Hawaiian Electric Company Promotes Greenpeace Pseudoscience

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I recently received this lovely, glossy magazine from Hawaiian Electric Company in the mail a few weeks ago that I decided to browse through it.

As I was reading through it, two things caught my eye.  Note what this has to say about ways to improve your health by eating more fruits and veggies, but to go organic.  Hmm…  There is no mention that there isn’t a significant benefit found for eating organic though but it touts it.

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Then there’s one about The Environmental Working Group’s advice on sunscreens.  That’s the same group that does the list of dirty produce which is a scam piece of advice also.

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Then there was also this one too in there about drinking alcohol.

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The most disconcerting statement on their list is this one, “Cook Without Chemicals.”  Um, HECO, everything is made of chemicals!  Even the American Cancer Society does not support this statement.

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If you are going to promote being efficient and lowering our impact on earth, going organic doesn’t translate to a more healthful product according to studies comparing it.  Just the labeling of something can influence one to have a different idea about it even it if is the same.  HECO is promoting this kind of information without any source and then people just believe it.  It also makes people who can afford organic feel bad for purchasing conventional food for no reason.  Shouldn’t this publicly funded organization be considering the evidence when it publishes things like this?  Isn’t that the responsible thing to do?  I’d think so.

The worst offending piece of information that I found in there was this gem.  Come on now HECO, Greenpeace?!  Really?

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I always find it interesting that I get these mailers about going “green” in the mail since how many people actually read it and will use the information before it hits the trash can?  Is that really going green?  I also learned a tip or two from my brother that these kind of magazines with gloss coatings are not recyclable either and aren’t too biodegradable either.  I’m starting to realize that this green movement is kind of like a sham full of hypocrisy!

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How to Make Use of 4000 Anti-GMO Marchers

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Characters of the anti-GMO club of Kauai.

As I have followed so many commenters from the anti-GMO club there is definitely a pattern.  One one end you have the very vile, nasty, ones that have been fear mongered beyond recognition of a rational being.  On the other end you have those that believe that consuming organic food is much more holier than thou art and wanting a label.  Somewhere in between you have those that are anti-corporation, conspiracy theorists, and just plain old science deniers and earth saver greenie folks.  Also in the mix you’ll find the ban it all group, who really have no clue the extent of this technology.  It’s no wonder there are social workers, bus drivers, grandmas, pseudoscientists, criminals, entertainers, models, nurses, chemical sprayed doctors, religious preachers, radio hosts, MMA fighters, and surfers all in this mix.  Approximately 4000 of these folks supposedly marched on Kauai a few months ago to speak for the people.

You know, if 4000 really were a true number of people joining in, can you imagine the manpower you have there in one area?  They all marched along Rice Street for some distance that means the majority are all able bodied and has the potential to do something good with their energy.  That energy and planning should be put to good use to put their money where their mouth is.  I have a few suggestions for these marchers as far as how they could really strengthen their cause.

Help Kauai County Go Pesticide Free

We all know that they want less pesticide use by the seed corn farms that use 13% of the county’s total.  Who is using the most pesticides then?  It’s the county themselves!

Maybe on the next march, they can coordinate with the Kauai County to do a highway weed pulling patrol.  Spread out 4000 people along the highway to pull at least 50 to 100 yards of weed each and wow, imagine how much less spraying will be done and less contamination too?  You could do this every month and cut back or completely be pesticide free!

Another way that these marchers could help reduce pesticide use is to take advantage of the natural instincts of our little chihuahua terrier mixes that are so popular now.  If may be 20 marchers brought out their little dogs to the power plants or kept them tied to the power poles a few days a week, we could cut down the need for using rat poison since these little dogs are bred to kill rats.  Chemical free, all natural pest control at best which is what the anti-GMO club is demanding.

Start up the Save True Kauai Farms

It is pretty well known that Bette Midler is an anti-GMO activist also and she has lots of land on Kauai.  She has 1400 acres of it too!  We’d better alert Jessica Wooley because she doesn’t want to farm it for food but possibly grow hardwood trees on it.  Wouldn’t it be great if she donated a nice piece of her land to start up a Save True Kauai Farm there?  Or maybe a GMO/Pesticide Free farm there?  You could get that guy who couldn’t lease land from the seed companies and maybe 100 of the marchers to even work on that farm.  They appear to have lots of time since they were able to camp out at many of the hearings and stay really late there too.  The anti-GMO club can have their dream turned in to reality where they can feed the people their way.

