Monday, May 23, 2016

Musings: Proud as Punch

Ashley Lukens of the Hawaii Center for Food Safety is so dang pleased with herself.
And why not? She's shown us, through the group's 2015 annual report, that she's a master at deception and spin. To wit:

I often wonder if our next generation were telling the story of the food movement in Hawaiʻ i, how they would tell it. I know that I speak for the entire HCFS team when I say we are honored to play a small part in this story.

Actually, HCFS has played a very, very big role, bringing in money, legal support, relentless PR, lobbying at the state Legislature, organizing tactics and some super slick propaganda, which it highlights in the annual report.

Their propaganda pieces include a fantasy-based, Makana-narrated animated piece that's just right for indoctrinating school kids. To wit:

[T]he video was a great learning tool, and the animation helped make the concepts accessible and understandable for our middle schoolers.” — Abigail Rotholz, Hawaii School Garden instructor

Then there's the oft-discredited, but never corrected, “Pesticides in Paradise” report, which has been unquestioningly quoted in anti-GMO media coverage and characterized by the misinformed as “educational tools.” To wit:

“These educational tools have played a key role in my efforts to bring pesticide and food issues to the fore with Hawai‘i health providers and early childhood professionals.” —Lynn Wilson, PhD, children’s health advocate

Ashley boasts that her biggest audience for the "Pesticides in Paradise" report was at Hoolehua, Molokai. You may recall that I wrote about that presentation:

Something monumental happened on Molokai last week. The people didn't get played.

Ashley Lukens, director of the Hawaii Center for Food Safety, brought her anti-GMO/anti-ag/anti-pesticide dog and pony show to Kaunakakai. And frankly, she got her ass whooped, metaphorically speaking.

Facing a crowd that included not her usual true believers, but folks who actually work in the seed fields, Lukens was peppered with questions she wouldn't answer and criticisms she couldn't deflect until she turned tail and ran.

“I'm gonna shut it down here because I don't see it going in a good direction,” she told a crowd that began calling out, “why won't you take all the questions?” and “why didn't you bring someone from the health department?” and “what kind of doctor are you?”

But in Ashley's world, that sincere, spontaneous expression of public outrage became “the industry’s use of intimidation tactics to discredit the report.”

Why, the incident, and her subsequent spin, even earned its own quarter-page in the 16-page annual report, where Ashley gushed:

“This incredible story earned national attention and was shared on social media by the Food Babe, Dr. Bronner's, GMO Free USA.”

Wow. The Food Babe AND Dr. Bronner's. Now that's saying something. Though nothing I'd want to be associated with.

Also interesting was the report's section on Partnership Development, which listed such echo chamber inhabitants as the AiKea Movement, Aloha Aina Project, Babes Against Biotech, Beach Road Farms, Down to Earth Hawai‘i, Earthjustice, GMO Free chapters on all islands, Hawai‘i Alliance for Nonprofit Organizations, Hawai‘i Alliance for Progressive Action, Hawai‘i Farmers Union United, Hawai‘i Food Policy Council, Moms on a Mission (MoM) hui, Shaka Movement, Sierra Club of Hawaii and Surfrider.

Ashley also boasts that HCFS “hosted two powerful 'Movement Building for ea' Workshops in partnership with native Hawaiian organization Movement for Aloha no ka Aina (MANA).” 

In case you haven't heard of it, MANA was founded by Ikaika Hussey in 2008. Ikaika is also on the board of Gary Hooser's HAPA, and publishes the Hawaii Independent (an on-line website I wrote for some years back, until Ikaika failed to pay what was promised) and Summit Magazine.

One of those who participated in these “powerful” workshop trainings was Maui fashion designer and self-proclaimed ag expert Tiare Lawrence, who cites membership in the Aloha 'Aina Project — one of HCFS' new partners. In case you're unfamilar, it's headed by the Putin-friendly "man who would be king" Edwin de Silva, and his ali'i mana'o advisor, Lanny Sinkin.

