Musings: Story Time

Obsession: preoccupy or fill the mind of (someone) continually, intrusively, excessively, and to a troubling extent; be uppermost in someone's mind, prey on someone's mind.

Kauai County Councilman Gary Hooser has accused me of having a “verifiable personal obsession” with him — his “every action, comment and even [his] body weight and facial hair or lack thereof.”

Careful, Gary. Your narcissism is showing.

Narcissism: excessive or erotic interest in oneself and one's physical appearance; extreme selfishness, with a grandiose view of one's own talents and a craving for admiration, as characterizing a personality type.

It's true that I devote a lot of ink to Gary. In fact, only former Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri — another dangerous politician — has been subject to similarly relentless attention. Though Gary was applauding my efforts then, with enthusiastic exhortations to “keep it up!”

I have no personal obsession with Gary. I've never watched “The Gary Hooser Story,” say, or driven by his house or adopted a fake identify to gain access to his Facebook page, from which I'm blocked.

No, my interest in Gary is solely as a reporter covering a demagogue.

Demagog: a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument.

And demagogues don't like people who see beyond the smug schtick — and repeatedly and publicly call them on it, while exposing their lies.

Which I did recently on Ian Lind's blog. Ian was worrying about similarities between the anti-vaccine and anti-GMO movements, which seem to share a “distrust of authority, and the rejection of contrary evidence.” Ian ended his post with a question that I — and many others — have frequently pondered:

How do you pursue a public debate if evidence is considered irrelevant?

Gary was quick to weigh in:

Speaking from my own perspective working on this issue within the Kauai context – the issue is “not about eating the corn” but rather about the industries [sic] impacts on the health and natural environment of our community. Excessive pesticide use, experimental pesticide use, the open air testing of experimental crops not approved for release into the environment or for human consumption, impacts on local flora and fauna and the driving up the price of agricultural lands in completion [sic] with local food production are just some of the impacts that have not been studied and are not related directly to the science of genetic modification. Debating whether or not eating the corn is healthy or not from a science perspective is not the only valid basis upon which to base ones [sic] concerns.

As I read his comment, it occurred to me that the Kauai “debate” got off on the wrong foot because it was driven by assumptions about the seed companies, most of them false. Gary, former Councilman Tim Bynum and their followers told us the companies were using 18 tons of restricted use pesticides each year, drenching thousands of acres with chemicals, spraying fields 24/7, causing birth defects and cancer clusters, contaminating streams and soil, killing off sea urchins, poisoning school kids, suing the county to avoid spraying near schools and functioning as bad, irresponsible members of the community.

But as actual studies were conducted, and the companies voluntarily disclosed their pesticide use, a very different picture emerged. There were no cancer clusters around the fields. Pesticide levels were much higher in water samples collected near urban areas than agricultural lands. Doctors publicly refuted the birth defect claims. There have been no documented cases of ag pesticide poisoning among field workers, residents or students. GMO Free Kauai's own air samples found no pesticide drift. The companies apply about 5 tons of RUPs annually, and use only a very small percentage of the land they lease. They voluntarily established buffer zones around schools and homes, and began their own process for notifying neighbors.

In short, the evidence that's been collected, though admittedly limited, has disproven pretty much everything that Tim, Gary and their followers claimed.

Yet Gary and his followers have systematically rejected all the evidence, and continued their false claims.

Which I pointed out in my comment on Ian's blog, while noting:

It would have been helpful to conduct tests to truly ascertain the industry’s impact on people and the environment BEFORE launching a fear-mongering campaign to pass a bill that has been over-turned by the courts, leaving the community anxious and polarized, with only a bit more information than they had before this started.

So to answer your question, so long as politicians find it politically valuable to spread misinformation and discount evidence when it is produced, we’re not going to have a very meaningful or satisfactory debate.

To which Gary replied:

Ian I am happy to discuss this issue with you or any interested group or thoughtful individual with an open mind. I will not engage in a tit for tat with a blogger who drops in and questions my character and intent – and who clearly for whatever reason has demonstrated a verifiable personal obsession with me and my every action, comment and even my body weight and facial hair or lack thereof.

Gary doesn't much like having a Jiminy Cricket on his shoulder. And neither did Pinocchio, who “took a hammer from the bench, and threw it with all his strength at the Talking Cricket. Perhaps he did not think he would strike it. But, sad to relate, my dear children, he did hit the Cricket, straight on its head.”

The Cricket returns as a ghost, and continues to serve as a conscience to the puppet. But Pinocchio is slow to learn his karmic lessons. First, his feet got burned off on the stove, and ultimately he was hanged by the very same people who had misled him. But even then, he got another chance: and finally saw the light:

“You are right, little Cricket, you are more than right, and I shall remember the lesson you have taught me…”

That's how that particular story concludes. I'm not at all convinced Gary's will have such a happy ending.

Musings: Hot and Bothered

As the saying goes, if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen. And Councilman Gary Hooser took plenty of heat — and got hot himself — at yesterday's public hearing on his anti-burning bill.

Or as a friend observed: “Something is getting smoked — Gary's okole.”

Gary started the hearing by madly backpedaling, claiming it was never his intent, despite the language in his broadly-worded, poorly-written bill, to ban smoke meat, hulihuli chicken, kalua pig and other foods that Islanders hold dear.