Many people there also hate the dust from tractors plowing the lands.  If you take about 50 to 100 marchers and handed them a shovel and pick axe, you could plow a one acre field in no time with little to no dust cloud either.  Then instead of using heavy equipment to plant the seeds, each of these folks can hand plant it all.  Every few weeks they could come in again and do weed patrol too so that they don’t have to spray the dreaded weedkillers.  You can also bring in more marchers to do bug patrol too and pick off bugs from the plants to keep less pesticides off of it.  What a great way to teach the keiki to how to grow your own food and keep the dust and pesticides away!

Open an Ohana O Kauai Feed the Hungry Shelter

There are a lot of needy people across our islands and Kauai has its share.  The anti-GMO club staunchly believe that the seed companies are not feeding the world in any way or form.  With several thousands to volunteer and donate time, money, and energy, they could start showing the world their plan to feed the hungry because it is obviously more superior than what the other companies are doing.  This would truly be a great and innovating cause to show how much they malama the people and the land.

Then End of the Poisoning of Paradise

The potential conversion of marchers and people rising up to support this way of agriculture is truly amazing because it can be put to good use.  No one would have time to be sending death threats to the mayor, writing comments all over the social media, be exposed to less scary images on their Facebook feeds, accusing seed farm workers of killing babies and committing crimes against humanity, and will be able to live the natural healthy life that they all preach about.  Human energy can be converted to good when you put your money where your mouth is.  Volunteers anyone?

Last but not least…

Let’s do some math here…  4000 x $1.50 is $6000.  If all the marchers paid a mere $1.50, their bill would be covered.  Enough to pay the county back for their march and restore the county’s funds.  If some of the attendees could afford plane tickets, I’m pretty sure they could afford that pocket change to participate.  So has the Kauai County received some money to cover it yet???

A Conversation with an Anti-GMO Armchair Farmer

The other night, I was checking my newsfeed on Facebook when I came across a friend’s post about TEDx no longer going to post pseudoscience.  Apparently, an anti-GMO fanatic decided to chime in on it and add some 100 or so replies with the pro-science folks there.  The kind of things she was saying were way out there and just spammy.  I decided to send her some feedback on her commentary to him.

My first message to her was, “Just saw how you spammed up Richard Ha’s thread.  Geez.”

Surprisingly I got a reply from her!  Of course she mentioned that she did not want her comments reposted even though she was reposting the whole conversation on her own public page.  (You can read the entire conversation on her page since she didn’t want me reposting but she did the favor of posting it herself.)  She was afraid that “with my mentality it would get a distorted interpretation.”  Interesting.

I won’t repost her comments but I’ll list the common statements made by these anti-GMO armchair farmers.

1.  You can’t trust any study at all because they are all paid for by the industry.

2.  I can’t figure out real studies from papers.  This is a study to her.  Looks legitimate so it must be.

3.  You can grow things without chemicals and just kill bugs by hand.

4.  GMOs like spam and McDonalds are direct causes of diabetes.

5.  There are chemicals being sprayed all around that are killing us.

6.  Because I know and read a lot about farming, I can tell farmers how to rotate their crops and how to plant it.

7.  We should go back to how we ate in 1778 because life was better back then.

8.  There are no long term human studies on the safety of GMOs.  I don’t know how it would be tested but we do need them.

9.  GMO papaya leaf extract can’t cure malaria.  Only organic papaya leaves can cure it.

10.  Bans of GMO foods are the reason why they are bad.  Forget the fact that the country imports it in for feed, it still is bad.

11.  In order to have studies that will satisfy an anti-GMO activists requirements, the biotech industry must pay for it and the organic industry chooses the scientist.  No one can be trusted unless it is chosen by their side.

12.  Bugs are all the same, they aren’t different and we should love them all.  Bugs are not pests.  Hmmm….

13.  Organic farmers should not be governed by any corporate law.  Um, did you know that organics are owned by large corporations?

14.  The land is being poisoned but I have no evidence to that claim but I’ll still say it.

15.  I am pro science but I can’t tell you how to conduct a study or even know how to discern out legitimate ones.

16.  I love watching videos, scary ones too like this one.  I’m fixated on DDT.  Videos relay all the information I need to know about GMOs.

16.  Join in on the marches because they are fun!

Does any of this make sense to you?  It sounds like a lot of mumble jumble just like the posts she puts all over the place.  And these are the kinds of people that are telling our farmers and lawmakers how and what kind of laws we need in our communities.  That is not the responsible thing to do and just shows that a politician or farmer should not have to listen to these kinds of constituents.  Just because they are loud and proud of their ignorance does not translate into making laws.  That is purely irresponsible!

**Her tirade continues on tonight once again and sure enough, out comes the Natural News links!  Proof that these people don’t know quackery from science.**