Neither MANA nor the Aloha Aina Project are registered with the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

But they do get funding from Common Counsel, a California-based foundation that also began giving money to the HCFS this year. And they're both active in the anti-Thirty Meter Telescope project on Hawaii, with Sinkin speaking for the “king.”

Yes, it's not just an anti-GMO, anti-pesticide movement. It's an anti-ag (except for organic), anti-science, anti-technology (aside from the kind that allows them to use social media) pro-independence movement.

All snuggled up together with overlapping members and funding. In short, it's a small, fringe group of people with some sizable dough trying to make their movement look a lot bigger — and a lot more mainstream — than it really is.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another terrific post. And exposé.
Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Have you heard of any type of 'official' legal investigations of these non-profits that gallivant around stating mistruths in the sake of 'education'?

Now that the PUEO group (pro-tmt) has been formed, the antis are frantic to prove a pay-off, yet they are not open about their own finances, except to refer to other partner non-profits that circle the drain for the same scarps of money from a very few major funders.

Anonymous said...

Fuck you Joan. You are an angry shill for the agrochemical industry. You were once our friend and comrade in arms but you sold your soul to industry. Is your anger really worth selling your soul and all your former friends down the river?

Joan Conrow said...

@12:54 First, I was never anyone's "comrade in arms." Second, I haven't sold my soul to industry or anything/anyone else. It isn't for sale. Third, gee, what a great friend you must have been if you're now acting like this! I saw just how friendly you folks were when you immediately turned on me just because I refused to toe the party line and began asking questions. I haven't lost any friends by telling the truth and exposing the charade of the so-called "progressive" movement in Hawaii. Maybe some fair-weather acquaintances, but no one I value. And best of all, I've made a lot of new friends: smart, educated, thoughtful, caring people. Fourth, you guys are selling yourselves down the river. Don't blame me for your gullibility in selling out for the cash from the mainland foundations.

Anonymous said...

If you were really Joan's friend you would know she has more integrity than that and $ is not her motivator.

Anonymous said...

Joan re:12:54
This comment is to the point. It is shared by all of the Fistees.
Ironic, how Ms. Joan who was once loved and respected by the Fistifiers, became a pariah over one issue. But I dare say Ms Joan is on the same side of the fence with most of the typical Fistee ideals. IE Ag estates, TVR/BnB, Beach hardening, Limiting makai and mauka access, Hawaiian lands in Hawaiian hands, tax dollars for Buses and Bike paths, Alternative energy, Bees..etc etc.
So one issue. The complexity of Ag, Big Land, Herbicides, food for the world and food safety has caused this deep cleavage. Or has it?
Maybe Joan is the pariah of Da Hoos, Mason, JoAnn and others because she prefers truthful interaction and is sick to death of these Grandstanding Liars.
I always have thought Joan was "on the other side' of most of my issues. I have always thought of her as a lefty loon, a smart lefty, a fine writing lefty, but a lefty, Commie type all of the way.
I respect Joan. I feel that the Fistees will need her in future battles. Someday a peace offering will be made to Ms Joan. After the dust is settled, after Big Corn has gone away (due to world economics), the Fistees will ask Joan for help.
I believe that even tho' Ms Joan has been vilified beyond compare, that she will indeed take the hand/fist of the former Fistees and unite to battle another ogre, on another day. An open hand is easier to clean than a fist.
Holy Harmony and Reconciliation Batman, why can't Da Hoos see that?

Anonymous said...

@12:54
WOW! You sound like one of those that drank the KOOL AID the anti's are pouring out by the barrels, and now you are pissed off because you are finding out the stories are shit and the walls are crumbling around you. I SAY FUCK YOU 12:54!!!!! Go back and crawl under that rock you came out from. Be a good little sheep now and go back to your FUCKED FLOCK.

Anonymous said...

