Musings: Doomed to Repeat

It's story time.

And as certain folks try to re-tell the tale of Bill 2491 — the GMO/pesticide regulatory measure passed by the Kauai County Council, vetoed by the mayor, overridden by the Council and overturned in court — we're getting some revisionist history.

First up is Jennifer Ruggles, a Big Island wahine (paid by the California-based Pesticide Action Network) who was on Kauai for all of four months while the shit was going down. Yet she's now positioned herself to give a talk at the University of Hawaii-Hilo, where she promises to tell “the riveting story of the movement that lead [sic] to the 2013 largest march in Kauai history in the struggle against GMO pesticide poisoning.” 

Jennifer is seriously truth-challenged. In a youtube video that she posted, Jennifer makes numerous wild claims, including:

The seed companies use 72 tons of pesticides annually; they're taking up all the land so farmers who want to grow food can't get any; westside residents filed a class action suit against DuPont Pioneer over two cases of pesticide poisoning at Waimea Canyon School; the westside has 10 times the national average of a certain heart birth defect; and DDT is "used by GMO companies.” 

Not one of those claims is accurate. But like Center for Food Safety's Ashley Lukens, Jennifer sure knows how to spin for dollars: Send more donations, please, and we'll tell you more BS.

Meanwhile — and such curious timing! — Councilman Gary Hooser has also come out with his own version of events surrounding 2491, in which he not surprisingly tries to position him in the best possible light. In a recent blog post that he has titled "an almost complete history of Bill Nov. 2491," he links to various videos featuring himself pontificating and politicking, as well as Chris D'Angelo's crappy reporting on the issue.

Gary also links to minutes and videos of Council meetings that led to passage of the bill in less than four months, in the wee hours of the morning, after a marathon 18-hour session, as a mob threatened to overrun the Council and a group led by former Councilwoman Lani Kawahara and others screamed outside the chambers.

It's all here, on video. Go back and look at the section of that meeting that begins at 17:49:00, just in case you're forgotten how very ugly things got — with Gary's encouragement and endorsement.  Why, he even went so far as to say:

I don't blame the audience for getting riled up. I really don't.

Yeah, because that's precisely the sort of fistee action that Gary has promoted throughout this process.

Gary also said, after the vote was taken to pass Bill 2491:

I'm not happy with a lot of the bill, but we got two things the industry fought: the right to know... and the empowerment of our community. We have set an example here for other communities.

And what kind of an example was that? That bullies prevail? That ignorance rules? That special interest groups can disrupt small communities to achieve their own political ends? That a poorly written and hastily passed bill won't pass the legal sniff test? As for the right to know, that was achieved through a voluntary agreement between the companies and the state, not Bill 2491.

Yet his self-serving post won praise from someone named Sharry Douglas, who left this comment:

Wow! It’s insane when you see just how long there has been- not just stalling- but blatant sabotaging of a bill that wants to be passed, so it can do what it was created to do: allow us to be informed, so we can make healthy choices. Gary thank you for ALL that you do and for summarizing your long and challenging journey on our behalf!

Gag. Of course, those of us who lived it know this movement has never been about information, much less allowing people to be informed, which is why it's achieved neither. Rather, it's been almost entirely about blatant, intentional disinformation and fear-mongering, where it has excelled.

As the adage goes, those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it. 

And those who learn it wrong, or spin it to achieve their own ends, doom the rest of us to a re-enactment of their stupidity — unless we speak up and tell it like it is.

Musings: Going South

I awoke, still tired, as the sky barely brightened, and my first tendency was to roll over, go back to sleep, but I knew the planets were out there, up there, and I had to see them, which I did, brilliant against the blue-black of the pre-dawn east, arrayed today in a diagonal line, an arrow with sparkling Venus as its tip; then Mars, a faint red dot; the smoldering white coal of Jupiter, and at the bottom, the moon, slim sliver of light cupping the dark of the whole.

Stars spattered the sky, taking my thoughts back to The Martian, the film I watched last night. It was unique in its celebration of intelligence, of science, as a stranded astronaut — Matt Damon — uses his vast knowledge of math and science to make water, grow food, generate power, build shelters, survive.

