Hawaii Farmers & Ranchers need Your support today!

We need your help getting testimony to the Hawaii County Council; Opposing Brenda Ford’s GMO Ban Bill 109 and Margaret Wille’s Bill 113 which bans gmo’s but allows for a papaya exemption if your granted an exemption, ie pay fee’s disclose your farms location….

This might just be the biggest threat to Hawaii agriculture

and Our right to farm that we have ever seen…

 

We’re inviting you to attend the Council hearing on Sept. 4th at 1:30PM and….

Please submit testimony TODAY via email to

counciltestimony@co.hawaii.hi.us

This is important to Hawaii agriculture, our farmers and our ranchers. We’re standing united together against both these bills. We’re asking you to submit testimony and to please ask five of your family or friends to do the same and ask them to ask five of their friends, etc….that is the only way we can get the numbers we need to defeat these Bills.

Remember agriculture producers only make up 2% of the Nation….Yet we feed us all! It will take knowing agriculture and the community supporting farmers and ranchers if we’re to survive and thrive…

Brenda Ford’s Bill  basically bans all GMO production and use, including feed for animals and also includes a requirement to destroy papaya trees and corn currently in production.   Margaret Wille also has Bill 113  that will be heard at the same hearing (agenda attached).  Her Bill exempts the genetically modified papaya and other GMO crops currently in production on Hawaii County as long as they jump through her hoops (new regulations, fees and penalties).  Her Bill allows no future use of geneticly engineered technology to grow feed, fight diseases in crops and livestock or using them in the future.  Despite the exemption for papaya in Wille’s Bill, papaya farmers are giving her Bill a thumbs down.  Their position is that her Bill says that GMO papaya is bad but since it’s already here and widespread the County Council will let it go. She infers their contaminated and inferior; they are NOT their prime is taste and quality.  Kudos to the papaya industry for recognizing this and standing their ground…we will stand together with them. “Ag United”    As farmers and ranchers we have the right to farm…with every legal method and technology out there, organically or conventionally, with or without genetic technology and with respect for the rights of our fellow farmers and ranchers to do the same.    Here is what the World’s Health & Scientific Organizations have to say about GMO’s and genetically engineered crops…. World Health Organization “WHO” “No effects on human health have been shown as a result of the consumption of such foods by the general population in the countries where they have been approved.” National Academy of Sciences “No adverse health effects attributed to genetic engineering have been documented in the human population.” American Association for the Advancement of Science “The science is quite clear: crop improvement by the modern molecular techniques of biotechnology is safe.” American Medical Association “There is no scientific justification for special labeling of bioengineered foods.Bioengineered foods have been consumed for close to 20 years, and during that time, no overt consequences on human health have been reported and/or substantiated in the peer-reviewed literature.”  European Commission “No scientific evidence associating GMOs with higher risks for the environment or for food and feed safety than conventional plants and organisms.”  French Academy of Science “All criticisms against GMOs can be largely rejected on strictly scientific criteria.  Union of German Academics and Scientists “In consuming food derived from GM plans approved in the EU and in the USA, the risk is in no way higher than in the consumption of food from conventionally grown plants. On the contrary, in some cases food from GM plants appears to be superior in respect to health. ”    Yet despite all the science and the evidence Hawaii County is trying to make public policy based on emotions rather than the evidence…Really! Come on…

Instructions on How you to submit testimony… Needs to be into the Council by 12 noon by September 3rd. Even if you are late please submit it anyway!   By regular mail or Drop it off:  Office of the County Clerk, 25 Aupuni Street, Hilo,HI. 96720  By email: counciltestimony@co.hawaii.hi.us   By Fax: (808) 961-8912    Show up to any Council location Island-wide to testify in person.    Hilo: Council Chambers at the County Building in Hilo, 25 Aupuni Street, Room 1401 Kona: Council Chambers at the West Hawai’i Civic Center in Kona at 74-5044 Ane Keohokālole Highway, Building A.  Waimea: Waimea Council Office, at the Holumua Center, 64-1067, Māmalahoa Highway, Suite 5. Oral public testimony is limited to two (2) minutes total for all 4 agenda items. Video Public Testimony: Those submitting video testimony may email a complete web address (url) to videotestimony@hawaiicounty.gov before 12:00 noon on the business day prior to the meeting. The email shall indicate the appropriate Committee or Council meeting, the meeting date, agenda item (communication, bill, resolution, or report number), and number of testifiers on the video submittal. Each video submittal shall be limited to a single agenda item. Video submittals may contain up to three (3) individual testifiers and shall each be up to three (2) minutes in length.

Example testimony (Cut, paste or change for your personal story!)   Hawaii County Council Committee on Public Safety & Mass Transit Wednesday September 4, 2013 1:30 p.m.   Testimony Against Bills 109 and 113 Committee Chair Ford and Members of the Committee: I oppose Bills 109 and 113 because any anti-GMO legislation in Hawaii County will discriminate against our farmers and ranchers who choose to use approved genetic engineered technology to grow safe and wholesome food and other agriculture products. These Bills also damage Hawaii’s reputation for producing some of the best crops on the planet, harms our markets, and eventually destroy our agriculture industry. I am pro-farming and the right to farm in the United States of America, still a free country, under laws of and regulated by the USA and the State of Hawaii. Hawaii’s farmers and ranchers may need virus resistant GMO crops to protect Hawaii from the next papaya virus strain, banana bunchy top virus, tomato spotted wilt and other vegetable viruses, or the bacterial citrus greening disease that is destroying the Florida citrus industry and may soon come to Hawaii.  Furthermore, this bill will stop development of GMO ornamental and floral crops with enhanced horticultural or disease resistant characteristics.  These Bills would prohibit livestock and aquaculture producers from efficiently growing cost effective feed locally, requiring them to import at a higher price the exact same feeds.  How will Hawaii County farmers and ranchers compete when everyone but us has access to GE technology?  The consensus of independent scientific organizations worldwide is unanimous and can be summed up by this statement from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, “The science is quite clear: crop improvement by the modern molecular techniques of biotechnology is safe.” Please vote against Bill 109 and Bill 113 Name: Occupation: City where I live: Additional Comments:        Please cut and paste and revise for your use.

