• GMOs damage organic • Why kowtow to Syngenta? • Improved infrastructure the solution • It shouldn’t have happened GMOs damage organic Loren Mochida, for your information, genetic engineering is not permitted in organically grown crops, as you letter states
• GMOs damage organic
• Why kowtow to Syngenta?
• Improved infrastructure the solution
• It shouldn’t have happened
GMOs damage organic
Loren Mochida, for your information, genetic engineering is not permitted in organically grown crops, as you letter states (“Support biotechnology,” Letters, Feb. 9).
It’s nice that you want all farmers to get along. Unfortunately, uncontrollable contamination from GMOs is wreaking havoc on organic and conventional canola, corn and soybean growers. Canadian organic canola farmers have all but lost their crops to GMO contamination, and, be aware, Mr. Mochida, the growers have found no justice in the courts because Monsanto owns the patent on the contaminating DNA. In 2007, U.S. long grain rice growers were contaminated by an unapproved GMO strain, lost billions of dollars and could not replant new rice seed the following season because it somehow became contaminated.
GMOs are pitting farmers against each other more than any taro or specialty coffee protection bill in the Legislature. Have you truly answered the question why organic and conventional growers are in an uproar over GMOs? It is because they lose their ability to sell their crops, suffer economic losses and can find no compensation.
It is difficult to find non-GMO Kapoho Solo papaya at the market today because of contamination problems. Eighty percent of the papaya crop is now GMO and current production has fallen to 1980 levels. Nations concerned with the well being of their citizens have banned Hawai‘i’s GMO papaya.
If you really mean you support all growers and want a level playing field, why not work for an effective liability bill that would compensate for, penalize, and clean up GMO contamination. This would allow growers to plant and market any GMO crop because, in the end, they would be responsible for the consequences.
And, Mr. Mochida, please do not usurp the word sustainable for GMOs. The National Academy of Science refers to GMOs as invasive species when introduced into a local environment.
Merle Inouye
Hilo
Why kowtow to Syngenta?
Exposure to pesticides is more serious than just headaches and nausea. Chronic exposure to pesticides will increase your chances of acquiring cancer. Children are the most susceptible. What you can’t smell is just as bad as what you can. A 12-foot fence is a BandAid approach to preventing cancer.
Blaming problems on a weed is ridiculous and what good PR people for Syngenta will like to sell the general public. A good ploy for Syngenta, the great supporter of chemicals, pesticides and herbicides for your children’s environment.
We need a teachers association and a health department with some backbone. Cancer could take years to develop, but once there is damage to DNA from exposure the process toward cancer may be irreversible in susceptible children. We should not use our kids as experimental rats to see what happens. Stop all spraying of chemicals near schools, children, and neighborhoods.
Ihor Basko
Kapa‘a
Improved infrastructure the solution
I must respectfully disagree with the Feb. 10 letter to the editor, “Traffic solution is less cars, not more roads.”
Historically, the greatness and success of any nation has been determined by the level of transportation infrastructure within its borders. The Roman Empire was great because of its roads. The Union defeated the Confederacy during the American Civil War in part because it had more roads and more railroad lines to allow speedy transportation. If Kaua‘i, and more to the point, the state of Hawai‘i is to be prosperous in the 21st century, we need more roads.
The Preamble of the U.S. Constitution specifically states that one of government’s functions is to “promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty.” By building roads to meet the transportation needs of the public, the government fulfills its constitutional duty to us. What keeps us moving will also keep us free.
Daniel de Gracia II
Waipahu, O‘ahu
It shouldn’t have happened
In response to Robert Ford’s letter (“Is this necessary?” Letters, Feb. 10) about the Maui trip police officers where he wrote, “It’s a shame that something like this has to come to the public eye”:
In my opinion it is always a good thing when the people get to see how their tax dollars were spent. What is a shame is that it happened in the first place, not that the truth was exposed. The truth shall set you free … unless it convicts you.
Roger Olsen
Lawa‘i
