Musings: Practice or Preach?

All the folks who have been crying for land, begging for a chance to farm, clamoring for the seed companies to beat it and free up agricultural acreage have a chance to put their money — and sweat — with their mouths are.

Some 3,000 acres of state land is now sitting idle in Kekaha, while 1,400 acres of Grove Farm land near Lihue will soon be out of production. Surely those who envision a different future for agriculture in Hawaii can do something meaningful with 4,400 acres of irrigated land.

Will they step up to the challenge? Don't bet on it. They'll have a hundred and one excuses why they can't create those organic farms they've long imagined flourishing across the westside if only those nasty, dirty seed companies weren't in the way.

One of those excuses — and Kauai Councilman and anti-GMO activist Gary Hooser is already starting the stink talk, with the help of Civil Beat — will be that the land is too depleted and toxic to farm. Civil Beat even highlighted Gary's totally unsubstantiated conjecture in a bold, red-lettered outtake quote, so as to give his bullshit extra prominence:

The speculation is that the soil is depleted and there’s [sic] been lots of pesticides applied and therefore there’s probably residue. I don’t know that, but I certainly think it deserves some testing.

No, Gary doesn't know that, or a lot of things about seed companies operations, or agriculture in general. But that has never stopped him from making stuff up — or buying a home built on heavily sprayed former pineapple fields. Go figger….

Yet even if you accept the premise that former seed fields are undesirable, or unusable, there's still that 500-acre parcel that Dow never used, and just returned to the state. Certainly 500 acres is a significant start for the agricultural idealists to grow their dreams and start feeding the island good, wholesome, healthy food.

Why not seize this opportunity to prove their creds as true “aloha aina warriors,” assume the challenge of remediating land they imagine is toxic, prove they can successfully “malama the aina” with their mushroom mounds and permaculture arrays and cover crops and kenaf plantations? What better chance to show “industrial agriculture” how farming is supposed to be done?

Gary's HAPA nonprofit, the one he lobbies for on Kauai County's dime, claims its mission is “catalyzing change and empowering communities.” So go for it, Gary. Let's see you, Walter Ritte, Bart Dame, Andrea Brower and the rest of your board members lease some of this land and start actualizing your rhetoric. Maybe put aside your road shows and pick up an o'o, stop crashing Syngenta shareholder meetings, get off Mauna Kea and into the fields?

Meanwhile, over on Maui, the same players who organized the anti-GMO movement there — luxury Realtor Mark Sheehan, “Babe” Courtney Bruch, Superferry protestor Karen Chun, rogue physicist Joe Ritter, etc. — are leveling their sights at another major agricultural interest: HC&S. 

They're using the same self-righteous propaganda techniques — doctored photos, dubious “experts,” unsubstantiated claims of health impacts, wild hyperbole, social media fear-mongering, manufactured facts — to attack cane burning as a way to shut down the last sugar plantation in Hawaii.

Here's an example of how they operate: 

Stop Cane Burning Maui

LOOKING FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL, PARENT or TEACHER to share your cane burning story on Akaku TV tonight, need you from approx 6:30pm to 8pm Please comment below, tagging me if you are interested. Mahalo!

‪Sandi Imberi Ioakimi ‪Kelly Hanson Shimabukuro u like be on TV? 
1 hr · Like











‪Kelly Hanson Shimabukuro Sandi, I wish I was a better public speaker. I am far from eloquent when it comes to words. frown emoticon
1 hr · Like











‪Kelly Hanson Shimabukuro ‪Jessica Brown Qunell are you on the island? You are a much better speaker than myself.
1 hr · Like











‪Deb Mader Creagh It's story telling, just speak from the heart.
58 mins · Like · 1











‪Deb Mader Creagh I'll be there to help carry conversation! I would love one other mama or teacher or doctor to come on show with me.
57 mins · Like · 1

Yes, it's storytelling. As in, you just open your mouth and say whatevahs, like cane smoke mutates your DNA. Only the other guys need be held accountable.

So what do they think will happen to those 36,000 acres of Central Maui if sugar cane is shut down? How much choking dust do they suppose will fly if that windy land is laid barren? What ideas do they have for alternative agriculture — or will they just sit back as the subdivisions creep in from Kihei and Kahului?

Is development the goal of this constant attack on agriculture?

If not, will those who are unhappy with farming as it's practiced in Hawaii take this opportunity to lease land and demonstrate some viable alternatives? 

All eyes are on SHAKA and HAPA, Center for Food Safety, da Babes and KKCR, to see if those folks can actually practice what they preach.

PS: I just saw this exchange, which perfectly exemplifies how the anti-ag folks promulgate propaganda:

• Victoria Breeden I was wondering when I read a comment reply earlier on this page the person was defending the burn stating it didn't harm her, there is more important things to do and it provides jobs why she was allowed on this page spouting such bs.

  11 hrs · 
• 

  Darnell Lei McCabe Estrella You're right Victoria... She was trying to express how she felt & how it created jobs so hc&s employees could put food on the table for their families... but what she doesn't know is all the political power in the back of all this poison!!!

  10 hrs · 
• 

  Andrea Kale Marcus Funny how diversion from the real problems seems to be a theme in Maui....... I've seen a microcosm of this behaviour and it isn't pretty...
  Every time a species of plant is used in landscape where it really doesn't belong some unknowing landscaper uses poison to irradiate the pests it makes a home in!! That's why white fly is such an issue in Wailea .... It's a desert !! Treat it that way

  7 hrs · Edited · 
• 

  Karen Chun Victoria - when you see someone posting that stuff could you message me so I can find it and delete it?

  3 hrs · Like · 1

Yes, Karen, delete anything that doesn't fit your world view. Because there is absolutely no room for dissenting opinion in group think. Baaa….