Gary said he'd drafted an amendment applying the bill only to residential neighborhoods and ensuring that no outdoor cooking practices are affected. He then pleaded with the audience, “Respect my intent is to do the right thing.”

But folks like Tommy Oi weren't buying it. “The hearing is on the bill that's before us. If it ain't on the paper when the bill passes it don't hold water.”

And when westsider Mike Broyles dared to say, “This is not New York City, this is not the Bay Area, this is not Marin County. But unfortunately, sometimes the wrong kind of transplant comes ashore. One in the likes of Mr. Hooser, one with a special kind of arrogance,” Gary angrily cut him off.

“This is not the time or place to attack me or other people personally,” said Gary, apparently forgetting how he'd allowed dozens of anti-GMO supporters to attack Councilmembers and their fellow citizens during hearings on his anti-GMO Bill 2491. Gary warned Mike not to “raise the race issue” and threatened to use his authority as chair to call a recess if Mike continued down that road.

“Speak in a respectful tone,” Gary scolded, again forgetting how he and his “fistees” had nastily trashed the character and intent of seed company managers and their employees. “Don't denigrate me or my intent.”

“It's not about race, it's about a mindset,” Mike countered, noting that he's hapa-haole. “Go ahead and call your recess. You're the chair. I'm the taxpayer.”

Mike went on to say that "Mr. Hooser should've checked with the wider community to see what we wanted, not a few people. We don't need big government trying to control every aspect of our lives.”

Dozens of Hawaiians and locals spoke against the bill — and presented signatures of another 500 people opposing the measure. Many expressed concerns that those who use wood to fuel their water heaters and cooking stoves would be affected, especially in the old sugar camps. One woman noted that the Island's poorest residents will be harmed the most.

Pig farmer Patricia Lyons was afraid that she and her husband could be busted for cooking the slop they feed to their pigs. Oh, no worries, Gary assured her, because under the state right to farm law, “you can't declare farming a nuisance.”

Uh, so why do you keep trying to pass laws that declare farming a nuisance and gut the right farm law, Gary?

Klayton Kubo, an ardent advocate of Bill 2491, also seemed unaware of the irony of his testimony against the anti-burning bill. “Sometimes it's just jumping the gun. Sometimes it seems like a good thing, but it ends up not to be a good thing in the long run, wasting peoples' time, wasting people's energy. It's like, wait a minute.”

Yeah, tell us all about it, Klayton. 

“It's a very small bill with very large consequences,” said Jan TenBruggencate. He pointed out how it could be applied to activities like woodworking, filling a lawnmower with gas and sweeping out a workshop. “It lends itself to selective enforcement. If you happen to be on the wrong side of someone who has the ability to make a complaint or enforce the law, you get targeted.”

Kilauea resident Lorraine Newman, who had been unhappy with her neighbor for making fire to keep his kids warm, asked if the bill could be amended to include a requirement that “anyone spraying chemicals or toxic substances” must give their neighbors 24-hour notice.

Jodi McDonald testified in favor the bill, saying that wood-burning fireplaces are “a luxury in paradise.” Mmm, not even Gary wants to go down the road of outlawing “luxury in paradise.” Otherwise, who's gonna fund his anti-GMO campaigns?

Then Arthur Brun, who has a smoke meat business, got up to speak. “I feel pity for the McDonalds [the Wailua folks who contend their health has been harmed by their neighbor's fireplace smoke] because you guys just using them to get this message across. Why is dust part of a smoke bill? Because it's still your avenue to get back at the chemical companies you trying to get back at. There's more to this bill than smoke meat. It's nonsense, costing us money, costing us time. We have to take time off work to be here. This shouldn't even have passed the first reading.”

Amen, bruddah. But it did, and next week it will be back before a Council committee, which hopefully will listen not just to the citizens, but to the cops, firefighters and prosecutor, all of whom are saying, "no."

Meanwhile, Chris D'Angelo continues his full-frontal assault on the Mahaulepu dairy with today's front-page “news” on how opponents have brought in a hired gun from Oregon to help them stop local milk production.

Of course, attorney Charlie Tebbutt isn't from here, but that doesn't stop him from speaking confidently and knowledgeably about what what Kauai can and can't handle and the “pristine and sensitive" nature of those old sugar cane lands. Because of course a grass-fed dairy of 699 to 2,000 cows on Kauai is exactly like the confined animal operation with 11,000 animals that Charlie fought in Washington.

They're both deemed “industrial” agriculture, and that's all you need to proclaim that Hawaii Dairy Farm's proposal is absolutely unacceptable, even before an EIS is done. Because according to Charlie, and the mind-set of the anti-dairy folks, “an honest” EIS will point out problems far too significant to surmount. And if it doesn't, well then it's just a dishonest piece of crap.

Because the antis are always the experts, and they know best. Even when they don't know nuttin' but they don't want it. At least, not in their backyard. Let someone else produce the dairy products — and everything else — they want to consume.

Kauai is far too pure to pollute with fireplaces, cooking smoke and agriculture. Bring on that "clean" tourism and more of those "zero-impact" new residents.

Musings: When Macro Goes Micro

Much as Kauai folks like to imagine themselves — and the island — as special and unique, what's happening locally is often a microcosm of what's playing out in the rest of the country.

Like the ongoing gentrification, and transient vacation rental (TVR) expansion. A recent Associated Press article detailed the problem in tony Aspen, Colo., where rich people are squeezing locals and workers right out of town.