Image by Roth Ritter  

It had no product placements, save for NASA and Jet Propulsion Labs, and ended with a hopeful scenario: the U.S. and China cooperating on a mission to explore the “final frontier.” So is space exploration ultimately a unifying tool? Because out there, neighborhoods and nations, race and religion, become meaningless; Earthling is the only demographic designation that matters.

Though it had all the markings of a Hollywood blockbuster — soaring score, dramatic tension, masterful special effects, plucky hero, happy ending — it departed from the norm in delivering a message that was consistent and clear: Without math and science, you're dead.

It also slipped in some not-so-subtle commentary on the food and energy issues that currently plague the planet.

For instance, after the Matt Damon character deliberately digs up the spacecraft's ditched radioisotope thermoelectric generator — “the big box of plutonium” — knowing it could kill him, but desperate for heat, he notes:

And sure, I could choose to think about the fact that I'm warm because I have a decaying radioactive isotope riding right behind me. But right now I got bigger problems on my hands.

When he returns to Earth, and a career as a survival instructor, he begins by telling the young astronaut hopefuls:

Yes, I did in fact survive on a deserted planet by farming in my own shit. Yes, it's actually worse than it sounds. So, let's not talk about that ever again.

His point is obvious: Yes, the ancient ways of farming did work, and still will in a pinch. But there's more than one reason why people stopped collecting “night soil” and applying it to their fields, so let's stop idealizing traditional agriculture.

At another place in the movie, he observes:

They said that once you grow crops somewhere, you officially "colonized" it. So, technically, I colonized Mars.

It made me think about the natural process of colonization in which seeds, carried by birds, drifting on ocean currents, floating on the wind, take hold in different surroundings, sometimes dominating, crowding out, that which was already there, cross-breeding, perhaps, ultimately evolving to adapt to the conditions of the new environment. 

It's a process that's repeated as well by animals of all kinds (of which are one) — sometimes with devastating consequences. Yet it's part of the seemingly inevitable, and unceasing, mixing of life that fosters the genetic diversity that is the hallmark of a healthy species, a healthy ecosystem. Life, in all its many forms, is an unending work in progress.

The hero goes on tell his students:

This is space. It does not cooperate. At some point, everything's going to go south on you. Everything's going to go south and you're going to say "This is it. That is how I end." Now you can either accept that, or you can get to work. That's all it is. You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem and you solve the next one, and then the next.

And if you solve enough problems, you get to come home.

Though we forget it most of the time, this blue-green sphere we call home is traveling in space. At various times in its history, cataclysmic events have taken place. And once again, it seems that in so many ways, everything is going south.

Can we problem-solve our way out of it? 

Do we have any other choice?

Because we aren't going back; we're somehow going forward.

While many seem to relish the notion of a postmodern apocalypse, with its enforced simplicity, I've studied enough history, seen enough poor rural communities, to disabuse myself of the romanticism of eking out an existence. Homo sapiens have striven always to go beyond mere survival.

Yes, we need to know, understand and honor the ways of the past, the building blocks of our survival. But we can't turn our back on science, silence the scientists, allow the fearful and ignorant to define a conversation they aren't equipped to lead.

Because at this point in our evolution as a species, it does seem quite literally true: Without math and science, we're dead.

Musings: Sky Show and Rebuttal

The pre-dawn skies have been magnificent and are becoming even more so, as a waning moon joins the brilliant array of Jupiter, Venus and Mars in the east. I've been watching these planets dance for a couple of weeks now, and it's all made more magical with the addition of that silvery crescent.

I got an email from Ted Blake, rebutting points made in Wednesday's "Readers Write" post, in which a resident criticized the HoloHolo Kauai Scenic Byways project in Koloa. The original reader's comments are in green, with Teddy's response in red:

A spokesman [Ted Blake] for the sponsoring organization (who, by the way, may get to collect a pretty hefty tax dollar funded-fee)

All funds for a successful run at a designation were raised by Mālama Kōloa. There has been zero assistance from the Federal, State or County Government and nor did we ask for assistance. There is no “hefty tax dollar funded-fee.”

called the project “a grand slam because it highlights our history.” The spokesman went on to say, “How many people here know the history of where they were born?

