Musings: All Riled Up

Proving once again how easy it is to rally and rile the ignorant, Don Heacock and Adam Asquith are fomenting fury around a supposed new "Waialeale water diversion."

Uh, except, there isn't one.

Here's the crap that Heacock and Asquith are feeding the mob (you can click on all the images to make them bigger and easier to read):

Oh, yeah, let's try to turn this into Kauai's own pipeline battle. So perfect for the warrior wannabes who can't make it North Dakota.

Here's the reality:

The Department of Water is building an 18-inch transmission line that will run along the Kapaia Cane Haul Road, from Ma’alo Road to Kuhio Highway, to Grove Farm's existing Surface Water Treatment Plan (SWTP). It's being built both to create a redundant system, in case the existing line breaks, and ensure adequate water pressure for fire fighting at Wilcox hospital and Wilcox elementary school.

It is not creating any new diversions, or dewatering any streams. The source capacity of the SWTP was already determined and approved years ago, during the SWTP’s design phase, through an EIS [correction; engineering report, as required by the Department of Health] and Commission on Water Resources and Management permitting process. It allows a maximum capacity of 3 MGD. DOW is currently taking about 2 MGD.

Or to boil it down to really simple terms: DOW is adding another pipeline to increase water flow to the Lihue area. It is NOT taking any more water from the source than has already been approved by the state. It is not drilling into Mt. Waialeale, or anywhere else.

It's perfectly appropriate for Kirk Saiki to anticipate a finding of no significant impact (FONSI) for a roadside pipe. Nobody's circumventing the law.

But why bother to find out the facts when you can get the fanatics frothing and foaming just by tossing out some made up bullshit?

And sure enough, they snapped at the bait, ever-anxious for an excuse to get all riled up about something. All ya gotta do is sic Dustin Barca on it:

Gee, that's kind of remarkable, considering the pipeline hasn't even been built yet. Think it might have something to do with the low rainfall?

War? Threat to your lives? What a fricking joke.

Of course, it doesn't take long for the threats to start:

Feeling good about what you've started, Adam and Don? Are you sitting back smirking, knowing you've unleashed the crazies over nothing? Nothing but your own attempt to have Lihue turned into a ground water management area (GWMA), that is.  

Because that's the call to action from Hui Hoopulapula Na Wai O Puna's Debra Lee-Jackson. Even though her 'facts" are all messed up, she's demanding either a full EIS for the pipeline or declaration of the GWMA — something Adam has been pushing for quite a while now.

In a letter to Office of Environmental Quality Control Director Scot Glen, Debra sniffs: "[There's] not even a mention of any impact of the withdraw [sic] of the water from the streams." 

Mmm, that's because there isn't any going to be any more water withdrawn than has already been approved. Hence, no impact.

But don't worry, that fount of foolishness, KKCR, will soon further muddy the waters with its own unique brand of disinformation, aimed at furthering the massive egos of the hosts while  deluding and confusing the sheeple:

Meanwhile, they're busily rallying themselves for some sort of action that is sure to be misguided because it's so misinformed:

Hey, I've got a really radical plan of action. How's about you find out what's really going on before you get all ramped up?

What's sad is seeing some of these folks waste their energy fighting non-existing bogeyman rather than working to address real issues in the community. 

Like the rampant ignorance that allows them to be so easily manipulated and misled by people like Don and Adam, who will stop at nothing to grind their own axes.

Musings: March On

EPA regional director Alexis Strauss yesterday indicated that her agency is soon to lower the boom on Syngenta over an incident in which workers entered a field too soon after it had been sprayed with chlorpyrifos.

“Hawaii is a particular focus for our pesticide interests, and we have been actively investigating an event that occurred in January on Kauai and are going to see that through to a very significant conclusion shortly,” Strauss told Beth-Ann Kozlovich during an interview on HPR's The Conversation.

Unfortunately, Beth-Ann didn't ask why Hawaii is a particular focus, considering Strauss' region includes California, with its much higher pesticide use. But one can only assume that Earthjustice has played a part, with its constant complaints and requests for the agency's intervention.