The article prompted this email from a southside reader:

Residents of the “neighborhood” near the Whalers Cove have been talking  about a story  titled “Working Class Squeezed Out As Rich Move In. ” The article explains how the rich moved in to Aspen, driving up prices for everything, including lodging for locals employed as service workers, who have then had to move away from their town to find affordable lodging elsewhere. Sound familiar? Do you have relatives or friends who commute from the west side to the north shore to work in a restaurant, clean houses or make beds at a timeshare? Do you know there are folks who drive from Hilo to Kona daily to work at a hotel because they have no choice?

The Northshore and the Southshore are already the “Aspens" of Kauai. If you think Local government is interested in making things better for residents, think again. In fact, local government, recently teamed up with 2 self styled, self anointed, locally born community leaders, who seem to represent no constituency but themselves, to up zone a residential neighborhood to Visitor Destination Area. If passed, this would effectively destroy one of the last near shore neighborhoods on the South shore. So beware Hanalei. If they can’t figure a way to allow more illegal visitor rentals, maybe they’ll just up zone you to help the illegals.

It's a legitimate concern. When the county designated Visitor Destination Areas around the island, the intent was to limit tourism accommodations to specific areas. But as legal and illegal TVRs steadily encroach onto residential and agricultural lands, and the county toys with expanding VDAs into established neighborhoods, the VDA designation is becoming pretty much meaningless. And residents are feeling the squeeze.

Still, where there's political will, there's a way. As the article reports:

The situation would be worse had Aspen not gone to extraordinary lengths to try to avoid being hollowed out by the departure of middle-class and working-class residents. Financed by a 1.5 percent charge on real estate sales and a mandate that any new projects include affordable housing, the city and county run a 40-year-old program that allows people who have worked for one year or longer in Aspen to rent, or buy, cheap residences.

Gee, what a concept.

Meanwhile, another Colorado town is taking active steps to control its illegal vacation rentals. Boulder has joined other cities in challenging Airbnb, which allows owners to advertise TVRs whether they're legal or not. As an article on Circa reports, Boulder issued cease-and-desist notices to 20 property owners accused of renting out space in their homes through the service. San Francisco and Portland, meanwhile, require Airbnb to collect transient occupancy taxes on TVRs in those cities.

And in New York, Airbnb turned over data that allowed that state's Attorney General to file suit against two apartment building owners engaged in illegal short-term rentals. Some New York politicians and housing advocates also launched a campaign against Airbnb, contending the service reduces the supply of affordable rentals.

We've seen a similar reduction in affordable rentals on Kauai as illegal TVRs have proliferated. Since legal vacation rentals on Kauai are required to have a non-conforming use TVR permit, perhaps the planning department and prosecutor's office could start by asking Airbnb to require its Kauai advertisers to display their permit as a condition for using the service.

Speaking of tourists, did anyone else find it odd that Kauai Visitors Bureau spent $70,000 in taxpayer money to help Sports Illustrated finance its annual swimsuit edition, which features topless models on Kauai beaches, when KVB, the county and Kauai folks hold such puritanical views about nude and topless sunbathing? Guess the lure of all those salivating subscribers was just too hard to resist.

Meanwhile, the frenzy of social media activity — replete with fake names — that characterized the anti-GMO movement on Kauai (and has since largely disappeared) is SOP among antis. I noticed the Institute for Responsible Technology, which bills itself as “the most comprehensive source of GMO health risk information on the web,” is “recruiting 5000 digitally savvy volunteers willing to share our content and calls to action via social tools. You will be invited to join a private Facebook group, receive "insiders briefings," and participate in regular action alerts.” And presto, all of a sudden it seems like the “majority” is on the anti side, when in reality, it's long-distance smoke and mirrors.

And finally, it was interesting to read Mark Jeffers' letter to the editor today, where he maintains that religious leaders should be on the GMO/pesticide Joint Fact-Finding Group because “every religion teaches of the cyclic nature of all life on our planet” while “the science of GMO agro-chemical agriculture attempts to freeze our circle of life and control the outcome for the profits of the individuals and corporations that are involved.” He went on to write:

I believe the people on Kauai and throughout Hawaii and the world are refuting the GMO science because it is attempting to freeze the basic circle of life for gain at the cost of our humanity.

It made me recall a comment that Dr. Diane Ragone, an NTBG researcher who has been instrumental in founding the Breadfruit Institute, left on a Facebook post of mine:

Joan – I appreciate your writings on this subject, but please do not conflate “Agricultural Biotechnology” with “Genetic Engineering or GMOs.” Yes, it does include that but also so much more, such as:

Understanding, characterizing and managing genetic resources; genomics; molecular markers; marker-assisted breeding; measuring and conserving genetic diversity; genotype verification; breeding and reproducing ornamentals, crops and trees; cell and tissue culture and micropropagation; in vitro selection; breeding and reproducing livestock and fish; artificial insemination and multiple ovulation/embryo transfer. chromosome-set manipulation and sex reversal in fish; other biotechnologies; diagnostics and epidemiology; vaccine development, and animal nutrition (like probiotics).

Seems like a lot of that is life-giving and life-preserving, rather than life-freezing. Like all the native plants that have been saved from extinction through micropropagation techniques at Lyon Arboretum, which has absolutely nothing to do with "corporate profits.”