You will have an opportunity to increase your knowledge of Kōloa tenfold. To gain Respect and Pride for our community and moku o Kōloa.

How many know the traditional place names here?”

Many coastal names are known by their popular monickers i.e., Heroins, Acid Drop, Cow Head and Helicopters. The majority populace in our community do not know the traditional names are Ka lae Kiki, Ekaha, Lae o Kaʻōpua and Lae o Kamilo nor what they signify and mean.

Likely not any more than residents of Honolulu, Kaneohe or Lahaina know about their places, so what’s the big deal?

The big deal is rediscovering or discovering ʻAina Aloha and ʻAina Momona. Traditional names give a sense of place and enlightens what you know about the place.

Continuing to sell, the spokesman said, “I think we are the only tourist destination in Hawaii that’s surrounded by all this.” Yeah, right. Ever been to Kona, or South Kohala?

The history of Kōloa is a microcosm of Hawaiʻiʻs history. A majority of what happened in early post-contact Hawaiʻi occurred first in Kōloa. It is this fact that makes Kōloa itself special to our pae ʻaina!

We want; presenting another option of places to visit and learn about our history, heritage and culture while vacationing on Kauaʻi. Our marketing strategy is to attract and appeal to visitors that are here visiting on island. We look upon the Kauaʻi Visitors Bureau and the Poʻipū Beach Resort Association as partners and we bring another sales tool to their marketing tool chest.

So what is the Grand Delusion? The project was sold to the community /elected officials

Holoholo Kōloa is a Community Based plan proposed directly to Mālama Kōloa on March 1, 2011, by Kashmira Reid, HI Scenic Byway Consultant. She knew of our work of our hui and was hoped to us to generate interest for us to take the leadsponsor position and go after a designation. (Mālama Kōloa was recommended to Kashmira Reid as the lead agency by the County of Kauaʻiʻs Department of Public Works, Planning and the Mayorʻs office)

as a means to highlight our heritage resources;preserving/enhancing cultural, historical, scenic and archeological sites. Sounds good.

Holoholo Kōloa Scenic Byway route encompasses 19.5 miles throughout nā ahupuaʻa of Mahaʻulepū, Pāʻā, & Kōloa. Of the six intrinsic quality categories, highlighted along the route are 67 Historical, 26 Cultural, 21 Archaeological, 17 Scenic and a combined 19 Geographical or Natural sites. All within a one and a half mile radius of each other. HI Scenic Byway Consultant, Kashmira Reid and National Consultant, Bob Kull predicted Holoholo Kōloa to be one of the top five heritage tourist destinations in Hawaiʻi in the USA within in a couple of years after entering the program.

Island leaders jumped on the project, making speeches, supporting resolutions, giving accolades.

“Island leaders jumped on the project”. Not so. We meet and shared our vision and plans early on for a Holoholo Kōloa with Senator Inouye (August 2012), our present State Legislative Delegation (April 2012), Representative Tulsi Gabbard February 2012, Mayor Carvalho and Department Heads four times over the course of three years. Numerous planning and statistical meetings held with Public Works, Kauaʻi Police Department, Kauaʻi Bus and the State Department of Transportation for approval and information.

An official said, “It’s just another example of how we continue to preserve and recognize our culture --- and never forgetting.”

On Kauaʻiʻs south shore we mālama wahi pana, culture and heritage and take this kuleana seriously!

The initial committee of the whole meetings averaged about 42 attendees representing 34 non-profits, organizations, area businesses, government and hotel/condominium managers.

Oh really? Read into the requirements for Federal Byway designation (which Koloa has received) to learn that byway designation comes with requirements like submitting a MARKETING NARRATIVE. A document describing how the scenic road will be marketed and publicized, including what is in place and what is planned. A PROMOTIONAL PLAN. Describing how the scenic road will be promoted, interpreted and marketed to ATTRACT travelers, including those from other countries. A MULTILINGUAL INFORMATION PLAN. Addressing multilingual information needs. And finally a TOURISM PLAN that describes how increased tourism will be accommodated, what lodging and dining facilities, roadside rest areas, parking lots and other tourist necessities are in place or planned.

