• Blessed to live here • Study sheds light • Kauai needs jobs • Commentary was well thought-out • Hey, what about the restaurants? Blessed to live here We are blessed to live in this awesome land full of mana.
• Blessed to live here • Study sheds light • Kauai needs jobs • Commentary was well thought-out • Hey, what about the restaurants?
Blessed to live here
We are blessed to live in this awesome land full of mana. Please, allow our keikis to rise strong and healthy as we did in the past.
In God’s eyes, we shall keep the aina pure and high vibration. Mahalo plenty and blessings to all who make the decision.
Jennifer Perez
Koloa
Study sheds light
The University of Hawaii’s recently-released Kauai air monitoring study provides sound information of significant interest to current discussions about the seed industry.
U.H. researchers sampled Kauai for “restricted use” pesticides — a rigorous search for pesticides known to have been used on Kauai based on historical records.
Of the 24 pesticides searched for, only five were found and all concentrations detected fell well within health screening level safety references set by California regulators to assess air-borne levels from farm applications.
Two of these pesticides are antiquated, persistent products with no current farm uses, likely from exposures that pre-date the presence of seed companies on Kauai.
Of the remaining three, two (chlorpyrifos and bifentrin) are available in U.S. stores at lower concentrations for home and garden use such as ant bait.
Trace detections of pesticides, commonly reported in air monitoring throughout the U.S., have been thoroughly evaluated by regulatory authorities to protect public health. As noted by U.H. researchers, the part per trillion levels of chlorpyrifos reported on Kauai were 24 times less than health screening safety benchmarks.
The fact that Kauai stakeholder concerns are being addressed by independent research clearly indicates that the system is working, as is this initial finding that government health-based screening levels are being met.
Data like these form a basis for constructive future discussions about the best path forward for Kauai.
Joey Silva
Kalaheo
Kauai needs jobs
Marion Orion wrote: “Isn’t it interesting that just about all the people who are speaking up against Bill 2491 are connected financially to the GMO seed companies? To them, it’s all about money and jobs. Yes, these things are important, but without good health and a clean environment, we have nothing.”
If you want to adversely affect someone’s health, one of the most effective ways of doing that is to throw them into poverty. You take away a person’s ability to earn a living, to be able to afford health care for themselves and their family, to live a life relatively free of financial stress, and their health will deteriorate just a certainly as if you poisoned their water, food, and air. It also creates social strife. Poverty is a powerful destabilizing force in a society. I challenge you to go visit any inner city if you doubt this.
Jobs are extremely important. Kauai abounds with people, seemingly well-off and with nothing better to do, basically begging for more poverty to be created here. The blinding effects of narcissism. Activism run amok at its finest. To be incapable of seeing or comprehending the complex nature of this issue is one thing, but their arguments aren’t even in line with what they claim to want — overall health. On top of that, “other” people will suffer for it. None of these activists are going to suffer.
This is not the way to create sound public policy. Hooser should be ashamed of himself for this act of malfeasance.
Michael Mann
Lihue
Commentary was well thought-out
It was wonderful to read the clear and carefully written guest commentary by Andrea Brower. Her viewpoint is obviously based on a thorough study of food issues and it is refreshing to read a commentary that has empathy for all sides of the GMO debate. Though she very obviously is against GMO it is a considered and thoughtful stance without rancor.
There are two books that discuss the global food supply in a similarly clear and open way: “Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives” by Carolyn Steel, and “Whole Earth Discipline” by Stewart Brand.
Both offer insights that are important to consider, disagree with each other, and reinforce that food security is a complex issue touching call aspects of our society.
Kurt Rutter
Kapaa
Hey, what about the restaurants?
I’m all for disclosure! But we have yet to take it as far as we must to insure our healthy existence here on Kauai. I think, no I demand, that all restaurants publish and exact listing of all ingredients, their amounts, and the recipes for combining these ingredients, or rather materials, for everything that is served by them.
After all, we’re putting this food in our mouths ingesting it directly into our systems. Who knows what they’re putting in their dishes to make them taste so good?
Must be something terrible or they’d be happy to disclose this information. Are we to simply trust them? What chemicals are they hiding amongst the veggies, fruits and fishes they serve us? We must know the proportions of every ingredient and how they combine them together in who knows what way all for their own greed to make us buy more and more fish tacos, salads or chilly and rice! Their foods may taste good now, but what about our long-term health eating these foods sold for profit!
What about our children eating the foods these corporate, and even the mom and pop, restaurants serve? Isn’t our health and safety more important than their profits! Greedy corporations!
Greedy restaurateurs! Will they be around when we discover that their salad dressings have caused us cancer? I appeal for our politicians to protect us from these self-serving businesses.
Jason Manawai
Makaweli