But then, that's one of the big problems with the anti-GMO movement. It's rejecting all  agricultural biotech due to its obsession with Monsanto and Roundup Ready corn. And most of its adherents don't even have a clue about the bigger picture.

Musings: Tag, You're It

Ashley Lukens, program director of the anti-GMO Center for Food Safety in Hawaii, is featured on the cover of Hawaii Business this month, the editor-designted “It Girl” of the Islands' Millenials.

The article, which speculates on how Millenials (those aged 14-34) will “change the world,” notes that they are “all about the product, not the process” and “less attached to the 'how' than to the “what.”

Which explains why it was so easy for those in the anti-GMO movement to employ fear-mongering and misinformation campaigns, and adopt an ends-justify-the-means strategy when attacking the seed companies and by extension, their own neighbors.

The article claims that Millennials also “expect a dizzying rate of change,” which is apparently why so many believed that state and county officials would banish the seed companies after they staged a protest march or two.

And they supposedly “don’t take it personally,” according to the article, which goes on to assert:

Hawaii has historically been a thin-skinned place, where public disagreement, particularly about important issues, can be considered aggressive and antagonistic. That’s all changing.

Is it? I think one of the things that upset folks most about the anti-GMO movement was its aggressive, antagonistic approach. And given the way Ashley called me to complain about how I featured her in my blog, in large part because she didn't want her daughter to discover something unflattering about Mama in an Internet search, they do indeed take criticism very personally.

The article also claims that “the Millenial ability to forge working relationships with people who hold different opinions is already affecting Hawaii’s political scene.” 

Gee, that's a stretch, considering the anti-GMO movement operates in an echo chamber, and consistently responds to different opinions by trying to silence, discredit, harass and ostracize those who hold them.

The article also maintains that Ashley is “revising the old rules” and characterizes her as a “risk-taker.”

Which old rules are those? The ones that celebrate evidence-based decision-making, transparency, ethical business practices and accountability?

And exactly what risks is she taking? That someone will expose the low moral of the movement she champions? That her role as a demagogue and propagandist will preclude her from meaningful work in the future? She already told me that Washington, D.C., sets the policy and she merely parrots the party line, so where are the guts to go with the glory?

I also had to laugh at the article's contention that Millenials are efficient and effective in their unstructured work habits. Because when I asked Ashley why her group hadn't done one substantive thing in regard to pesticide education, sustainability, farmer-training, food security or supporting small-scale and/or organic farming — its proclaimed goals — her answer was invariably, “We're working on it.”

As a friend observed:

She makes it sound like there's an actual real business there with people working and meeting and bustling around doing stuff ... And that they have a beautiful office that no one uses because they're so busy ... And that Ashley is running the Washington office from Hawaii. Give me a break. All this important sounding work and projects and deadlines. What could they possibly do all day but obsessively check email and exchange chirpy updates on Facebook? Good Christ, what a phony.

Of course, the idea that Millennials are all the same is about as silly as trying to pigeon-hole Baby Boomers and Generation Xers. Because ain't nothing attributed to the Millenials that I haven't already seen among those who preceded them. And does any generation truly change the world? Or does the changing world change them?

Which is why the article can be dismissed as the kind of superficial pap that magazines dish up every now and then in hopes of luring Millenials to buy them.

And curiously, nowhere in its fawning does it identify Ashley's real — and very old school — job: Registered lobbyist for a mainland organization that hides its political advocacy behind the facade and protected tax status of a nonprofit organization.

Musings: Monday's Mullings

It's Monday, and I've been mulling a few odds and ends....

Like how sad it is that Kauai's community radio station, KKCR, has degenerated to the point where I heard a local reference it the other day as "Kauai Caucasian Crank Radio."

And then there was this email from a faithful reader:

In the past month, I don't think I have ever in my life felt the disgust toward our county officials and what our island has become. Just trying to get to the beach to go fishing nowadays is so hard to do. I can only imagine how my grandfather feels trying to go fishing. Seeing the immense changes and total loss of local culture to the rich and "entitled” disturbs daily. Then to think, I'll never ever be able to afford a mortgage in today's market. In a sick way, I hope for a hurricane every year in the hopes that it'll chase a good lot of these "kama-ee-na" folk back to where they came from. Have you noticed the influx in out of state plates on Kauai recently??

Yes, friends in the construction industry say business is picking up as the recently arrived wealthy tear down perfectly good houses to replace them with something far more grand and erect brand new places along the coast.

But don't worry. The luxury Realtors at Hawaii Life believe in the trickle down theory. Why, Neal Norman and Matt Beall contributed $450 between them to send Ohana O Kauai members Dustin Barca, Fern “Anuenue” Rosenstiel and other unregistered anti-GMO lobbyists to testify on anti-ag legislation at the state Capitol. Matt even added this quote to his contribution: 

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

Mmm, you mean like the way Ohana O Kauai stands by doing nothing as Neal occupies the public beach with sandbags to armor his multi-million-dollar house in Haena? Yup, they're still there, washing into the ocean, impeding access, though they were authorized under an emergency temporary permit for one-year's use — way back in 1997.

As further “proof” that the anti-GMO movement is a local, grassroots gig —NOT! — an organizer with the Connecticut-based Citizens For GMO Labeling just happened to be cruising the Big Island last week, peddling his services to help sway a Hawaii County Council vote that allowed two mainland-based advocacy groups, Center for Food Safety and Earthjustice, to assume control of its anti-GMO litigation.