Every one of the points capitalized aboved have been addressed in our 210 page Corridor Management Plan (CMP) which is included on our website.. A CMP is required by the lead agency to move a nomination the next level of the designation process. The plan is being paid entirely by funds raised from Foundations, Individuals and Businesses.

Interestingly enough, there is very little describing how the host community is supposed to benefit nor how full time residents are expected to cope. One would expect a plan of this nature to be funded and promoted by area business/resort interests, not by a community based non-profit.

A detailed MARKETING NARRATIVE is addressed in the CMP. What economic stimulant Ke Ala Hele Makalai is to Kapaʻa, Waipouli and Wailua? Holoholo Kōloa brings more to Kōloa with a broader base of restaurants, area businesses, tours and tourist destinations activities i.e., Ziplines, ATVs, Garden tours, Cultural and Heritage tours, Shopping Centers and ocean activities. Advertisements by these sectors will help defray Holoholo Kōloa daily expenses

What this REALLY is, is a tax dollar funded (80% federal/20% state) plan to attract more tourists to the South side with little regard for an already overtaxed and degraded infrastructure or for the negative impacts sure to be felt by the area’s full time residents.

There is no mention of raising taxes nor will there be any raising local taxes to fund any CMP projects. Our request for funding on approved CMP projects are made directly to the FHA Scenic Byway Funds. Federal monies to fund approved CMP projects are not awarded as a match. Funds come from a fund setup by Congress for the Federal Highway Administrationʻs National Scenic Byway Funding Program.

Holoholo Kōloa will be another source of funding for Koloa projects that currently is not available to the County of Kauaʻi. There are three projects in this fiscal yearʻs budget for Kukuiʻula, Kōloa and Poʻipu with an estimated cost of over over $30 million.

Oh, the sponsor has also been put in charge of a to be created “area tr.olley service,” paid for by who knows who (maybe tax dollars again?) which is supposed to be the answer to the traffic woes sure to come.

Quoting the State of Hawaiʻi Scenic Byway website, “Hawaii’s Scenic Byways Program  showcases roads throughout Hawaii that have an important story to tell to both local residents and visitors. These roads hold more than what meets the eye — their archaeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational and/or scenic qualities are of statewide and quite probably National significance. The byway sponsor groups manage their scenic byways to protect and enhance them through collaborations with government agencies and business and community groups. Hawaii joined the National Scenic Byways Program in 2009, and participates with other U.S. States, National Parks and other Federal land agencies, Native American tribes as well as with Canada and Japan.”

For years, residents and visitors speak of Kōloa, Poʻipū and Kukuiʻula being overrun and overdeveloped.

•Kōloa the only tourist destination with bypass roads on the east and west of our resort area in the State of Hawaiʻi.

•We have a solid attractive visitor infrastructure.

•We lead the island in average annual occupancy and the highest average paid rates.

•More real property taxes are generated here than any other region on Kauaʻi.

• It is the regionʻs largest employer

Holoholo Kōloa give us the opportunity to make lemonade out of all of this and we are using the resources we have to accomplish this. That traffic is increasing and is pointed in the direction of congestion, especially the resort areas, we have four studies we have undertaken as a community, (1. Koloa-Poʻipū-Kukuiʻula Circulation Plan 2. Coastal Bike and Pedestrian Way Plan 3. Sidewalks along Poʻipū Road 4. Safe Route to School and Smart Streets in Kōloa Town)

Most of the down home long time residents don’t even know what a scenic byway is, let alone that Koloa has one.

See above quote.

In the name of transparency, the project’s Corridor Management Plan, describing for what, where and how much ( tax dollars ) are to be spent should be posted on the sponsor’s website.

Holoholo Koloa website has been under construction since September 1 and should be up and running in three weeks. The website expense has been paid by funds raised privately by Mālama Kōloa. The CMP will be online in it entirety.

Recently one of Hawaii’s leading economists, in a speech to business and government

leaders, pointed out that Kauai County compared with other counties is the most dependent upon tourism. The speaker urged that steps be taken to diversify Kauai’s economy against the time when dollars created by tourism begin to diminish.