It's fine if EPA is getting involved in Hawaii for legitimate health and safety issues. But it's not so fine if it's being driven by Earthjustice's anti-GMO/anti-ag agenda, as evidence by the group's legal actions, which are directed solely against agriculture, specifically the seed companies, even though pest control companies use far more — and much more hazardous — pesticides.

No doubt Earthjustice will use the EPA's action against Syngenta to further spread its false narrative of seed companies as poisoners and itself as savior. We already saw that on March 11, when Earthjustice, HAPA, Hawaii Seed, the Pesticide Action Network and the MOM Hui called upon the EPA to investigate the incident, with EJ's Paul Achitoff using his usual flamingly deceptive rhetoric:

"Time and again, Hawaii authorities have turned their back on Hawaii’s residents and farmworkers in favor of agrochemical companies.We have no confidence that an investigation by the Hawaii Department of Agriculture will get to the bottom of this incident, or take measures to ensure these poisonings stop.”

In fact, the state Department of Agriculture had already referred the investigation to the EPA, which Achitoff knew. But these groups are all about making themselves look good — keep the donations coming — while pissing on the DOA and lying their asses off.

So what kind of agricultural future do these groups envision? An answer is provided by the Center for Food Safety — an Earthjustice/HAPA co-conspirator — which posted this:

The answer, as they see it, is agroecology — organic production – produced in some sort of communal fashion. With forced labor, since no one is actually stepping up to farm? As the article notes, “Agroecology needs socialism.”

What's rather ironic is that these anti-GMO and anti-“industrial” ag groups are financed almost entirely by foundations endowed with corporate profits achieved by capitalists.

Make no mistake — the anti groups in Hawaii are using an attack against agriculture to advance a specific political agenda. Which explains their next shindig:

AS CFS proclaimed: “Let's build a more just, fair and healthy future for Hawaiʻi – together!”

In another irony, they're closely aligned with the tourism industry through the AIKEA Movement and Local 5, the hotel workers' union. Like mass tourism is fair, just and healthy?

Luke Evslin offers a different perspective of tourism in a thoughtful column that was excellent save for its publication on the crappy Civil Beat site. Luke asks, as I did 10 days ago, why the sustainability folks and politicians (aside from Billy Kenoi) are mum about the impacts of uncontrolled tourism. It's definitely worth a read.

While on the site, I noticed Civil Beat had written about how candidates are being inundated with surveys trying to assess where they stand on specific issues. Nathan Eagle interviewed Maui Rep. Kaniela Ing, darling of the antis, before writing:

Ing fended off Deidre Tegarden in the August primary despite her support from interest groups who donated thousands of dollars to her campaign.

Like Ing didn't also receive thousands of dollars from special interest groups? 

I sent Nathan the relevant campaign contribution reports — here, here and here — since he was obviously too lazy to go look for himself.  But the really funny part came when Ing spouted this platitude:

“I don’t mind the pressure. That’s what this job should be about — being accountable.”

That's rich coming from someone who failed to insure his vehicle, blew off a court appearance on the citation and then lied and made excuses when he was charged with contempt of court, resulting in a warrant being issued for his arrest.

Yeah, Kaniela, show us some of that accountability. Bring it!

Equally ridiculous was a comment that anti-GMO/anti-sugar activist Karen Chun left on Luke's column:

So she doesnt want ag or tourism. Well, that's fine for someone who is living off her Mama's money. But it's not so great for people who actually need a functioning economy and the jobs it provides to survive.

And finally, commenters on this site often cite Europe's rejection of GMOs to bolster their anti stance. So I took note when that point was addressed by Sir Richard Roberts, an English biochemist and molecular biologist who was one the 100+ Nobel Laureates who signed the letter supporting precision agriculture and GMOs:

When GMOs were first introduced into Europe, Monsanto benefitted handsomely, the farmers benefitted a little and there was nothing in it for the consumers other than a slight price increase.

Since Europe didn’t need GMOs and in general were suspicious of big agri-business, it became easy for Green parties, notably Greenpeace, to conflate the two issues, which they did.

They could be against GMOs, arguing it would hurt Monsanto, and at the same time they could make the case for saving Europe by scaring everyone with stories of disasters that might ensue from the widespread use of GMOs.

It worked and was hugely profitable to Greenpeace both in terms of fundraising and gaining political power. And best of all, there was no real cost to the European consumer.