Character assassination is the favorite tactic whenever they cannot refute science or logic. Joan, I really love your musings because you provide inside information not provided by our local media that cater to outside interests. Interesting that the chief rabble-rousers - Vandana Shiva (physics), Judy Carman (chemical engineering), and Stephanie Seneff (electrical engineering) have no backgrounds in food, nutrition, or medicine. And, yet they are widely cited by the CFS, despite being refuted by scientists recently.

Keep up the good work, Joan!

Dinkydao

Anonymous said...

12:54pm....Oh my sounds like we have someone here from the Trump/Sanders campaign....No class cannot speak nicely and very angry cause not getting his/her way.......LOL...

Robin Clark said...

Joan

@12:54 must have been a really special friend! With (former) friends like that who needs....
You should really require people to put their names to posts. That way the gutless @12:54 fistees will crawl back into holes where they belong. And don't worry, you have more friends out here than you can imagine.

I remember watching the Molokai video and was impressed by several things: the attentiveness and civility of the audience: how inarticulate Lukens is; and how she could not answer even the most basic question in a straightforward way and turned tail when a few difficult ones were tossed her way.

Keep up the good work. You are the perfect counterbalance to the GI which reports every time the anti crowd sneezes (or worse).

Anonymous said...

We need more teachers qualified to teach math and science.

Anonymous said...

Re 1:34, German owned Bayer just put in a bid to buy Monsanto for $62 Billion. And Obama being such a conservative payed our debt to Africa with GMO corn. GMO will always have a place in the world economy.

Anonymous said...

Another Koke'e Fire. One has to ponder if there is a serial arsonist. KPD still hasn't caught the serial rapist/killer from the west side of Kauai that relocated to the east side of Kauai and possibly added two more victims and a survivor back in 2009-2010.

I guess more fire wood for the green energy plant for big dollar land owner and his pet project.

50 acres burned in Kokee brush fire - Thegardenisland.com: Home
thegardenisland.com › acres-burned-in-k...
2 days ago - KOKEE — A brush fire burned about 50 acres in Kokee on Saturday

Anonymous said...

@7:43pm Ignorant bastard that blames the president for everything. Just say it, you white racists don't like that America has a half black half white president. You racist don't even recognize that he's half white.

Anonymous said...

@ 7:35 your vituperation proves that the truth hurts. So sad that in your desperation, you have to resort to invective racial slurs.

Anonymous said...

@7:55AM - When you can't defend a loser with facts, you blame it on his/her race and others' racism. Aren't you smart enough to see that your claim of racism is empty, unfounded and admitting failure of the person who you seek to defend? You're a sad lil puppy.

Anonymous said...

You're so stupid that you can't even acknowledge that one person is not control of an entire nation and to not know the different branches of government itself is your ignorance.

You're the SAD person who can't get over that a half black/half white person is president.

He's not even the first to be multiracial. Check the history of presidents you radical right wing fucktards.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...

@7:43pm Ignorant bastard that blames the president for everything. Just say it, you white racists don't like that America has a half black half white president. You racist don't even recognize that he's half white.

May 24, 2016 at 7:55 AM
Anonymous Anonymous said...

@7:55AM - When you can't defend a loser with facts, you blame it on his/her race and others' racism. Aren't you smart enough to see that your claim of racism is empty, unfounded and admitting failure of the person who you seek to defend? You're a sad lil puppy.

May 24, 2016 at 10:31 AM
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You're so stupid that you can't even acknowledge that one person is not control of an entire nation and to not know the different branches of government itself is your ignorance.

You're the SAD person who can't get over that a half black/half white person is president.

He's not even the first to be multiracial. Check the history of presidents you radical right wing fucktards.

Standing O-vation. Pun intended.

Anonymous said...

Well, the big standing O "pun intended" will be a standing A, Aloha in November!

Anonymous said...

@10:16

Your into re-runs already. Oh my, two posts and you're out of words and new ideas. Just a narcissistic poster that enjoy's reading his / her own rhetoric. What a clown . Too funny!