We are maximizing our effort to appeal and attract the top echelon of visitors, offering the best cultural and heritage destination in Hawaiʻi nei. The world trend is recognizing cultural and heritage tourism as the most sought after destinations.

So dear readers, decide for yourselves: another grand delusion?

WE WANT TO BE AND WE WILL BE ONE OF THE BEST!!!

WE TAKE OUR KULEANA SERIOUSLY!!!

Musings: Bully Pulpit

The Joint Fact Fact Finding Group — charged with reviewing biotech crops and their pesticide use on Kauai — is entering the last phase of its work, with a final report due out Jan. 31.

According to an update by Peter Adler, whose ACCORD3.0 Network is managing the JFF process:

We are formulating and refining our findings for the central questions we are asking which are: (1) Are there detectable and measurable human or environmental health impacts on Kaua‘i associated with GM crop production? (2) If the answer is a possible “yes”, what are the documented health or environmental impacts on Kaua‘i, and how strong is the evidence? (3) And if there is a possible “yes” to the above, what should be done?

Even more specifically, we are seeking to answer these questions with the best information we can find, asking: 1) Quantitatively, what is the actual agricultural “footprint” the seed companies occupy and farm? 2) What pesticides do they use, in what quantities, where, and how often? 3) What is Kaua‘i’s overall health picture and, more specifically, especially on the West side, what do we know about the incidences of cancers, birth defects, pulmonary illnesses, and neurodevelopmental problems? 4) Environmentally, what factual evidence is there of pesticide damages to Kaua‘i’s flora and fauna, both terrestrial and aquatic?

While I'm hopeful that this process will defuse some of the hysteria associated with biotech crop production on Kauai, I still can't help but wonder why GE crops have been singled out for scrutiny, in terms of measuring impacts on human and environmental health. Not tourism, not termite treatment, not petroleum-based transportation, not health care, not substance abuse, not domestic violence, not residential use of pesticides. Only agriculture.

Automobile accidents, medical malpractice, drownings, drugs, alcohol and random violence kill and maim people each and every year on Kauai, while kids are regularly sickened in their homes by improper pesticide use. Yet the focus is solely on possible harm caused by a very specific component of agriculture, which thus far doesn't have a body count of even one.

This is not meant as a criticism of Peter Adler, whom I respect immensely, or even the JFF process, but the politics, propaganda, fear-mongering and warped mindset that prompted this exercise.

As a friend noted, when I forwarded him the report:

It may be coincidence, but I find it interesting that completion and release of the report is timed to get the maximum amount of attention as the legislative session opens.

I think — I hope — it's just a coincidence....

Meanwhile, it's been 20 years since the first biotech crop was approved. Greenpeace, which has made millions exploiting people's fears over the technology, deemed it “20 years of failure.” With the help of groups like Center for Food Safety and Pesticide Action Network, Greenpeace has mounted one of the world's largest propaganda campaigns to successfully halt the approval and use of GE crops around the globe. And then it turns around and blames the technology for failing to “feed the world.”

Despite Greenpeace's claims to the contrary, the global acreage of biotech crops has increased more than 100-fold — from 1.7 million hectares in 1996 to over 175 million hectares in 2013 — making it one of the fastest adopted agricultural technologies in history. And it's expanding because farmers who use it are making more money. 

The most exhaustive study of the economic impacts of GE crops ever conducted — a review of 147 peer-reviewed papers published in the Public Library of Science (PLoS) in November 2014 — found that GE crops have added more than $115 billion in income to farmers since their introduction in 1996. Farmers who adopted GE seeds saw average profit gains of 69 percent. 

A May 2014 study by agricultural economists Graham Brookes and Peter Barfoot found that farmers around the globe received an average of $3.33 for each dollar invested in GE crop seeds. Most important, the biggest income gains from GE seeds have come to the farmers who need it most: resource-poor small farmers in the developing world.