It was such a good model that groups like Earthjustice, CFS, Hawaii SEED, HAPA, PAN, etc. picked it up.

And so the fear-mongering and fundraising march on.

Musings: Calabash

Kauai Mayor Bernard Carvalho is asking the Hawaii Supreme Court to review a lower court ruling that found he did not have the right to discipline the police chief.

In July, the Intermediate Court of Appeals ruled the mayor had no authority to suspend Police Chief Darryl Perry in February 2012. Though the police commission voted to reinstate Perry after the seven-day suspension, the mayor refused to allow him to return to work. The commission sued and lost in Circuit Court, but won on appeal when the ICA found that the police commission's power to discipline the chief is implied in its sole authority to hire and fire him.

The request for the high court review argues that the ICA “failed to properly contextualize the legal issue” when it focused solely on powers set forth in the County Charter and did not acknowledge the administrative limitations of the commission and the mayor's “authority to exercise direct supervision over” the department and chief.

So if the mayor supposedly has authority to directly supervise the department, why would you even need a chief and commission?

Grove Farm is using its September newsletter and website to state its side in the planned closure of an access road to Mahaulepu:

Over a year ago, complaints made by Surfrider's Kaua'i Chapter prompted the State of Hawai'i Department of Health's (DOH) Clean Water Branch to conduct numerous water sample surveys as part of their Sanitary Survey process in the Maha'ulepu watershed.

While the complainants speculated that the bacteria was caused by ongoing improvements to the area by Hawaii Dairy Farms (HDF), the State found no significant impact to the Waiopili Ditch from any activity that can be attributed to HDF or other lessees in the area.

The proposed dairy area is over a mile away from the beach and while previous cattle operations had leased the area for well over a decade, to date HDF has not brought in a single head of their cattle.

At the direction of the DOH, Grove Farm’s affiliate, Maha‘ulepu Farm LLC (Maha‘ulepu Farm), has closed its private road leading to Maha'ulepu as the DOH conducts additional testing to better determine the source of bacteria in the area. Maha‘ulepu Farm is willing to assist DOH, and will temporarily close its private roads to Maha‘ulepu to the public until DOH’s testing can be completed.

Upon completion of the testing at the end of November, Maha‘ulepu Farm intends to reopen its private roads to the public.

While fisherman access will remain unchanged, the area will be closed in an effort to preserve the quality of the testing and to ensure that test results are not compromised.

It's been fascinating to read some of the paranoid conspiracy theories circulating around this, including attempts to blame it on the Dept. of Ag seeking revenge against Surfrider. Uh, sure, right. WTF does DOA care if the road to Mahaulepu is open or closed?

And I'm still waiting for Surfrider's PR director, Robert Zelkovksy, to explain why, if the group is “anti-pollution,” and “not anti-ag,” as he claims, the group's most aggressive actions have been directed toward the dairy and seed companies, neither of which have been documented to be polluting.

In its coverage of campaign funding today, The Garden Island offered an inaccurate picture of Councilman Gary Hooser's finances. The paper reported that “Hooser has raised a total of $59,193.09” and “spent $64,542.97.” 

What it failed to note is that Hooser also took in $9,603 from “other receipts,” including matching funds, and a loan of $7,250, bringing his total receipts to $76,046. Then there's the additional $6,216.84 eligible for matching funds that was collected since the Aug. 13 disclosure report was filed.

Which brings Hooser's total receipts for this County Council campaign to a whopping $88,479.68. That's double Derek Kawakami's total of $43,775.11. And Derek came in first, while Hooser got ninth.

Guess there are some things that money just can't buy.

Hooser and Councilman Mason Chock are featured in Civil Beat's candidate profiles, with Hooser curiously neglecting to mention his presidency of the anti-GMO HAPA advocacy group under “community organizations.”

Chock, meanwhile, opines:

Our community deserves critical thinking and healthy conflict that will result in the best possible outcomes for the county.

No shit. Instead, we've gotten the exact opposite.

He then devolves into near-gibberish:

I am a leadership development facilitator by trade and believe change is best achieved through the art of mobilizing people towards a shared vision and outcome that they agree should occur. At the Council level, this requires independent thinkers who are willing to disagree in the spirit of seeking a common outcome through intense problem solving and dialogue and then commit to the direction set by the collective voice.

