna and we lose out on our own retirement savings.  There are thousands of families doing this across our state and it takes a toll on each and everyone of us who are caregivers but the politicians are always looking out for us.  They are going to work on labeling those GMOs so that we have more expensive food and lose more income from being caregivers.  That’s a real priority to them.

I mustn’t forget that there are some wealthy people in Hawaii doing good like Pierre Omidyar, who is trying to get local people more fresh milk.  It’s too bad that the very people he catered to with Mao Organics are now the same ones who are fighting his investment in the Kauai dairy.  Rich people also have plenty of money to sue to stop the dairy but then offer nothing in terms of growing Hawaii’s local food supply.  It’s funny how the anti-GMO folks love their organic foods and then turn against the same person who provided more of those organic foods that they are demanding.  These people have no allegiance to anyone for that matter and that’s what we are seeing.

With all the money flowing into our state with the anti-GMO, anti-ag issues, why can’t that be used more constructively to help address the real priorities at hand?  We have so many of them and yet our politicians want to regulate something that truly shows no evidence for enacting such legislation.  These rich folks are spending lots of their monies to take away from the local folks who don’t even pay attention to what’s going on.  Their gambling and tinkering in our state is really going to come at a big cost as it takes from each and every person who contributes to our state.  As someone with lots of money, wouldn’t you want to give it to something useful rather than use it to take away from us local folks?  It’s sad that our politicians can’t even see that either.  Every time they support bad legislation, it takes away from our keiki, kupuna, and all local people and we all lose because someone had a lot of money to waste.

As a kid, our parents want us to hang around the good kids.  If you get in with the good kids, it also makes you look good and stay away from trouble.  Who you hang out with is a reflection of one’s own morals and values, as well as your family.  No one wants a kid who’s a delinquent.  In today’s modern world, that lesson is quickly forgotten as millions have decided to hang around and share some bad information from a not so truthful guy who made a lovely threat asking his followers to kill those who support biotech.  Do you hang around those delinquents?  Remember that you are who you associate with.

It’s so not surprising that Mike Adams of the prolific anti-GMO Natural News website is resorting to calling for threats against those who support biotechnology.  He quickly set up a website, Monsanto Collaborators, hours before announcing this threat on Natural News itself.  He has been a huge proponent of fear mongering among the Hawaii anti-GMO movement here and it’s no surprise that he has a myriad of complaints being lodged against him with the FBI as a result.  This guy is an insult to most people’s intelligence but unfortunately, so many activists in Hawaii love this dude who accuses biotech of crimes against humanity and so.  Many of the anti-GMO activists here share his hate for biotechnology and if you look further about how this vile huckster has overtaken logical and rational thoughts, all you have to do is look at how well entrenched he has made himself.  Let’s take a closer look at how intertwined ALL of the anti-GMO groups are to this deranged fellow that has swamped over the internet.

Food Consumer

This site is full of untested health food claims and GMOs are dangers quips.  It’s a typical anti-GMO buy this latest health food and hate GMOs because it’s gonna kill you site.  And it too loves Mike Adams!

From the FoodConsumer.org page.

The Babes Against Biotech

Want good science from the Babes Against Biotech?  You’ve got it.  Straight from Natural News itself right on their site that touts “their resources!”  Now we can see why so many of their followers keep thinking that every disease on earth is caused by Roundup and GMOs.  Thanks Mike Adams!

Food Democracy Now!

How is Food Democracy Now tied to Natural News? Well, he touts their petition on his page too and wants people to sign it!  This bogus site is chock full of Agent Orange memes, GMOs are killing you, you are dying, and so on kind of information. Mike Adams loves helping these folks out!

Vandana Shiva

Let’s look at Vandana Shiva and how she’s related to Mike Adams.  We find that she is even touting his page on her site, SEEDFREEDOM, which she quickly removed but is cached on Google for now.  It’s just a reminder that she too touts this kind of vile attitude towards those who support biotech.  She has made many a visit to Hawaii to spread her vile love in our islands thanks to many mainland funders of a supposed “grassroots campaign!”

Just another lovely reminder that she not only supports violence towards biotech supporters but she also calls farmers “rapists.” Nature lovers are such lovely people inside.

The Center for Food Safety

Then let’s see if Center for Food Safety is linked to Natural News and it sure is.  Mike Adams loves their anti-pesticide messages that he adds to his pages too!

The Hawaii GMO Justice Coalition

So when all these anti-GMO groups are put together we get their followers in Hawaii touting it left and right on those GMO Free groups across our islands.  See how much they love this site!

The Hawaii GMO Justice Coalition has sought Natural News out to call for their massive protest too.  Note how they portray genetic engineering as a “crime against humanity” back in 2012.

GMO Inside

GMO Inside is yet another non-stop pusher of “label it” and “GMOs are killing you” kind of repetitive messages.  Their latest tirade is that Starbucks is killing you with their GMOs and who do they use as their source of information?  Natural News of course!