Papaya farmers in Hawaii, where GE varieties account for 85 percent of the crop, have benefitted immensely from this technology. As Joni Kamiya, the daughter of a North Shore Oahu papaya farmer, wrote:

If your grandpa started something and then your dad continued it, would you sit back and let others define your story? I won't. My brother is carrying on that legacy now amidst a war of misinformation. I'm thinking of them right now as they finish working in their fields then have to go and defend their work. They don't deserve this and nor does any other farmer. Learn about farming from farmers.

And learn about science from scientists, not propagandists.

Sadly, University of Florida scientist Kevin Folta has been silenced by anti-GMO groups. After Kevin was savaged for accepting $25,000 from Monsanto to support his ongoing science education efforts, he finally said 'nuff already:

Hi Everybody. I’ll keep it short. The attacks are relentless, I’m under a lot of pressure on many fronts. I’m taking the opportunity to disappear from public visibility and focus on my lab and my students. It has been a challenging time. I appreciate the support, I’m grateful for your wishes, but this battle is vicious and one-sided, and I think I’m well served bowing out of the public science conversation for the foreseeable future. Thank you.

And that's exactly what the bullies who started this war wanted. The bullying, and the effort to silence all discussion and any opposition, prompted me to leave the ranks of the anti-GMO groups. The bullying is wrong, and it needs to be stopped.

Which leads me to an article in today's newspaper.   I commend Prosecutor Justin Kollar for rightly pursuing felony charges against Kaeden Palmeira, who punched his mom in the face — breaking numerous bones and shattering her eye socket — and kicked his girlfriend in the head, all in front of his 3-year-old kid and 13-year-old sister.

But then Judge Randal Valenciano turns around and gives the guy just six months in jail, with credit for time served. That's it? You can wreak freaking havoc and brutally beat two women, and that's all you get? Oh, plus he's gotta pay $92,000 in restitution. Like this loser is ever going to get his hands on that kind of dough.

The guy didn't even take responsibility, pleading “no contest.” Then his defense attorney says his actions were “probably fueled by alcohol and that he had potential.” Yeah, the potential to cause a lot more harm, until he gets his shit together. And how likely do you suppose that will be, when he isn't required to seek counseling for anger management or substance abuse?

The new state law that allows family abusers to be charged with a felony if they do their dirty deeds in front of minors is great. But it doesn't mean much if the judge gives the perp a slap on the wrist. Epic fail, Judge.

Musings: Undue Outside Influence

Tax returns are making it clear that mainland-based nonprofit groups and foundations heavily — and improperly — influenced efforts to adopt anti-GMO legislation in Hawaii, especially Kauai.

The Oakland, Calif.-based Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) spent $1.7 million on “joint campaigns achieving bans and restrictions on highly hazard (sic) pesticides" in Hawaii and Minnesota in 2013. According to its federal tax Form 990 for 2013, which is the most recent year available:

In 2013-14, our successes included: 1) helping the community of Kauai, Hawaii, win and defend a policy requiring public pesticide use reporting and notices, particularly for experimental planting of genetically engineered crops.

PANNA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which has strict limits on lobbying. The IRS guidelines state:

An organization will be regarded as attempting to influence legislation if it contacts, or urges the public to contact, members or employees of a legislative body for the purpose of proposing, supporting, or opposing legislation, or if the organization advocates the adoption or rejection of legislation. Organizations may, however, involve themselves in issues of public policy without the activity being considered as lobbying.

PANNA, which funded and hosted the “stop poisoning paradise” website and sent at least one agent to testify before the Kauai County Council, among other activities, clearly engaged in lobbying.

What's more, in its tax return, PANNA deceptively tries to pass off Bill 2491 — Kauai's GMO-pesticide regulatory bill — as a “policy.” However, it is most certainly legislation, as defined by the IRS:

Legislation includes action by Congress, any state legislature, any local council, or similar governing body, with respect to acts, bills, resolutions, or similar items...

But PANNA doesn't play fast and loose only with the IRS. The Hews Media Group-Community News reported that PANNA violated California tax law by failing to list expenses for each program, and one of its former directors, Martha Guzman-Aceves, “intentionally filed false documents with the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), concealed hundreds of thousands of dollars, and omitted third-party relationships [including her affiliation with PANNA] that directly conflict with her position as a California Deputy Legislative Secretary.”