Before ending on a note of insight:

Maybe if voters were to elect people into office who value listening to all points of view rather than a specific mindset or agenda, we would experience more openmindedness and objectivity from elected officials.

Guess that rules out Hooser.

Musings: Agreeing on Facts

A recent contentious post prompted a comment from a reader lamenting, “where's the center?” in conversations about GMOs and pesticides.

It's a good question, and one that's certainly relevant as Kauai, and hopefully the rest of Hawaii, begins the process of healing from the social rift and community polarization caused by pesticide/GMO activism.

In responding, one of the first things that came to mind was a recent guest editorial in the Star-Advertiser by Joni Kamiya, who wrote that we need to “start to agree on the facts.”

Yeah, the facts are a really good place to start. So in this and upcoming posts I'm going to be scrutinizing claims and facts, in hopes the reasonable among us can find some agreement.

Because right now we have people saying really extreme stuff like, “the chemical companies are totally unregulated and the GMO crops are poisoning people.” Most recently, that ludicrous claim was revised to assert that they are having "an unjustified disproportionate and adverse effect Native Hawaiians.”

In fact, according to the state Health Department, the number one cause of poisoning fatalites in Hawaii is drugs, which “caused almost all (93%) of the poisonings, including 37% from “sedative-hypnotic and psychotropic drugs”, and 29% from “narcotics and hallucinogens”. Pesticides are way down the list, and they are associated primarily with home use, not agriculture.

These graphics from the state's Poison Prevention Hotline annual report offer more detail:

We also hear a lot about how we have to protect the keiki from ag pesticides,with mandatory buffer zones the most frequently touted remedy. But what is really poisoning Hawaii keiki?

And again, products found in the children's homes are the most likely to cause harm.

Though a Center for Food Safety "fact sheet" asserts that "there have been at least six episodes of pesticide-induced illness at schools since just 2006," it leaves out the good part: not one came from agriculture. In fact, there have been 16 such episodes since 2006, with the culprits identified as a school janitor, a turf company and household pesticide use.

The seed companies, like anyone who uses pesticides, are indeed regulated. They're regulated by the state, which issues their pesticide applicator license, and by the EPA, which sets the standards for pesticide use. You may not think the regulations are sufficient, and no doubt some will claim that the EPA has been infiltrated by the chemical companies. None of that changes the fact that they are regulated, and those who violate the law are subject to both civil and criminal penalities.

As I've previously reported, the seed companies in Hawaii are actually subjected to far more rigorous and frequent oversight than agricultural entities on the mainland. Because there are so many growers on the mainland, they may encounter a pesticide inspector only once every five years, compared to several times annually in the Islands — or more often if people are complaining.  

We also hear “pesticides are poison.” It's a favorite tactic of groups like Center for Food Safety and Earthjustice to pad their complaints and literature with all sorts of scary data about pesticides.

No one is disputing that pesticides are poison. They are designed to kill insects and weeds. That's why they are so carefully regulated. But when it comes to health, there are two issues at stake: Are people being exposed to pesticides from agricultural operations? And if so, is that exposure occuring at harmful levels?

Thus far, we have seen absolutely no indication that either is occuring. Indeed, every study that has been done — even those by the antis — detected pesticides at only trace amounts, far-far below federal safety standards. 

Though people like Joint Fact Finding facilitator Peter Adler are trying to build a case for harm from chronic, low-level exposure, those threshholds have not yet been set by the federal government, which is the responsible entity, not the state. 

So when Earthjustice attorney Paul Achitoff claims, "The public is at risk and the Department of Agriculture is asleep at the wheel," he's telling a bald-faced lie.

We also hear often hear that "no exposure/residue is acceptable." Again, that's a belief system. 

In fact, the EPA conducts a lengthy, science-based review, based on federal safety standards, before manufacturers can sell pesticides in the United States.  As a result of this process, the EPA determines applicable buffer zones for the product, whether it can be used indoors, the safe re-entry time, acceptable exposure levels for human and environmental health and many other factors. 

