Kauai Tourism and GMOs

SUBHEAD: The strategy is to make the tourists aware of the health risks to them of unregulated experimental pesticide applications.

By Juan Wilson on 12 March 2013 for Island Breath -
(http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2013/03/kauai-tourism-and-gmos.html)


Image above: Salt Pond Beach Park is a tourist favorite. A safe place to swim... except for the fields right behind the parking lot (top of image) which are now leased by DOW AgroScience. Runoff from upper GMO fields has to go downhill. Click to enlarge. From (http://alohashare.com/explore-salt-pond-beach-park/).

Obviously, there is a groundswell of opposition to GMO field experiments in Hawaii. The recent visit to Hawaii by Vandana Shiva has accelerated efforts to remove the companies that are creating GMO food products that need poisons to live and are poisonous to eat.

To push back the GMO companies we need to find a group with more power than they have on Kauai. That group are the tourists who come to paradise for their vacations. There is more money for Kauai from tourists than there is from the GMO companies.

Tourism to the Rescue
We need to bring to the tourists' attention the proximity of the experimental GMO fields near where that shop, eat, play and swim. Moreover, we need to have tourists understand the possible health risks to their children of open field tests with unannounced, undisclosed, unregulated applications of pesticide cocktails. Even an inkling of danger to their families will threaten the tourist industry in Kauai.

As it is, the GMO companies, and powers that be have targeted Hawaii, and particularly Kauai because they are securely isolated with plenty of sun and water - and US military security. But they cannot have it both ways.

If Kauai is to be a petri-dish for the chemical companies because they need a secret, isolated place - just in case something goes wrong then Kauai cannot also be a beautiful and safe vacation paradise for American families. 
What happens to Captain Andy and Holo Holo Tours when the tourists find out that where they are being taken to snorkle and see turtles off Kamakani Mill is where the run-off from the DOW AgroScience fields runs into the ocean?

What happens to the Waimea Plantation Resort when their guests realize the red dust in the air is coming off the Syngenta GMO field that was just sprayed with pesticide?

What happens to the Kukui Grove Mall when tourists looking to stock up on goodies realize that the corn fields opposite the parking lot is part of an experiment in genetic mutation?
Through tourism we can get a foothold on turning Kauai businesses and government around on the issue of GMOs on our island.

GMO Companies are not nice
They are the big chemical and pharmaceutical companies that have been at the heart of the military machine since the First World War until today. We need to show tourists the nature of these operations.

DuPont
A hundred years ago it was DuPont that provided the uniform, high quality gun powder for the bullets that left millions dead in the trenches of Europe. Today, on Kauai,  they are disguised as Pioneer with much of the acreage upwind of Waimea in the coffee fields owned by Alexander and Baldwin that are used as an open air lab - just a friendly seed company trying to feed the world.

DOW
We are also hosting DOW AgroScience. They are the company that provided the Napalm B that burned and mutilated uncounted thousands in South East Asia during the Vietnam War. Today they lease thousands of acres from the Keith Robinson between Hanapepe and Makaweli with a large research laboratory under construction.

Monsanto
And don't forget the queen spider of them all,  Monsanto. Monsanto has been in the nature killing business forever. During World War II they did fundamental research to develop uranium for use in the first atomic bomb. Remember Agent Orange, PCBs and Dioxin? Here on Kauai they masquerade as Dekalb in Hanapepe Valley - the little old corn company your grandfather knew.

Syngenta
Beside the chemical companies there are also pharmaceutical companies in the GMO game. Syngenta is a chemical / pharmaceutical company whose history goes back the 18th century. They are a major developer of a wide variety of GMO crops nestled against the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility and stretching all the way to the playground of Waimea Canyon Middle School.

Bayer
Bayer may not be developing GMOs on Kauai but they are deeply involved with GMO corn.  Ninety percent of GMO corn seeds are coated with Bayer's bee-decimating neonicotinoid pesticides.  The parent company of Bayer corporation was IG Farbens. They manufactured Zyklon B, the poison gas used in the gas chambers. In the late 1930′s organophosphates (sarine, tabun) were introduced and after the war marketed by Bayer as pesticides (E 605, Folidol, Nemacur, Fenthion). IG Farbens managers were convicted as war criminals at the Nuremberg Trials. After the war Farben was broken up into BASF, Bayer and Hoechst (now called Aventis).

Not Safe at Home
We here on Kauai are at the fountainhead of this abominable technology. Tourists need to know that the fruit of the effort here on Kauai is destroying the food producing heartland of America with monoculture industrialized agriculture.

The small farms of the Midwest and grasslands are gone. The big corn operations require heavy equipment, synthetic fertilizers and infusions of pesticides that ruin the soil and ultimately run-off and poison the Gulf of Mexico.

And the miracle of GMOs keeps on giving. The food produced with GMO corn are ubiquitous. 
Almost all the soda drunk in America is sweetened by GMO high fructose corn syrup. The consumption of HFCS increased more than 1000% between 1970 and 1990, and is likely related to the obesity explosion since then.

Almost all the meat (pigs, cattle and poultry) produced in America is raised on GMO corn infused with antibiotics.

Almost all the dry cat and dog food consumed by pets in America is primarily GMO corn products.
We must help the tourists see the problem so they can save us.  

See also:
Ea O Ka Aina: Interview with Vandana Shiva 2/28/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Hawaii opposition to GMOs grows 2/18/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Bringing the anti-GMO message 1/20/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Glorious night for Kauai 1/18/13
Ea O Ka Aina: A Million Little Fists 1/14/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Dr. Vandana Shiva on Kauai 1/5/13
Ea O Ka Aina: This warning cannot be ignored 10/24/12
Ea O Ka Aina: Vandana Shiva on GMO's 7/21/12
Ea O Ka Aina: Stop Monsanto poisoning of Hawaii 6/12/12
Ea O Ka Aina: Eco Warriors Arise! 5/23/12
Ea O Ka Aina: Birth Defects from Roundup 6/27/10
Ea O Ka Aina: GMO Corn Poison 1/25/10

Older Articles:
Island Breath: Waimea School & GMO's 11/18/06
Island Breath: GMO News 8/21/06
Island Breath: GMO Expermit requests 6/10/06
Island Breath: GMO free Molokai 11/4/05
Island Breath: Round-Up Free Kauai 2/2/05
Island Breath: GMO Free Kauai 1/20/05
Island Breath: Mendocino GMO ban 3/5/04
Island Braeth: Percey Schmeizer 6/23/04
Island Breath: Pesticides in Hawaii 2/4/04
Island Breath: GMO in Hawaii 1/26/04


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2 comments :

Anonymous said...

We just returned from Kauai 7/7/13. It was our 2nd trip in 3 years and my 9th trip in 20 years. We were HORRIFIED to learn on this last trip to GMO crops are being tested and grown on Kauai. I am revolted. I just read in the local paper that a development near the Alahola mountain range was denied over concerns of eucalyptus trees..How ridiculous can government be to deny planting eucaluptus trees but approve GMO crops? Most of Europe won't even EAT our beef fed GMO corn and they are banning our crop imports out of fear of GMO... Hawaii is embracing GMO? What can I do to help?

Anonymous said...

I just posted the above comment.
Linda Fenton
St. Louis, Missouri
lcfenton@sbcglobal.net

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