GMWatch

GMWatch is a Canadian based anti-GMO group that is hell bent against Monsanto, just like Natural News is.  And why shouldn’t they be?  They share his information too!

Jeffrey Smith and the Institute for Responsible Technology

Jeffrey Smith, the flying yogic of the movie, Genetic Roulette, is also featured on Natural News Health Conspiracy Radio.  How could he not be a part of Mike Adams’ tirade or paranoia across the internet?!  He’s an essential component to all of this fear!

Not only does Mike Adams adore Jeffrey Smith, but the love affair is mutual with Smith featuring his honored friend on his own website complete with a video!

Kauai Truth

Here’s another local activist website based on Kauai that’s written by Ray Songtree called KauaiTruth.org.  When you look at the top of his page, you’ll see his love for the Babes Against Biotech and Hawaii SEED.  Go a little further down his page and you’ll see his “independent” sources of information and who is it?  Natural News.  Visit the GMO page and you’ll get more from Dr. Mercola, Dr. Don Huber, Vandana Shiva, Jeffrey Smith, and once again, Natural News.

Sustainable Pulse

Sustainable Pulse is now the go to source for the Babes Against Biotech because they’ve sort of come to realize that Natural News is a joke and have “tried” to change their tactic.  Nearly ever link on their Facebook page is from this “GMOs are killing you” site once again as everything else is pretty much debunked.  How are they connected to Natural News?  They do post stuff from them as “good and valid” information!

The Organic Consumers Association

A huge pumper of bad information is the OCA, aka the Organic Consumers Association, led by Ronnie Cummings, is also touter of Mike Adams websites.  Of course they will state that Natural News, Mercola, and the OCA sites are the most trustworthy when it’s written by Natural News itself.  (*major head bonk*)

Kauai Rising

Kauai Rising is yet another anti-GMO group here in Hawaii that tried to get a petition to add change the county laws but did not succeed.  They too support Mike Adams’ plethora of bad information.

The SHAKA Movement

The SHAKA Movement is just another bunch of folks who are off on another planet but really are in California.  I’ve written about them here earlier.  If you go to their website, you’ll find links to many of Mike Adams bestie, Jeffrey Smith, the anti-GMO brothers of the internet.  They are great at fear mongering too.

Natural News is an Internet Sewage Spill of BAD Information

It’s pretty evident that this belief that biotechnology is creating a “crime against humanity” talk comes a lot from Natural News and so many other sites that share his beliefs.  There’s no facts and the unwitting consumer easily gets sucked into its fear filled messages that they are being harmed.  That’s why we have a very vocal bunch of activists who are crying for protections of this perceived “danger.”  Take a look at how many posts from our very own politicians who spew Mr. Kill Biotech Supporters’ message and its clear that they all are drink from his cup of anti-GMO punch.

Down to Earth even touts Vandana Shiva, a supporter of Mr. Kill Biotech, through Hawaii SEED.

Hawaii County Council member almost repeats herself word for word to Mr. Kill Biotech’s tirades. She too must read Natural News!

State Senator Russell Ruderman willingly aligns himself with activists like Mr. Kill Biotech and he’s pretty darn proud of it.

Even a Congressional Representative, Tulsi Gabbard, has read too much of Natural News from her funder, Down to Earth.

A State Senator wannabe, Terez Amato, also is believing in those health conspiracies that Mr. Kill Biotech touts. No wonder she thinks Thalidomide and papayas are related.

State House of Representative Kaniela Ing has also fallen in love with Mr. Kill Biotech’s message of “label it” with this review on the Hawaii Center for Food Safety Facebook page.

Former Representative Wooley herself spreads the same message that Mr. Kill Biotech repeats over and over again. A lawyer at that can’t tell bunk science from real science!

The Result of Poorly Informed Leaders= A Fear Mongered Public!

As you can see, even Hawaii leaders can’t even decipher bad information when they see it and nor do they do their homework. They too fall for the conspiracy theories and “we’re being poisoned” attitudes that are prevailing in the conversations around biotech and agriculture in our islands.  It shouldn’t be surprising at all that we see the same bunch of sites being shared among thousands and those thousands are scared, clamoring for politicians to save them from this perceived danger.  When you’re so afraid of something, you act without thinking, which means sharing bad memes and bad links.

As once can see, we have a ton of bad information, poorly educated politicians and a public prone to supporting kooks like Mike Adams aka Mr. Kill Biotech, now using this to make laws.  No wonder those SHAKA Movement folks have somehow interpreted the Hawaiian gesture to no longer mean “what’s up friend” but “here’s the bird because I’m scared out of my board shorts.”  A vote for the moratorium also means that you support this guy’s deranged message that biotech supporters should be killed.  Do you really want to support that kind of messaging in our islands or are you willing to look further as to where you might be getting some bad information?  Please do the latter folks and remember that childhood lesson to hang with the good kids and not this bad egg.