The Kauai County Council, meanwhile, has been cleaning house, formally filing items that have been deferred so long they're now obsolete. Perusing the agenda items the past couple weeks has been a trip down political memory lane: former Mayor Maryanne Kusaka's new car, conflict of interest among Councilmembers, Lihue airport runway extension, an old dog barking ordinance, adolescent treatment center in Hanapepe. And this one:

12.W 2002-18 (*) Communication (11/15/2002) from Council Chair Ron Kouchi, submitting a resolution supporting labeling efforts for genetically modified foods. (See also CR-EDIR 2015-02; the Economic Development & Intergovernmental Relations Committee recommended W 2002-1 8 be received for the record.)

My, how things change....

Also on Wednesday's Council agenda is a public hearing on Councilman Gary Hooser's anti-fireplace/anti-burning bill, which would allow folks to hassle people when they make imu, smoke meat, hibachi, etc. It's titled “relating to declaring a public nuisance,” which is a pretty accurate description of Gary, too. It's actually kind of good this BS bill has gone to a public hearing. That way, Gary will get an earful from unhappy locals, which hopefully will show him just how out of touch he is with the community he purports to represent.

Meanwhile, Council Chair Mel Rapozo has introduced a bill that authorizes the Office of the County Auditor to execute a four-year contract with a CPA to audit county funds and accounts. As I reported last week, the auditor's office has been dead in the water for two years now, what with its only CPA, Ron Rawls, driven out by retaliatory management practices and Auditor Ernie Pasion out on medical leave the past seven months while he sues the county.

Yet just like clockwork, Glenn Mickens has one of his regular letters to the editor inexplicably praising Ernie and actually using the dysfunctional auditor's office to justify his oft-repeated call for a county manager system. As the old saying goes, “There are none so blind as those who will not see.”

And Mike “never say die” Sheehan continues to bleed the county fighting the court-upheld condemnation of his Hanalei boatyard property, with the County Attorney's office seeking another $25,000 to defend against his unceasing litigation. Come on, Mike. Can't you think of something better to do with your bucks than burn the taxpayers?

Musings: Lobbing at Lobbyists

The revelation that David Arakawa failed to register as a lobbyist for the pro-development Land Use Research Foundation between 2008-12 raises these troubling questions: 

Was he actually a LURF lobbyist while serving on a Kauai County committee charged with studying revisions to the shoreline setback law, where he promoted the “brightline exemption” that makes it easier to develop on ocean bluffs and rocky coastlines?

And isn't a $4,000 fine pretty much chump change in the development and lobbyist world?

Now let's see the state Ethics Commission — and The Hawaii Independent, which helped to bust Arakawa — apply similar scrutiny to all the unregistered anti-GMO lobbyists, including Walter Ritte, Jeri DiPietro, Ashley Lukens and Kauai Councilman Gary Hooser. [Correction: I see Ashley did register this year, but the others have not.]

Gary has been logging more hours at the Capitol than the Council Chambers, using his title, the cushion provided by his county salary and even county staff to push the agenda of the Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action group he heads. And it's clearly an anti-agriculture agenda, much as he and his cronies claim otherwise.

Take HB 849, the “right to farm” bill that passed the House Ag Committee yesterday. Da Hoos is pictured on the front page of The Garden Island angrily opposing the bill, which simply states. [Update, TGI inexplicably pulled the story from its archives, but since it was an Associated Press piece, I found it elsewhere.]

No law, ordinance, or resolution of any unit of local government shall be enacted that abridges the right of farmers and ranchers to employ agricultural practices not prohibited by federal or state law, rules, or regulations.

That seems reasonable, in that it reinforces Judge Barry Kurren's rulings on the Kauai and Big Island anti-GMO bills, and makes it clear that counties can't arbitrarily and hysterically ban agricultural practices that the feds and states, with their much more comprehensive regulatory schemes, have approved.

It was disappointing to see Rep. Derek Kawakami cave and vote no, taking refuge in the prospect of the Joint Fact-Finding Group offering deliverance from this thorny debate. But then, he's got all the antis in his district, and they've got that ugly “fistee” action going, as evidenced by their unruliness at two House hearings yesterday.

Btw, I've got another post on the Cornell Alliance for Science blog, this one on the Joint Fact-Finding Group (JFFG). The panel may prove useful and we all wanna have hope. But when it includes unreasonable, recalcitrant folks like Adam Asquith, known for his self-serving actions and paranoia (remember his peak oil hysteria, his lawsuits against KIUC that cost members tens of thousands of dollars and most recently, his absurd push, supported by Da Hoos, to create a groundwater management area in Lihue?) and Doug Wilmore, who with Adam hijacked and destroyed Apollo Kauai with their anti-smart meter campaign, it's hard to be optimistic.

In another aside, I wrongly suggested Councilwoman JoAnnYukimura was concerned about the JFFG because it included two reps from the seed companies. I'd forgotten she actually advocated for their inclusion as major stakeholders when Gary introduced a resolution excluding seed company workers from participating in the EPHIS, which has been replaced with the JFFG. 

Getting back to Gary's anti-ag agenda, he also strongly supported HB 1514, which passed the House Environmental Protection committee yesterday.