In setting exposure rates, it builds in a large safety buffer. The EPA also has a science-based risk-assessment process, with a robust public comment process, to assess and set pesticide tolerance levels for each crop.

After hearing Earthjustice, Center for Food Safety and Councilman Gary Hooser make a big hoo-haw about chlorpyrifos, I actually waded through the EPA's risk assessment on the product. I came away reassured that the EPA looks at these products carefully, and convinced that it would be nearly impossible for anyone on Kauai to be exposed to chlorpyrifos through drift from the seed fields, as the antis have alleged. And county tests showed it's not in the water. 

So it's highly unlikely anyone on Kauai is even being exposed to ag uses of chlorpyrifos, much less harmed, even though critics can point to a long list of bad things that can happen to people who are exposed.

We see another example of intentional dishonesty with Kimo Franklin's  letter to the editor, published in Sunday's Star-Advertiser. The Maunalua-Hawaii Kai activist writes: 

The problem is, seed-crop companies and all the land they occupy in Hawaii don’t grow one ounce of food for local consumption. Properly managed diversified agriculture should be the agricultural priority for Hawaii. Bottom line: Grow food for Hawaii’s population first. Then Hawaii can decide how to help feed the rest of the world.

The fact is, there is plenty of land available for growing food, and whatever people want to grow. As I pointed out just last week, the seed companies control roughly 10,000 acres, about half of which are actively planted. This represents but a tiny fraction of the 2 million acres of ag land available in Hawaii today. What's missing are farmers, markets, an economically competitive crop.

What's more, the seed industry is defined as diversified agriculture, and its efforts to preserve irrigation systems and other ag infrastructure support all farming. So it's totally in keeping with the state Constitutional directive to “conserve and protect agricultural lands, promote diversified agriculture, increase agricultural self-sufficiency and assure the availability of agriculturally suitable land” — even if Kimo wants to pretend otherwise.

It's patently false to claim that the seed industry is somehow taking away any effort to grow food for Hawaii's population. Indeed, it's actively supporting food production, as I discovered when I toured Pioneer's Waialua farm and saw all the ways it's helping local farmers. 

Though I've been called a chemical company shill, I have no real interest, economic or otherwise, in the agrochemical companies operating in Hawaii. I got into this issue primarily because I saw a lot of fear-mongering lies being treated as fact to promote Bill 2491. 

And that's when I started drilling down to find out what's real.

At the time, I found a video, based around a song parody, that had been produced by a UC-Davis livestock lab that uses both conventional and genetic engineering breeding. As one lyric goes, "Tiny lies, turn to big, suddenly they're known as truth."

That's exactly what I saw happening on Kauai, and elsewhere in the GMO debate, and it reaffirmed my own commitment to look for the facts. They're an ideal starting point for reasonable, rational discussion, and the best hope for reaching some sort of agreement. 

So can we agree on these facts? 

1) The seed crops and other pesticide users in Hawaii are regulated. 

2) There is currently no evidence of human or environmental harm from seed company operations. 

3) Homeowners are the primary source of pesticide poisonings. 

4) Drugs, not pesticides, are the primary source of poisonings in Hawaii. 

5) The seed companies are not a deterrent to food production, and in some instances are actually supporting it.

If you disagree, please be prepared to present some facts to back up your claims.

Musings: Kick 'Em

The Grove Farm road that allows public access to Mahaulepu beach will be closed for two months during bacterial studies in the Waiopili Ditch and Poipu-Koloa watershed area, the state Department of Health announced yesterday.

The news comes as no surprise — DOH indicated last May a beach closure was likely, though the proposal then was for four months this past summer. Now it's Sept. 26 to Nov. 30.

Nor is it any surprise that Friends of Mahaulepu and Surfrider are desperately trying to distance themselves from the action their endless complaints precipitated. As The Garden Island reports, “some locals” — FOM's Bridget Hammerquist and Surfrider's Carl Berg — “are questioning the motives” of DOH.

Yes, we understand Surfrider and FOM don't want to take any heat for being responsible for the lengthy closure of a popular beach. And we realize their real agenda has always been stopping the proposed dairy, not protecting public health.