Mahalo for helping with our cause, it matters!

Please share this information with your friends and family, Support Hawaii Agriculture!

Bizarre wording & ethical issues; The foundation of Hawaii County GMO Bill 79

A statement was posted on Damon Tuckers blog from Council Woman Margaret Willie stating that the council members generally recognized there is a need to restrict any further introduction of the GMOs here on our island… Really Willie, there was no vote taken, You don’t have consesus on that statement…Is this about GMO’s, Home Rule or Monsanto?

What I really heard was Mrs. Willie and Brenda Ford fighting for home rule recognition; well that after Mrs. Ford threatened to Kill Mrs. Willie if she pulled the Bill. They want to leave their mark, to prove a point to the State, that they can and will pass legislation at ANY cost to the taxpayers of Hawaii County, myself included.

Earlier I asked if anyone was watching how much this circus is costing us in Dollars, much less the cost to our community for inducing more food fights. Does anyone care that the County budget will be impacted or that our Council is not able to take care of other issues while wading through this?  I don’t believe creating public policy before your educated on the issue is pono, as it most certainly will affect many people, in more ways than they appear to realize.

Have you considered the cost to Hawaii County if you place a ban or moratorium on GMO’s..Do you really think something that is constitutionally legal to our citizens will go unchallenged. Long after some Council members are not re-elected we will still be paying the price to push the vocal minorities agenda in Hawaii County. Is that pono?

She States: Bill 79 was cumbersome with layers of amendments.  ” Fact is: No amendment was ever brought to the floor for a vote. She never even placed a motion to obtain a second, much less obtained a vote” You can only have an amendment to a Bill by Roberts Rules of order if it’s voted on and amended. You had a train wreck that no one wanted to touch! The wording in Bill 79 was bizarre and Mrs. Willie’s proposed amendments were even more bizarre.

A bad bill and bizarre wording combined with ethical issues & scientific ignorance is a very dangerous thing.

Council Member Zendo Kerns stated “There is never a bad time to pull a bad bill”  We totally agree and that is why she pulled it. She had 5-6 months to write and re-write a good bill and she couldn’t do it. How much money should our County waste to push Mrs. Willies personal agenda. She has never liked agriculture, before she was elected she wanted to run a highway through 500+ acres of our County’s most prime producing ag lands, I saw first hand her tactics and her lack of concern for our 3rd and 4th generation Farmers. You didn’t care then and you certainly don’t care now! The only people Bills like this will hurt is small farmers, exactly those you state your trying to protect.  I say hogwash! You don’t have a clue about farming or agriculture in Hawaii yet you desire us to farm your way, a romanticized way of life, not the reality we face daily to feed Hawaii.

Does anyone honestly think your going to harm Monsanto with a bill such as Hawaii County Bill 79 or the other Seed Companies with a Bill like Kauai County 2491. Oh, you might score a cheap shot but you wont win.  Reality is this…Your only going to hurt the small farmers, the community, the taxpayers and agriculture in general.  Agriculture in Hawaii has special needs, transportation issues and our exportable agriculture crops help achieve that balance, upset the apple cart and its easy to see the dominos fall. Can you say we’re vulnerable, hell yes we are and fighting our own community only makes it worse. Do what’s wise and pono and study agriculture, do as Council member Poindexter requested meet with ag and really learn it before you take another cheap shot at us. No were not happy with you but were not mad either, wasn’t us threatening our County Council, stalking or harassing them.

The Ad Hoc committee she proposes has validity if they actually dig deep into the issue with open minds and learn about agriculture in Hawaii before they propose a new law.

Her Home rule issue, as we said above a few members have an agenda here. Why are they afraid; their afraid of a state law being passed restricting their ability. Mrs. Willie states “For this reason any effort to postpone passage of a bill restricting GMOs beyond December 2013 is tantamount to killing the bill. ”  What you fail to see is the State trying to save you from yourselves, you openly admit you do not understand the science, you’re not educated on the issue, yet you think yourself qualified to pass policy. Placing a ban on Hawaii Island will land Hawaii County in a bitter expensive legal battle, you quoted the coffee and taro; we all know it has no teeth and wont stand up in Court; you can’t pre-empt Federal Law.

Finally: The more your divide GMO crop producers the more you harm their market, is Hawaii County prepared for this? Your slandering an industry and farmers that provide an affordable crop to Hawaii and the world and yet you don’t hesitate to single them out and harm their markets. No their NOT bio-hazards Mrs. Willie and we will not allow you to call them that in ANY bill “Not Acceptable”.

We know your not done, just remember were a tenacious lot and we’re done remaining silent expecting that you will come to your senses and give agriculture and farmers the respect they deserve! We’re confident, proud and United, we’re not going anyplace.  “We’re AG Proud”

If you wish to watch the actual hearing on Hawaii County Bill 79 here is the link to the Ustream event.