Though the measure is packaged as a warm and fuzzy effort to protect kids from pesticides, if you actually read the bill, you'll find it's based on unsubstantiated premises and functions as a far-reaching measure that targets all commercial farms — “any individual, partnership, association, corporation, limited liability company, or organized group of persons, regardless of whether incorporated, that is engaged in commercial agricultural production of any seed, crop, plant, timber, livestock, poultry, fish, bees, or apiary products.'

What's more, it excludes “Indoor applications of pesticides; and Structural or termite application of pesticides.” So in other words, it's OK to expose keiki to pesticides applied in their classrooms and school yard — as long as its disclosed — and drift from termite tenting, golf courses and residential use. Just not agricultural chemicals.

Once they buy or use an as-yet-unspecified amount of restricted use pesticides, the bill requires commercial ag entities to disclose 24-hours in advance their intended use of any and all pesticides, and not just to schools, but to any resident in a “sensitive area,” which also includes watersheds.

The bill also requires ag entities — and only ag entities — to establish unspecified buffer zones around these sensitive areas. But again, no such requirements are imposed on golf courses, pest control companies, waste water treatment plans and others who use large quantities of restricted use pesticides pesticides.

It's the same insanity we saw with Bill 2491 on Kauai, where only pesticides used by agriculture are 'bad” and all the other users of the same chemicals are ignored. But then, this is pretty much a duplicate of Gary's Bill 2491. 

Btw, I noticed Gary actually included the number of Council Services Staff as a contact for more information in his written testimony.  Isn't it a misuse of his Council position and county staff to lobby for a state bill that the Council hasn't even considered?

And finally, the Hawaii County Council will allow two mainland advocacy groups — the Center for Food Safety and Earthjustice — to handle its appeal of a judge's decision overturning its anti-GMO law. CFS, which is based in Washington, D.C., wasted no time in crowing over the decision, which it ironically characterized as a victory for “home rule.”

The lawsuit challenging the Big Island bill was filed by a consortium of small farmers, ranchers and flower growers who live on that island. Now they're being fought by mainland special interest groups who represent a narrow segment of the community, rather than the interests of the entire county. 

And that's an odd, even Orwellian definition of “home rule.”

Musings: On the Taxpayers' Dime

The long-standing dispute over whether Kauai Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. had authority to suspend Police Chief Darryl Perry may be settled by the state Legislature, instead of a judge.

Oahu Sen. Will Espero has introduced SB677, which gives the mayor of each county authority to remove the chief of police “for good and just cause.”

The bill keeps intact a section of the Hawaii Revised Statutes that reads, “A chief of police shall be appointed and may be removed as prescribed by the charter of each county,” but adds the language “provided that the mayor of each county shall also have authority to remove the respective county chief of police for good and just cause.”

“Good and just cause” is not defined.

The bill has been referred to the committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Judiciary and Labor, but no hearings have yet been scheduled.

As you may recall, the mayor suspended the chief in early 2012 after a police officer claimed that the chief had ignored her workplace harassment complaints. The police commission challenged that action in court, contending that panel had sole authority to hire, fire and discipline the chief.

Circuit Judge Randal Valenciano upheld the mayor's action, and the police commission is appealing that ruling.

Speaking of legal action, I recently spent some time digging into the mess at the Auditor's office, which has been essentially dead in the water for the past two years, though still sucking down money. 

Former staff auditor Ron Rawls filed a whistle-blower complaint [corrected from "lawsuit"] against the county over the actions of his former boss, County Auditor Ernie Pasion. And Pasion filed his own complaint against the county and former Council Chair Jay Furfaro over the manini punishment meted out for his bad behavior.

As part of that legal tangle, the Council, which oversees the Auditor's office, hired Honolulu attorney Lynn Toyofuku to conduct a fact-finding investigation into Rawls' complaint.

As I've previously reported, Rawls contends Pasion and former Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho doctored a county fuel audit investigative report to make the their political enemy, the mayor, look bad. We're still seeing the fallout from that as the mayor's misinformed enemies — people like Dustin Barca, Ken Taylor, Glenn Mickens and Mike Sheehan — futilely fan the flames of “fuel gate.”

Rawls says he was harassed by Pasion when he spoke up, prompting him to file a hostile workplace complaint in June 2012. After that, Rawls says, he was subjected to illegal retaliation and ultimately banished to a small, windowless office with no work assignments for five months. He resigned effective Jan. 7, 2013.

Rawls also maintains that Pasion refused to authorize an investigation into allegations that Iseri-Carvalho and her first deputy, Jake Delaplane, were using misusing county vehicles and gas.

Pasion, meanwhile, is suing the county for medical and legal costs because the Council “held the threat of termination” over his head, “disrupting his ability to perform his duties as auditor.” Apparently unable to legally fire him, the Council disciplined him with a letter of reprimand in his file and ordered a one-week suspension, a 120-day probation period followed by an evaluation, and an ongoing quarterly assessment by an “audit review committee.”

That supposedly caused Pasion such extreme stress that he took a medical leave. Rawls has been gone since January 2013, leaving the office unable to conduct an audit. So for the last two years, the Auditor's office has been doing nothing but burning taxpayer cash.

Meanwhile, the county is spending more taxpayer money defending against Pasion's claims. A redacted version of Toyofuku's report has been filed in court, providing a disturbing glimpse into the pettiness, back-biting, retaliation, childishness, political payback and unprofessionalism that has characterized the county Auditor's office — all on the taxpayers' dime.

