Letters for July 17, 2016

Letters for July 17, 2016

Dairy will affect all of us for the worse 

After attending a meeting on the proposed dairy on Thursday, July 14, I have a few thoughts I would like to share. For those of you who didn’t attend because you don’t think the dairy will affect you, you are wrong. 

If this disastrous dairy is allowed to be built, there are several things that will have an islandwide impact. Granted that the biting flies, odor and pollution of the aquifer in the Poipu area will not affect the people in Princeville, but the killing of the coral and pollution of the ocean water will. 

If you don’t care about that, perhaps the increase of your taxes might interest you. How so, you might ask? Well, once the biting flies and the odors and the drinkability of the drinking water kicks in, property values on the southside will plummet. So what, you say? Well, the property owners on the southside will ask for and get tax relief. Since our county leaders have no idea how to budget, they will simply raise your taxes to make up the difference. 

There is also the matter of all those lost jobs in the tourism industry. All those workers will ask for and get government assistance. That money has got to come from somewhere. The problem with relying on only tourism to run our economy is the one thing tourism needs to thrive is growth. We all know that the uncontrolled growth currently happening on our island is unsustainable. The developers are being allowed to build without any relief or mitigation for infrastructure and that has got to stop. 

If Pierre Omidyar and his Ulupono Initiative wanted to do something good for this island, instead of forcing an unnecessary “dairy” on us, maybe he should spend his money on hemp cultivation. That would create a lot more jobs than the 4-10 that the “dairy” claims to create, and doesn’t require pesticides or harsh fertilizers to thrive. There are also all of the products that can be made with hemp including bread, cosmetics, animal food, mulch, insulation, building materials, rope, biofuels and yes, milk. 

Regardless of your politics you must surely agree that we need some fresh thinkers throughout our county government. Badly. 

Allan B. White 

Hanapepe