anti-GMO

by

Where’s the Giving Spirit of Gary Hooser and Club?

Image

It’s the holidays and to me that is a time for giving.  It is a time to get together with friends and family, catch up on old times but also a time to give back to others who aren’t as fortunate.  Every single time I go the to market or to the store, I always have some cash handy to let my kids drop into the Salvation Army donation can.  I also make sure that I gave my yearly donation to the Washinton University scholarship fund and to any other new cause that might need some help.  This year I did give a donation to the Golden Rice campaign to help promote efforts to get to the people who need it the most.  There are many people who could use that extra support at this time of year and if I have anything to give, I’ll freely give it if I can afford it.  To me, that’s the right thing to do at this time of year and really, throughout the entire year.

Following what’s going on in the social media, I was surprised to see that the Gary Hooser is once again riling up his anti-GMO club.  Tomorrow, December 15, all of his club members from the Babes Against Biotech to Hawaii SEED and more are going to do yet another march.  All this human energy and resources are going to be used just a few days before the holidays to once again protest and get together.  People are flying in from lots of outer islands to gather in Haleiwa essentially for an anti-GMO party.  Gary Hooser, the head Kauai County Council member riling up these folks even blogged about this march to promote and advertise it to others.  If you read it, he’s perpetuating his myths and conspiracy theories to get people “to rise up against this” and even thinks that people are “more educated” about the issues.  I find it rather sad that Gary feels that during the holidays, he’d rather see people march against something and use all of these resources to do such rather than help others in the communities.

It is really sad that Gary Hooser has really lost sight of what the holidays mean and about teaching others to give.  Consider what he really could have done that would have made someone’s holiday just that much better.  If every person who flew into this march opted not to go and donated that some $200 to a charitable organization, wouldn’t that be such a good thing?  Instead of using Honolulu City and County resources to cover the expenses of the march, these public funds could have been used in a different program to help the homeless or do something for a kupuna through one of the programs offered in the county.  How about using all this human energy to visit lonely people in nursing homes or help organize a holiday food drive?  These same people could have spent the day going into the native forests and cleaning out invasive species too.  Instead of going to the march and potlucking it, go to the IHS in town and feed the hungry that day.  These folks could even bring along their kids also to teach them what the holidays really mean.

Hawaii SEED even got a nice $10K check from Surfer Magazine to continue their misinformation campaign against farmers.  It’s all about how to pit farmers against farmers and not about healing the farming community with Ritte and his group.  I’ve never seen any Hawaii SEED give the needy food drive or help others event.  They obviously have some money but aren’t about to give any of it to people who may benefit from it.  You don’t see Hawaii SEED on the donation list for The Good Neighbor Campaign on the Star Advertiser.  It’s not about sharing with others unfortunately, no matter what time of year it is.

The more you see what these people do, the more you see that it isn’t about giving for them.  It’s all about taking away.  The anti-GMO club even had a float in the Pearl City Parade also where they passed out flyers and GMO free candy.  Instead of self promoting themselves and their issues, why didn’t these folks use that time and energy to actually give something back?  What if they didn’t spend that extra money for GMO free candy and donated that proceeds to the Hawaii Food Bank for someone who really needs nourishment?  They could take their kids with them and a nice sack of food to give to people who need it.  It is so disappointing to see that they continue to promote the fear mongering that make the most vulnerable of people afraid and guilty of what they are eating, while many of them partake in GE foods and admit that it is safe.  

A leader should embody and speak for the values that others should live by so that we can make our society a better place.  We all should be working together to solve the problems of the world, not seeking to continually divide it.  It’s the holidays where we should be working on making life better for others.  The leader should be the example to others to follow by.  Hooser talks about malama the aina and doing what is pono but what about malama the people too?  It is pretty obvious that Gary Hooser is not one of those leaders. 

By the way, if you should decide that you want to give to others at this time of year, here’s some great organizations that I think are worthwhile causes to support.

American Red Cross

The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii

The Aloha United Way

The Institute for Human Services

The Hawaii Food Bank

Remember that this is the spirit of giving and paying it forward.  I did it and I hope you do too!

 

Advertisement
by

Mayor Carvalho: Doing What is Right for Kauai

This is a letter by the Cassel Family submitted to the Kauai County Council in support of Mayor Carvalho’s decision on Bill 2491:

We support Mayor Carvalho’s courageous decision on Bill 2491. We commend him for standing up for respect for the law, taking the time to do things right the first time, and making sure everything is legal. We need to work together to change gradually to organic methods and find realistic ways to support agriculture on this island and not destroy it first.

We love seeing the beautiful coffee trees while driving from Eleele to Kalaheo; with the proposed large buffer zones tourists may only see weeds. We really appreciate all the work that G & R, the corn companies, and Kauai Coffee do to keep the westside rural; it’s a blessing.

Real change comes from working together in a spirit of lokahi: unity, harmony, agreement. Out of the currently existing division and hysteria, our incredibly strong mayor can build lokahi and support for traditional Hawaiian values. We have become such a litigious society; even both sides in this issue are sue-happy and want to just settle it in court. We fully support the Mayor’s statement that “It would be my preference to achieve the goal through cooperation and understanding, instead of through adversarial legal action.”

The corn companies are already highly regulated by very diligent Department of Agriculture inspectors. Workers receive extensive pesticide application training, as opposed to homeowners we’ve seen spraying in shorts and t-shirts, totally violating the label law of over-the-counter pesticides. If they didn’t read the label enough to dress properly, can we trust that they read it enough to apply the proper amount? Actually, a lot of this boils down to trust, and after all this public hysteria and attacks, those companies are going to be sure to do everything right according to the label laws.

Another thing to remember is that thanks to Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, the pesticides used now-a-days have shorter half-lives and are pretty specific to their target. Before, for instance, to prevent termite damage decades ago, they used to spray so much Chlordane by foundations of plantation houses in Kekaha that you can still smell it in the soil. Despite this, the life expectancy is higher than ever before on Kauai, and the only cancer that is increasing is melanoma on the skin from spending so much time in our glorious sunshine (if one looks carefully at Department of Health statistics.) In other words, it’s something that needs regulated, not something to get hysterical about.

If the people fighting agribusiness want to fight something that is really killing the brain cells of our youth, destroying our families and our lives, raising crime rates, they should go after ice and other drugs.

It would behoove us to build a unified vision for Kauai and our mayor has the character to be a true leader. Stellar leadership involves charting the unknown, much like how the original Polynesian canoe voyagers set out into the unknown, with only their known values the stars to guide them, and found Hawaii.

This uncharted territory to try to re-unite Kauai could involve developing a workforce to prove the feasibility of farming organically on a large scale: pick bugs, pull weeds, mulch with guinea grass, expand the integrated pest management the companies are already doing, etc. Provide a framework for people to put their time where they say their convictions lie. Workdays could be combined with vision brainstorming sessions, with both sides involved. Kauai could become a world class example of “agribusiness meets organic farming and — they won!

A people united can do anything they put their minds to. Mayor Carvalho is truly the subject of the song “You raise me up to walk on stormy seas” that he sang so beautifully at the Mayor’s Prayer Luncheon a couple years back. I’m sorry he’s had to take so much verbal abuse for this, but we need more people to stand up for what is right, and we thank him for his great and shining example.

Aloha,

The Cassels of Waimea Valley
Ruth Cassel, James Jr. and Katie Cassel, and Tom Cassel

Related articles
by

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″ />
Related articles
by

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.