Although their own activities are far from transparent, these are the folks who scream loudly for full disclosure by others. While PANNA's 2013 Form 990 does not give us a truly accurate picture of the full extent of their Kauai expenditures, it is illuminating.

And then there's the Center for Food Safety, another nonprofit that helped to draft and promote Bill 2491 and is now engaged in defending the legislation, which was overturned by a federal judge, through the appeals process.

CFS will not disclose its donors. But a search of foundation tax returns led to this partial list of CFS donors, who in 2013 contributed $2,487,537:

Ceres Trust (Judith Kern & Kent Whealy) $565,000

Ceres Foundation (Judith Kern & Kent Whealy) $500,000

Schmidt Family Foundation (Wendy/Eric Schmidt, Google) $250,000

William Zimmerman Foundation (Fairfield, Iowa) $160,000

Cornerstone Campaign (Mary & Abby Rockefeller) $150,000

Schwab Charitable Fund (San Francisco, CA) $135,250

David B. Gold Foundation (San Francisco, CA) $125,000

Goldman Sachs Charitable Gift Fund $100,000   

Tides Foundation (3 grants to CFS/Navdanya Trust) $85,000

CS Fund (Maryanne Mott; General Motors heiress) $80,000

TomKat Charitable Trust (Tom Steyer, San Francisco) $75,000

Marisla Foundation (Anne Getty Earhart; oil heiress) $60,000

Organic Valley FAFO $25,000

Firedoll Foundation $25,000

Boston Foundation $20,000

New World Foundation (in support of Navdanya) $20,000

GAIA Fund (San Francisco, CA) $20,000

Conservation & Preservation Charities of America $15,787

San Francisco Foundation $15,000

California Healthcare Foundation $10,000

Gardner Grout Foundation (Los Angeles, CA) $10,000

Rockefeller Foundation (matching grant) $7,500

Roy A. Hunt Foundation (Pittsburgh, PA) $7,500

Silicon Valley Community Foundation $7,000

Community Foundation of Western North Carolina $5,000

Patagonia.org (Los Angeles, CA) $5,000

Neda Nobari Foundation (Wilmington, DE) $5,000

Benjamin J. Rosenthal Foundation (Deerfield, IL) $3,000

RSF Social Finance (San Francisco, CA) $1,500

Based on this list, several things are clear: The Hawaii anti-GMO effort was never a “grassroots movement,” but instead is financed almost entirely by outsiders; corporate America is well represented, underscoring the lie that the anti-GMO movement is anti-corporate or a David vs Goliath fight; and a handful of philanthropists are exerting undue influence over public policy related to GMOs and pesticides in the U.S. and Hawaii

Without recurring funding from Ceres, the Zimmerman Foundation (connected with the Maharishi folks in Iowa), the Rockefeller gals, Maryanne Mott and Anne Getty Earhart, who also donated to Councilman Gary Hooser's campaign, CFS would be very hard up.  Though CFS claims to represent tens of thousands of people, it gets virtually no money from the general public.

To sum it up: An elite group of maverick ideologues have declared war on biotechnology. We know who they are. We know they manage their private philanthropies unilaterally; they aren't accountable to governing boards. And we know that none of them represent a credible, science-based constituency.

Yet folks like Rep. Kaniela Ing remain oblivious to this influence.

In a recent email, Ing noted that one year ago, Maui County voters passed a GMO moratorium. He went on to complain that the Maui County Council “had the legal duty to enforce the law once the public had spoken.”

How can it possibly be the Council's legal duty to enforce a law that was struck down by a federal judge?

Ing, who is drumming up donations to “continue fighting big biotech interests,” promises to introduce a "Homerule bill that will clearly delegate power to regulate agriculture to the Counties." He then concludes, fully missing the irony, with this:

Today's discussion on the future of agriculture should not be decided by three companies.  No, the future of our islands should be controlled by the people who live on it, who live from it.

So if you actually believe your own rhetoric, Rep. Ing, why aren't you also fighting the influence exerted by the elites who fund the mainland advocacy groups that are desperately striving to control agriculture in the Islands?