If you’ve posted any of these websites, touted this information or even plan on voting for any of these politicians or the moratorium, you might just want to rethink your support of them.  Supporting them means supporting Mike Adams and his message to kill people like myself and other farmers, scientists, and agriculture supporters like the ranchers and paniolos who base our decisions on real evidence and support biotechnology as a tool for our future.  He has no aloha and neither do any of the people who back him up.  The mainland based SHAKA Movement folks need to use their new interpretation of it and SHAKA this guy out of the way of our islands.

Better yet, get a good idea of who is this really is…  A kama’aina or a kook?  You decide.

http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=860fa3b2df922c99191b700938de9572

Someone sent me the following screenshot a few days ago about what the activists are saying about me.  They are always chattering here and there about me so I know I must be ruffling some feathers with them.  From stating that I’m poisoning my children or being infertile and full of cancer, they have lots of wonderful things to say about me speaking up against them.  It never bothers me because what they say only reflects on how they really are as people.

It’s funny how she now calls me the “GMO papaya princess and vicious attacker of the environmental and food agvocates.”  Seriously, this is how small minded these activists think that by putting out facts about what her and her associates do is considered attacks.  Facts really do hurt these folks apparently.

Naomi Carmona, who has never farmed a day in her life or ran a business or grew anything for that matter, is now a professional in agriculture.  That’s pretty amazing.  She suddenly has expertise in agronomy, integrated pest management, human resources, accounting, marketing, public relations, social media, driving and repairing heavy machinery, sales and marketing, and food safety management.  Those are all skills that farmers like my dad has and it totally overshadows the skills of any activists for that matter.

There’s so much talk from activists about how they want more local food grown here but then they seek to lobby laws against farmers like the labeling law and pesticide laws.  Farmers already have to deal with a huge load of laws from labor laws, food safety, environmental laws, tax laws, and so on.  Then we want to pile on more regulations on them and point fingers and tell them, we want you to grow more food to this certain amount.  Of course, no one talked to them to see if it was doable and what issues limit them if any.  If people really want more local food, they will seek to make farming easier and more attractive as a career, not dissuade people from it.  You can’t just say one thing and then do another as things just don’t work that way.

If we want to meet these goals of more local food, we’d better start coming to the table together to see why it’s not happening and end the attacks.  This kind of activism is dangerous to problem solving and only makes the situation worse. Farming communities can’t work together when outside people keep leveling attacks in misinformation.  They are left to defend their work and are off of their fields.  That’s not a good thing.

Why do I keep speaking out against this kind of hobby activism fueled by fear and misinformation?  I don’t want Hawaii to be filled with fearfulness of what the scientific process really is and the tools available to grow food.  We should have open minds to discovery and further research on how we can improve what we’re doing, not just worried about the food we eat and whether it’s organic!  We have the potential to help others in the world and meet our goals, if we allow it but many are using poorly sourced information and the heavy handed tactics of a wealthy, tax free, lobby to influence lawmaking here in Hawaii.

I really do wish I was that papaya princess that Naomi thinks I am.  I would have never spent hours after hours working my dad’s farm as a kid or worked in the papaya lab to help save his crops.  I took a lot of science classes like chemistry, biology, organic chemistry, biochemistry, human anatomy and physiology, and physics as well as a business law class to open my mind to the world.  I got a lot of dirt under my hands from NOT being a princess and I still love it.  A princess would never get hate mails or nasty messages from Naomi’s friends like Jessica Mitchell, Terez Amato, and Dustin Barca.   I would never have to work a full time job in the day because a princess never has to work and can do whatever she wishes.

I also don’t sit around watch videos that are meant to scare and prefer to read science journals and magazines to know what’s happening in research around the world and here.  My mind seeks information from cutting edge developments on how we can do things better and cleaner.  I don’t watch scary stories made up by pseudoscientists and prefer to learn about someone named Norman Borlaug, since he’s the reason why most of us, including you, don’t have to farm and are free to protest across the islands.

Unfortunately, the reality is that I’m not a princess.  I’m a farmer’s daughter.  I’ve seen the things my dad has gone through to get where he is now and it has not been a pretty journey.  We were never rich and had the nicest cars or clothes and latest gadgets.  I never got to eat out a nice restaurants or enjoy expensive things.  Everything I had was earned through my own work. I have never created funding accounts to pay for me to protest or attend anti-GMO parties.  I don’t go to concerts to protest things I don’t know anything about and spend money on expensive food.  I don’t have that luxury at all and don’t believe in earning a living that way either.  I prefer to stick to facts and live that honest life to my values taught by the hardest working person I know on this earth, my dad.

So Naomi and the rest of the anti-GMO club, you can keep reading your Natural News, World Truth, and other naturalistic fallacy websites touting “your” facts, but if plan on tearing apart farmers that actually grow food and communities that rely on agriculture, you bet I’ll continue to expose the truth about this hobby activism.

And by the way, can you please let your fellow antis know that we’d love to have these campaign signs repaired or reimbursed to Arthur Brun and Arryl Kaneshiro? That’s the pono thing to do and I’m sure you’ll see to it that this is remedied.