• Save the Hanalei Ridge • Understand the science behind GMOs • For Bill 2491 Save the Hanalei Ridge I am a frequent visitor to Kauai and I have heard about the unfortunate bid to develop the Hanalei Ridge above
• Save the Hanalei Ridge • Understand the science behind GMOs • For Bill 2491
Save the Hanalei Ridge
I am a frequent visitor to Kauai and I have heard about the unfortunate bid to develop the Hanalei Ridge above the Hanalei River, and I am shocked to hear that this area could be developed.
Kauai is one of the only safe places to travel with all the civil unrest happening in other places of beauty. Destroying more land by building a hotel-community above the delicate Hanalei River will decrease the real value of Kauai — its natural beauty.
Please reject the bid to build on the Hanalei Ridge. The money it could bring to the island does not outweigh the long-term impact that destroying more wild areas would do to the economy and tourism overall.
Kauai is too developed as it is, and I am thinking of going elsewhere for my travels, as it appears the island has lost sight of its roots in favor of big dollars.
Vanessa Reed
Los Angeles
Understand the science behind GMOs
Let’s break it down.
Yes you have likely been eating, using and even wearing GMOs (without consent and without understanding).
No, your neighbor and your marijuana are not a GMO.
The ridiculous analogies and comparisons being made about GMOs in our community are — well — just ridiculous. Your neighbor, or any other multi-racial person for that matter, is not a GMO!
What “we” are referring to as GMO means genetically modified organisms. This label isn’t the best, nor is it descriptive, and it is being manipulated to confuse the issue even further. Call it genetic engineering, if you have to, but don’t blur the issue even further!
Rarely in nature there are cases where two different, but very similar, species are able to reproduce and create a hybrid. For example, a horse + donkey = mule, although sterile, this works. Horse + goat = no can do!
I am not aware of a single hybrid above the genus level of classification. Flash back to high school science — kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and the lowest of all of these species.
A GMO is taking genes out of a species from another kingdom — even domain (bacteria) and through “cell invasion technology” jamming those genes into the DNA of an organism of a species from a totally different kingdom (plantae), thus creating your controversial GMO.
Don’t believe the propaganda — there is nothing natural about this.
Fern Anuenue
Kapaa
For Bill 2491
I am very concerned about the presence of genetically modified organisms and the pesticide chemicals used and/or associated with them being present on our small, isolated island.
Many of the chemicals used in the process of growing GMOs (atrazine, lorsban, chlorpyrifos, RoundUp Ready, glyphosate, alachlor, bentazon, carbaryl, dicamba, dimethoate, glufosinate, metolachlor, permethrin and simazine) are extremely hazardous and pose a major health risk to people exposed to them.
Well, on a small island like Kauai, everyone is getting exposed to these chemicals.
There is no way to ensure that the wind isn’t going to circulate the pesticides through the air that we breathe.
There is no way to keep the rain from washing these pesticides into our streams or into our precious ocean.
There is no way to ensure that the pollen from these unwanted, unwelcome GMO crops will not cross pollinate with our natural, organic plants present on this island.
There is no way to ensure that only certain kind of bugs will die from pesticides used on GMO crops and not bugs that are beneficial, if not crucial, to our fragile island such as bees and butterflies.
There is no way to ensure that these GMO crops will not cause the emergence of “super weeds” and “super bugs,” which can only be killed with ever more toxic poisons like 2,4-D (a major ingredient in Agent Orange).
There is no way to ensure that these GMO companies, which have the power to sue farmers whose fields are contaminated with GMOs — even though it is inevitable — won’t sue our local farmers.
To even take the chance, to even let these companies use our soil, to turn the people of this island into lab rats, to sneak them in on the sly, to let them stay, to continue to do business with them, shows me that the people in charge of this island are not representing the best interest of “the people” and that is a problem.
The five major GMO companies on this island — DuPont Pioneer, Syngenta, DOW AgroSciences, BASF and Kauai Coffee Co. — are responsible for 99 percent of the 3.5 tons of restricted use pesticides used annually on Kauai.
There is no way that this is not having a severely negative effect on our island.
No amount of money is worth the destruction of this island or the health of the plants, animals and people inhabiting it.
My name is Lyra Drouin, I am a Kauai resident, and I am in favor of Bill 2491.
Lyra Drouin
Kapaa