But when you've been publicly bitching for months about how DOH is falling down on the job and Grove Farm is allowing its tenants to pollute the wai and kai, it rings a bit hollow when you start to question why DOH and GF are now doing exactly what you've been screaming at them to do: accurately determine the cause of high bacteria counts at Waiopili.

The beach closure is yet another example of the “unintended consequences” of activism by groups eager to target any possible source of pollution — save for tourism, and themselves.

And is anyone else tired of the self-proclaimed water quality experts at Surfrider and FOM acting like they know best how DOH should operate, when their own anti-ag biases are manifest? Not to mention the way TGI laps up their every word, without question.

Speaking of lousy reporting, the low standards at Civil Beat dropped yet another notch with publication of a secretly recorded video showing Big Island Mayor Billy Kenoi offering a drunken, profanity-laced toast to Kauai Mayor Bernard Carvalho in a privately-hosted reception at the Hawaii Congress of Planning Officials.

Though the video has absolutely nothing to do with anything, and isn't even entertaining, reporter Chad Blair justifies it because “Kenoi has been accused by criminal prosecutors of using taxpayer money to buy, as the prosecutors put it, “exorbitant amounts of alcohol.”

Uh, except that's totally irrelevant, since no taxpayer money was used to host the after-hours Kauai Hyatt hospitality suite where the toast occurred. And I think we already know Billy has a drinking problem.

"Kick 'em when they're up, kick 'em when they're down..." 

Yeah, yeah. I know. I shouldn't talk. But I wouldn't have tried to pass that off as news. And it gives me a chance, during this horrible Presidential election, to post Don Henley's great song.

Though CB branded the video like it was its own, it was actually lifted from the Facebook page of Jonathan Scheuer, a member of the state Land Use Commission. So curious, that CB fails to note the one thing that actually is interesting about this shtick: a public official secretly taping other public officials.

To his credit, Scheuer deleted the two videos he'd taken at the event, and issued a FB apology:

First, the regular folks at the party did not expect to be videoed, even if the videos were not primarily of them. Second, the videos may have given some people the wrong impression that all we do is drink and party at this conference. This was one after-hours gathering at a three-day conference that is digging deeply into many substantive issues that face our islands. I am friends with many, many people at this conference, and many planners around the state, and they are some of the most dedicated people I know. I really regret having posted the videos for those reasons, and apologize to my planning colleagues for the harm this may have caused. I am sorry. :(

But too late. CB had already picked it up. No doubt Jonathan will experience a few cold shoulders and closed doors after this.

While we're on the topic of kicking failed politicians, Kauai Councilman Gary Hooser has managed to scrape together $8,837 in donations eligible for matching public funds. Thus far, he's the only Kauai Council candidate to report post-primary donations and seek matching funds for the general election.

That gives Gary another $17,674 to tamp down a rat hole — on top of the $64,543 he already blew in the primary. 

Hmm. Do you suppose $82,217 can buy him a Council seat that pays $56,000 a year? (And untold undisclosed perks from his HAPA nonprofit. Switzerland, anyone?)

So interesting to see sleazes like Hanalei boat king Joe Pascal and cat fanatic Basil Scott, who has been leading the vicious attacks against Kauai Humane Society director Penny Cistaro, among Gary's donors. 

And more than 20 percent of the total ($1,959, to be exact),  came from off-island folks — including Josh Stanbro, program director of environment and sustainability at Hawaii Community Foundation.

As I've noted, the decidedly opaque HCF has stepped up funding for the antis in recent years. Now we see why. 

Go, Josh! And I mean that literally.

Musings: Iwi on Mauna Kea

Native Hawaiian burials have long been a political and cultural hot button in the Islands, where numerous disputes have raged over the discovery and disinternment of iwi kupuna during development.

But the issue has taken a bizarre new twist with the revelation that a Big Island activist intentionally placed bones on an ahu atop Mauna Kea in an effort to derail the Thirty Meter Telescope project.

Mauna Kea sunrise, as seen from Hilo.

According to the Hawaii Tribune-Herald:

Palikapu Dedman, who is facing potential criminal charges, told the Tribune-Herald he placed iwi, or bones, belonging to an ancestor on the stone altar last September and then again earlier this month after realizing the first set of bones went missing.

He declined to provide details for how he got the remains but claimed they belong to relatives and that they are from Ka‘u, his ancestral home. Dedman said he has more.

