Council date with Syngenta

SUBHEAD: The Kauai County Council turns to pro-GMO and anti medical marijuana proponents.

By Andy Parx on 26 March 2013 for Parx Daily News -
(http://parxnewsdaily.blogspot.com/2013/03/now-playing-in-cesspool-near-you.html)


Image above: A spoof of Syngenta styled ad. "How Syngenta poisons people and the environment". Click to enlarge. From (http://mieuxprevenir.blogspot.com/2012/12/how-syngenta-poisons-people-and.html).

Whether it's Syngenta's disinformation campaign about Atrazine, new information about cancer and pesticides, the so-called Monsanto Protection Act recently passed by congress or the state Department of Agriculture’s admission at last week's Kaua`i County Council meeting that they failed to perform a study- one we paid $50,000 for, of the apparent pesticide poisoning of Waimea Elementary School students four years ago and instead accepted the seed-corn industry's claim that it was simply something called "stink-weed" that sent the kids to the hospital, something really, well, stinks about the biotech industry... especially on Kauai.

But you ain't seen nothing yet- just wait until this Wednesday's council meeting when James Pacopac, lobbyist for the county and Syngenta, brings his dog and pony show to town.


According to the agenda for this week's council meeting:
Council Chair Furfaro (is) requesting the presence of Mr. Scott Matsuura, and Mr. James Pacopac, JS Hawaii Consultants, LLC, to provide the Council with an update on the 2013 Legislative Session to include, but not be limited to, the status of the Kauai County, Kauai County Council, and Hawaii State Association of Counties (HSAC) Legislative Packages for 2013.

A recent post by journalist/blogger Ian Lind titled Profiling members of the Honolulu Planning Commission reveals that Pacopac is not only a member of that august body- along with various and sundry developers, bankers and other lobbyists
...but:

Pacopac... is a partner with Scott Matsuura in the lobbying firm of SPJ Consulting LLC.

Pacopac was lobbyist for the Honolulu Board of Water Supply until March 2012. He currently is a registered lobbyist for the County of Kauai, the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, and Syngenta Crop Protection of GMO fame.

Matsuura and Pacopac have been paid $60,000 for 4 or 5 months worth of work to represent the County of Kauai at the legislature but don't seem to have done much of any lobbying, especially and specifically when it comes to bills that pit the county against the seed-corn industry such as bill SB727 and SB 590. Those bills would take away the county's power to protect the health and safety of its citizens including those who claim they are being poisoned by pesticides used by Syngenta and the rest of the seed-corn industry on the island's westside.

Anyone concerned about whether the county is getting their money's worth or is in fact being scammed by SPJ Consulting's dynamic duo might want to show up Wednesday when, if the agenda is correct, the item will be the first one that will be taken up after a short list of perfunctory items.

And speaking of dog and pony shows, one of the more insanely laughable tag teams will be bringing their anachronistic reefer madness routine back for another commanded-by-no-one appearance.

According to the agenda:
Councilmember (Mel) Rapozo has request(ed) agenda time for a briefing from Keith Kamita, Deputy Director, State of Hawai`i, Department of Public Safety, on the Bills that are currently before the State Legislature relating to the legalization of marijuana.
Folks may remember Kamita as the diabolical yet comical official who thinks the marijuana scourge must be stopped at all cost lest civilization as we know it cease to exist. In lock and goose step with Lieutenant Rapozo, Kamita continues his lost cause to kill one bill that would switch the medical marijuana program from DPW control to that of the Department of Health and of course opposes another to decriminalize small amount of the evil weed.

So prepare some testimony, get some popcorn and join in the fun at the Historic County Building in Lihue on Wednesday March 27 at 8:30am. Or if you really can't make it, catch it live on-line.

Just imagine - people complain there's nothing to do on Kauai but the county brings the circus to town every week. Lions and tigers and bears... oh my, indeed.

.

1 comment :

Gelfling said...

The reason that these companies are on the island is that they are leasing land, right? Perhaps we can focus on asking the land-leasers to stop agreeing to lease to them? I think even if pesticides and GMOs were legally banned, they would just come up with some other terrible thing. So i think we need to replace them with entities committed to the long-term good of the land and the people of Kauai, not dedicated to the economy of Kauai. How can they be replaced?

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