Toyofuku notes that when Pasion was questioned about how he handled the anonymous complaint that Shay and Jake were using county vehicles on personal time his answers were “evasive, vague, non-responsive and inconsistent... raising serious doubts as to his credibility on certain events/decisions.”

The report also details conversations Toyofuku had with Auditor office staff. It includes Rawls' claim that the Kauai Auditor's office “was the poorest managed audit department he'd ever worked in,” plagued with low productivity and minimal oversight, such as Pasion allowing Lani Nakazawa — the former county attorney who was named Pasion's assistant — to work unsupervised in Honolulu for six months.

Voters approved the creation of an Auditor's office in an effort to obtain more accountability in county government. As I've previously reported, the Council had just three applicants for the auditor's job: Pasion and Nakazawa (both county insiders), and a CPA who showed up drunk for his interview. Rather than re-post the vacancy, or mo bettah, broaden the search, the Council chose Ernie, even though he had no background in government audits and lacks the CPA/CIP license required to conduct them. Pasion is paid $114,848 annually. Nakazawa was named his assistant, and paid a salary and overtime topping $100,000 annually.

Pasion's six-year term ends this year. Hopefully this time around the Council can find someone who is actually qualified for the job and not politically aligned with any of the folks he/she is supposed to investigate.  That way, taxpayers might get something for their money, other than additional legal expenses.

Musings: Meddling and Peddling

Kauai County Councilman Gary Hooser is trying a new tack in his bid to unseat the seed companies: pushing a state Senate bill that he's grandiosely portraying as a “game changer for food self-sufficiency in Hawaii.”

Hooser, who ditched his own state Senate seat to make a dismal run for Lieutenant Governor, then resurrected his political career by starting all over at the Kauai County Council, is again haunting the state Capitol, meddling in issues he doesn't understand and peddling a simplistic bill that will solve nothing.

Senate Bill 593 would require the Agriculture Development Corp. to “make the support of sustainable agriculture and food security its top priority and immediately develop and implement a plan to accomplish this goal.” It also requires ADC, by 2025, to lease a minimum of 50 per cent of the lands it controls “to operations that support the sustainable agriculture and local food production plan and whose primary business is the production of food for local consumption in Hawaii.”

Or to use the “translation” that Gary provided in his personal blog:

If SB593 is passed into law – it is possible that over the next 10 years over 10,000 acres of public agricultural lands would be made available to local farmers and could only be used for sustainable agriculture and local food production.

Because we all know that land leases are the only obstacle to food self-sufficiency, right? Not a lack of skilled farmers and farm workers, poor agricultural infrastructure, no irrigation, expensive imported inputs like fertilizer, marketing problems, the challenge of competing with cheaper imported food, restrictive state and county policies, farmer housing and even consumer demand.

In Gary's world, all ya gotta do is offer the land and all those other issues will magically disappear.

Never mind that when the state made land available for public lease at Kalepa, it went begging, with just two applicants . So where are the folks who are gonna farm 10,000 acres, when Kilauea can't even get its 75-acre ag park off the ground?

In his testimony, ADC Director James Nakatani notes that his agency has already started an intercropping program in Kekaha that allows small growers to share 5,000 acres with the seed companies, planting in their fallow acreage. Meanwhile, another 960 acres have been set aside for public lease at Kalepa. He writes:

While there is tremendous potential on the island [of Kauai] for local food production, there is an apparent shortage of experienced farmers.

The bill never actually defines “sustainable agriculture.” But don't try to start a dairy or plant GE papaya or operate a slaughterhouse or graze cattle or do anything on lots larger than 2 acres because the folks supporting this bill don't want any of that dirty “industrial” agriculture or horrid “monocropping” like the kanaka of old practiced with their vast taro loi.

Who is supporting the bill? A gander through the testimony reveals a roster of the very same folks who were pushing anti-GMO bills throughout the state. Much of the testimony also parrots verbatim the language Gary used in his blog post rallying support for the bill, showing us once again that many of these people can't think for themselves.

And Gary's right there among them, improperly identifying himself as an “individual Councilmember,” rather than a private citizen, since the Council has taken no stand on this bill. In his testimony, Gary makes it clear he's gunning for the seed companies:

As a Councilmember I have tried to find out exactly how much of their [ADC] land is used for local food production but the answer I received was that they do not know. This alone shows clearly the need for regular reporting requirements as to how those public lands are being used.

Even though the exact numbers are not available to me, it is clear that on Kauai the vast majority of the ADC lands are leased to large corporations who do not produce food for local consumption, nor do these corporations practice sustainable farming methods.

Gak. Do you really want Gary Hooser and the anti-GMO contingent defining what constitutes acceptable farming practices in Hawaii? Fortunately, decision-making on the bill has been deferred until Feb. 10 and 11, which means there's still plenty of opportunity to kill it.

Gary, who actually fancies himself a “farmer” because he has a few chickens in the yard, doesn't seem to understand that you can't legislate successful farming. The problems facing agriculture in Hawaii are complex and systemic. This overly simplistic bill is an insult to the qualified professionals who have been struggling for decades to diversify Hawaii agriculture and help transition land from sugar and pineapple into other uses.