He said he wanted to show the area is a Hawaiian burial site, a claim made by some opponents of the proposed telescope.

“It’s a traditional process,” said Dedman, an activist involved in geothermal and Native Hawaiian issues. “I had a right to do it.”

His actions were condemned by both telescope proponents and some cultural practitioners, who contend Dedman's use of iwi for political purposes was inappropriate, and thus tantamount to desecration. 

According to a statement issued by Yes2TMT and signed by Amber Imai-Hong, Chris Stark, John Evans, Naea Stevens. Niki Thomas, Thayne Currie and Veronica Ohara:

While protest is a critical component of living within a free democratic society, this disrespectful and culturally inappropriate action is beyond the pale and far outside the bounds of respectful protest or socially conscious civil disobedience.

Our deceased loved ones’ remains should be revered, not used as political pawns. Disinterring a grave to promote a lie about the TMT site does not "protect Mauna Kea". It is not "kapu aloha". It is desecration: any TMT protester who assisted in this heinous act likewise has participated in desecrating Maunakea.

Traditionally, only the bones of chiefs were placed in such high places. It's unclear whether Dedman has royal lineage.

Though the 2010 EIS conducted for the TMT project identified five burials and 24 possible burials within the entire Mauna Kea Science Reserve, none are within a mile of the proposed telescope site, prompting a finding that the TMT would not adversely impact either burials or burial blessing practices.

Nevertheless, as the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reports:

Harry Fergerstrom, a participant in the contested case for TMT’s land use permit, recently submitted a “notice of burial claim under the proposed TMT site” as part of the quasi-judicial hearing. He said a relative told him that there are remains of his ancestors near the access road for the project.

Others noted that Dedman's tactics served to undermine the authority of Island Burial Councils, which are charged under state law with approving a burial plan for the relocation of any Hawaiian remains.

What I found especially disturbing was how Dedman's actions give ammunition to those who have criticized burial preservation efforts, claiming that kanaka have been “using” iwi kupuna to slow or stop development.

It also raises an ethical issue that has troubled me about GMO opponents and other activists whose behavior seems to reflect a belief that the ends justify the means.

The Yes2TMT statement also raised that point:

The TMT is a complicated issue for Hawaiians and Hawaii residents. We can respect those who oppose TMT on principled grounds and with honorable actions, even if we strongly disagree. This act, however, is unprincipled and dishonorable, communicating that the ends justify the means and the truth does not matter.

Thus far, TMT protesters have either been silent on this act or, incredibly, have supported it. No doubt, at some point the full truth of what happened will be revealed to all the island’s residents. But for now we call on upon those in opposition to TMT to join us in publicly condemning this desecration and challenge any others who participated in it to come forward and publicly apologize.

Curiously, an article posted on the KAHEA website reports Kealoha Pisciotta, one of the petitioners seeking to stop the TMT through the legal process, as saying:

"We have actual evidence that accounts for archaeological sites and burial grounds. Thirty more burials have been found since the [2011 BLNR] hearing. It is the burial ground and the place of our most sacred ancestors. The whole mountain is a burial site, and they haven’t even done a burial treatment plan.”

If that's the case, then why did Palikapu feel the need to import iwi from Ka'u?

According to Hawaiian scholar and educator Mary Kawena Pukui:

In the pre-Christian creeds of Hawaii, manʻs immortality was manifest in his bones. Man's blood, even bright drops shed by the living, was haumia (defiled and defiling). Man's body, when death made flesh corrupt, was an abomination and kapu (taboo). The iwi survived decaying flesh. The bones remained, the cleanly, lasting portion of the man or woman who once lived. The bones of the dead were guarded, respected, treasured, venerated, loved or even deified by relatives; coveted and despoiled by enemies.

With or without ʻunihipili [deification] rituals, there was a feeling that the spirit might yet be hovering near the iwi. If the bones were desecrated, the spirit was insulted. Even the living descendants of the profaned dead were shamed and humiliated. So the Hawaiians believed.

Musings: Rumblings and Grumblings

Over in the murky world of anti-GMO activist Dustin Barca, amid the conspiracy theories, chem trails, anti-Semitism and other inchoate ramblings, emerged a distinct note of discontent:

Hmm. It seems the target of his grumblings is Gary Hooser's HAPA and the Center for Food Safety.

