•Equal treatment to all •Chemicals on crops threatens our soil, lives •Keep up the good work, Amercian Cancer Society Equal treatment to all Thank you, Mr. Bieber for expressing your outrage on the way some men give themselves permission to
•Equal treatment to all
•Chemicals on crops threatens our soil, lives
•Keep up the good work, Amercian Cancer Society
Equal treatment to all
Thank you, Mr. Bieber for expressing your outrage on the way some men give themselves permission to address colleagues that happen to be women (“Daryl ‘sweetie’ Kaneshiro,” Letters, May 3).
If we females were treated equitably (as should be), we probably would have a more fair representation in all areas of “power.” And the world would probably be a better, more compassionate place.
We deserve and demand equal treatment! Same aloha to all, men or women, blacks or whites, Christian or Muslims, rich or poor.
Lilian de Mello, Kapa‘a
Chemicals on crops threatens our soil, lives
The announcement of Dow AgroSciences coming to Kaua‘i from Moloka‘i is very unfortunate for our ‘aina and people (“New seed operation set for Westside,” The Garden Island, April 28).
While these businesses call themselves “life science” they are still very much chemical companies and are responsible for creating much of the toxic substances that are damaging our land, wildlife, people and ocean.
All seed that they grow becomes patented property and in the end hurts farmers all over the planet.
Monocropping of more chemically grown seed is the opposite of what Kaua‘i needs.
We are not yet capable of mitigating the heavily treated soil where Monsanto experimented and yet the door is open to keep allowing unregulated growing of herbicide tolerant and pesticide producing plants and pollen.
The truth is that biotech companies can take a lease here to grow transgenic crops with little to no oversight of the true nature of these experiments. If they choose to grow plants with manipulated DNA from unrelated species or viruses or antibiotic resistance, there would be no public disclosure and no EIS.
If Mayor Carvalho was concerned or even curious, he would have no right to know about field locations or what proteins these synthetic plants will produce.
People here may feel this technology is fine, but we have seen no reports that conclude safety. The biotech companies say “we see no harm” but they have not looked.
We have a culture here on Kaua‘i that still believes that spraying chemicals is safe. This has been proven untrue, and countries all over the world have proven harm and banned the use of toxic spraying that contaminates our ground water.
If we really care about our worldwide perception as a beautiful island chain, we should protect our land from irreversible damage and unintended consequences.
If tourists knew that we are the world epicenter for Franken-foods, they would go to Cabo or the Bahamas instead of Hawai‘i.
We have asked for a pesticide registry to document which chemicals are coming to Kaua‘i for agriculture and where they are used and how many tons are introduced into the environment. So far no one at the county knows.
This transgenic ag research is especially dangerous for field workers. These crops are not for human consumption, yet the pollen is ingested by the workers and the community.
As our community gathers together to organize toward self sufficiency, this type of agriculture is a poor choice for our usable ag land. This land could be growing our food, we could be encouraging growers of high end organic products to come to Kaua‘i and benefit from our year round growing season. It would be much healthier for the field workers and for the children at Waimea Canyon Middle School and St. Theresa’s. It is unbelievable that children are exposed to massive amounts of ag chemicals and no one at the county is looking for explanations and ways to prevent it from happening again.
Kaua‘i is allowing the chemical/seed companies to come here and be subsidized by our tax dollars. We have nothing to gain and everything to lose.
Jeri DiPietro, GMO Free Kaua‘i
Keep up the good work, Amercian Cancer Society
Way back in the mid-1970s when Dr. Robert Weiner first came to Kaua‘i and while I was in high school and had aspirations to become a doctor I thought I’d be his friend and volunteer to be the first fundraising chairman for the first Amercian Cancer Society chapter on Kaua‘i with Dr. Weiner as the first president.
From the $5 raised by collecting house to house in the old plantation camp of Wahiawa McBryde camps to the $300,000 in the treasury now, I am ecstatic.
Keep up the good efforts for those truly in need, please.
Modesto Rabina Jr., Kalaheo