But hey, it gives Gary and people like Sen. Russell Ruderman and Laura Thielen a chance to engage in political posturing and make like they're actually doing something when they aren't.

Speaking of posturing, it was disappointing to see Kauai Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura casting aspersions on the joint fact-finding group that has been convened to discern facts from fear in the pesticide/GMO debate on Kauai. The Garden Island quotes her as saying:

[W]hile the panelists appear to have high intellectual capacities, she has concerns about balance and “whether there are enough people that are grounded in the community.”

“Grounded in the community.” Is that code for “local?” Or is she just unhappy because representatives from the seed companies are included, and she can't manipulate this process like the Council-directed EPHIS she wanted? In any case, why is she trying to undermine the process before it even begins?

Musings: Steamroller Activism

One of the most challenging aspects of the GMO debate is navigating the noise. People have opposing views on nearly every aspect of the issue, with many claiming they've got the facts on their side. As I sift through it, I keep thinking, there's gotta be some consensus and evidence in there somewhere.

That quest piqued my interest in the Cornell Alliance for Science. It was formed last year to find common ground, engage farmers in the biotech debate and develop an online information portal about agricultural biotechnology. It's based at New York's Cornell University, with partners around the world.

They were interested in what's been happening in Hawaii with regard to the biotech debate, so I wrote a couple of blog posts for their website, the first of which was published today.

Entitled “Hawaii Polarized by Steamroller Activism,” it briefly recounts what went down as the anti-GMO movement swept the Islands. It also gets into the motivations of the mainland groups that pushed it. To quote one paragraph:

In short, anti-biotech groups are trying to establish case law in isolated, rural municipalities like Hawaii, where gullible politicians and puzzled citizens are easily manipulated and misled by fear tactics, bullying and vague talking points like “home rule."

Check it out.

And when you're done, visit Jan TenBruggencate's Raising Islands blog, where he tackles the meaning of consensus, and how that word has been used to both discredit and support the safety of genetic engineering technology. It's a very thoughtful piece.

Musings: Hawaii Pawn in GMO Debate

I have a guest commentary in today's issue of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, which they titled “Outsider funding of anti-GMO efforts in Hawaii not really about 'home rule.'”

Since it's behind a paywall, I'm posting it here:

As international anti-GMO activist Vandana Shiva led a rally at the Jan. 21 opening of the state Legislature, I reflected on how much had changed since I first encountered her on Kauai, two years ago.

Shiva had come to Kauai for one purpose: to exhort us to throw out the biotech seed companies that farmed the abandoned sugar fields. She was accompanied by Andrew Kimbrell of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Food Safety (CFS), and the two of them riveted a crowd that was large for our rural island.

I left energized, reassured in the correctness of my own long-standing aversion to pesticides, biotech agriculture and the multinational chemical companies that manufactured both. GMO-Free Kauai, a tiny fringe movement, was suddenly hip, infused with money and a mission. Change was in the air, and I assumed it would be good, since it was orchestrated by the “good guys” — progressives, activists, environmentalists.

But as the anti-GMO campaign unfolded, first on Kauai, then Hawaii Island and Maui, I was increasingly alarmed, and ultimately alienated. Any questioning of the issue or movement was immediately, and often viciously, shut down. Political demagogues were elevated to star status. Activists had no compunction about engaging in fear-mongering, propaganda and intentional misinformation campaigns — strategies they'd condemned when practiced by the chemical companies.

It became almost unbearable to watch my community polarize and divide as seed company employees, many of them former plantation workers, were accused of poisoning the land and their neighbors. Lies and fears were accepted as truth, and those who spoke against the activists were harassed.

No middle ground was ever staked, no compromise ever floated. It was only black or white, with us or against us, when it seemed to me that the issue was very gray, and most folks didn't want to take sides.

Disenchanted by the lock-step mentality of the movement, I began looking more closely at the organizations that supported it. How could they afford to bring in Shiva — who charges $40,000 and first class airfare from India — buy ads, pay unregistered lobbyists? I discovered the Hawaii movement is funded almost entirely by mainland groups — primarily Center for Food Safety — using money donated by heirs of oil, pharmaceutical and manufacturing fortunes, including Merck, Getty, Rockefeller and the Ceres Trust. It is not a local, grassroots, anti-corporate movement.

These mainland groups operate — and secure their own ongoing funding — by waging political and legal battles in small communities where they hope to secure victories that can be leveraged elsewhere. Shiva, who is closely aligned with CFS, serves as a charismatic cheerleader.

Hawaii has been played as a pawn in this strategy, which has international aspirations. A similar steamroller campaign was also used in Thailand, with similarly divisive effects on the community. Meanwhile, CFS, Pesticide Action Network, Food Democracy Now and other groups are using Hawaii's anti-GMO battle in fundraising appeals to benefit their own organizations, not local residents.

So what has Hawaii gotten from this two-year war against GMOs? Three poorly written bills, all of them being challenged in court; a lot of bad feelings; seriously divided communities; a resurgence of anti-haole sentiment, especially on the Neighbor Islands; activist lobbying that eludes transparency and accountability; and county legal bills that have not been fully paid. Yet we're no closer to assuaging any of the fears expressed by residents, or resolving community concerns.

So when I see Shiva, back for a third time now, issuing her latest battle cry of “Home Rule,” I can only shake my head in dismay. What we need now is not more outside agitation, but “Home Heal.”