Could it be that even the rank among the file are discovering that these groups, and their leaders, are self-serving demagogic shams? 

Or is Dustin just pissed because they're getting money, and he isn't? 

Actually, I try to avoid Dustin's postings, because it's so sad to think of people living their lives in deep fear and ignorance, absolutely convinced they're the victims of a vast conspiracy aimed at wiping out their insignificant selves, poisoned from the sky via chem trails and through their food via GMOs:

And through it all, never realizing their paranoid, ill-informed belief system is what's truly toxic.

Returning to reality, not enough attention has been paid to economist Paul Brewbaker's new report on the seed industry in Hawaii.

First, there's the total annual economic value, which is currently estimated at $323 million. That's down from its peak of $500 million, due to the global drop in commodity prices and subsequent shrinkage of seed operations. The companies generated some 2,694 jobs in 2015 — 927 of them on Kauai.

As Beth-Ann Kozlovich noted on HPR's “The Conversation,” that means the seed industry must be the dominant sector in Island agriculture. To which Paul replied: “News flash. It has been for the last 10 years.”

When Beth-Ann brought up the oft-made claim that seeds are squeezing out food production and other diversified ag, again Paul pulled no punches.

“I don't even know why there is such a discussion,” he replied, noting that the seed companies have control of 10,000 acres, about 5,000 of which are actively planted. Most of it is fee-simple land that the companies own.

The seed holdings represent but a tiny fraction of the 2 million acres of ag land available in Hawaii today. “Nothing is preventing everyone from going out and growing other crops,” he said.

Except, perhaps, for the will to actually do it. As the Hawaii Farm Bureau observed in a guest commentary on local food production published in Sunday's Star-Advertiser:

Though we hear a lot of talk about farming, it’s not translating into committed bodies on the land. Instead, we hear romanticized ideas about how we should be farming that don’t match the reality of food production in the islands.

In another guest editorial on the same topic, Joni Kamiya, who writes the Hawaii Farmers Daughter blog, noted:

Farming is one of the oldest professions in society and yet it has become so demonized by those with no attachment to it. When social media is filled with terrible things that farmers allegedly do, where’s the incentive for anyone to raise their hand to take on that challenge? We can’t cultivate more farmers if we continue to have a disregard for facts and truth about agriculture.

Which leads me to the oft-made claims about Roundup, or glyphosate. First, we have this from Michelle Miller — aka the “Farm Babe” — who raises lambs, beef cattle and almost 2,000 acres of row crops, such as corn, soybeans, oats and alfalfa in Iowa:

Roundup is applied at a rate of approx. 22 ounces per acre, (just over half a liter, or 650 ml) which is less than 2 beer cans worth over an area of land the size of an American football field. One acre plants 35,000 corn seeds which yield on average, say... 220 bushels or over 12,000 pounds (6 tons) of grain. Since the active ingredient glyphosate makes up 41% of this with an LD50 value of 5600 mg/kg and is sprayed before the edible part of the plant is present, trace residues are parts per trillion. Therefore, 86 tons of grain (about 14 acres) would be an approximate calculation to pose alarm in humans.

Then there's the latest from the EPA, which has conducted three reviews of the controversial herbicide in response to new studies. Its most recent determination:

“Not likely to be carcinogenic.”

As NPR noted, this finding joins others:

The European Food Safety Agency convened a group of experts who concluded that glyphosate probably does not cause cancer. So did the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization.

I know, I know. The EPA and everybody else is in bed with Monsanto. Which is a curious belief system when you consider that groups like Earthjustice keep calling upon the EPA to exert more influence in Hawaii.

Still...

Oh, and you know how yesterday I mentioned that folks love to talk about sustainability, but actions are in short supply? Consider this, from the Kauai Surfrider's PR person:

Yeah. Enough of that. Laters.

When even those who are telling others what to do, don't want to do it, is it any wonder that it isn't getting done?

So can we please drop the holier-than-thou, pure-as-the-driven-snow rhetoric that frames so much of the talk about agriculture, economic development, sustainability, water, food and just about everything else?