Talking points on GMO’s and Pesticide abuse in Maui County:
Possible Collateral damage around the GMO fields is not being studied or regulated.
Public health on the islands has been declining for the last 16 years and 16 years ago is when the GMO fields began.
The Moratorium protects small farmers from large corporations controlling and dictating their practices and products.
The Moratorium protects small farmers from having to use more and stronger chemicals to control the new insects and weeds being created in and around the GMO fields.
The Moratorium protects small farmers from possible litigation, fines and loss of their operations if their crops are contaminated by GMO pollens.
Any dust coming off the GMO fields carry chemicals that are ending up on our homes, in our homes and in our bodies.
Glyphosate, one of the main chemicals used in the GMO fields
The Hawaii Department of Health surface water tests indicated pesticide poisoning in 100% of their samples.
Every time you see brown runoff in the ocean, there are unregulated chemicals spreading into our reefs and beaches.
Every time you see brown dust in your home, there are unregulated chemicals spreading into your body and family.
Everytime you smell bubblegum around these fields, you are breathing in pesticides.
Although the agrochemical companies workers safety is exemplary, they will not guarantee the citizens or environment are absolutely safe.
According to the Hawaii Dept. Of Agriculture, there is not one law or regulation on GMOs in Hawaii.
Talking Points – Aug 2014 CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PDF FILE TO PRINT
Maui County Talking Points: Facts, Figures and Findings – Aug. 2014
Unregulated Chemical Combinations (Chemical Cocktails)
Over 80 different Chemicals are being used in the GMO operations in Maui County.
Each Chemical is regulated by itself, but none are monitored or regulated when mixed with one or more of the other Chemicals being used. Each time two or more of these chemicals combine, a new potentially more dangerous chemical can be created.
With 80 chemicals being used, there are over a trillion-trillion possible combinations of new chemicals that are being created in the Maui County GMO fields. (Intentionally or unintentionally)
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) admitted to the Maui County Council during recent hearings that there are no regulations on the Chemical Combinations (Chemical Cocktails) that are occurring in the GMO fields in our County (The Intended Targets). Therefore, they have no idea nor do they regulate what is occurring outside of the GMO fields either (The Unintended Targets).
The State Regulators follow the guidelines of the EPA. So, they also do not regulate these Chemical Combinations either in the GMO fields or outside of them.
The Hawaii State Department of Agriculture admits that there is not a single Law, Statute or Regulation on GMOs in the entire state.
Therefore, no one knows what is happening either on the fields or off the fields, nor do they even consider looking into it because there are no regulations that would cause them to do so.
Also, no one knows what happens when these chemicals mix in our bodies.
The only agency that has done any testing is the Hawaii State Department of Health, who in January of 2014, conducted some cursory testing of the surface waters to get a snap shot of what was happening on our islands. They found that 100% of their samples tested positive for one form of pesticide or another.
They also said that the problem is probably much worse and would require much more extensive testing to truly understand what is happening because many chemicals from past and current agriculture will take 15-20 more years to reach our fresh water aquifers.
So things are not looking so good for our County. No one is reporting, testing or regulating the Chemical Combinations that are occurring in the GMO fields and minimal testing for collateral damage from these operations shows that chemicals are getting into our surface waters and beyond.
We’re one of the largest Open Air Chemical and Biological Test Sites in the World
What is happening here in Maui County is not happening anywhere else in the world. We are ground zero for one of the largest chemical and biological test sites and there are multiple scientific and health related reasons to believe that these crops and what is required to grow them may be causing unintended harm to our environment, homes, citizens and water tables.
And since no one has ever checked it out, or is required to check it out, we say stop doing what you’re doing until everything is checked out and determined to be safe to continue.
What’s happening in our communities?
What we do know is that RoundUp is used prolifically in the GMO operations. And one of the Active Ingredients in RoundUp is Glyphosate. Maui County Citizens are now testing positive for Glyphosate in their bodies. Glyphosate is now found running freely in the Tap Water in Kihei. This means Glyphosate is in Kihei homes, schools, restaurants, foods, showers, laundry, sprinklers, yards and everywhere else county water is supplied.
Horrendous birth defects, cancers, and illnesses are on the rise and now we find that women are testing positive for Glyphosate in their breast milk.
So regardless of the Industry’s claims of research and tests from their self-sponsored organizations concerning the safety of their operations, there has never been a single test, not one single test on the chemical combinations in the GMO fields in this County. Nor have there been tests in any other place where possible collateral damage outside the GMO fields could be occurring. None. Zero. Absolutely no testing has occurred for either place.
Shaka Movement’s Maui County Talking Points: Facts, Figures and Findings – Sept. 2014 Page 2
And this is why over 20,000 of your fellow citizens want a Moratorium. We all want to know if these GMO operations are safe enough to live near, and guaranteed not to be causing harm to our citizens, environment, homes, reefs and water tables for current and future generations. And that is one of our most pressing concerns for the Moratorium.
Superweeds, superbugs and Protecting our Farmers
Other concerns involve what is happening around every other GMO operation in the world. Around all the other GMO fields in the world, new chemical resistant Superweeds (at least 20 new ones) and Superbugs (at least 500 new ones) are taking over the fields and the surrounding areas. No matter how much or how many chemicals they use, they can’t control them. Just look at fireweed or cane grass and imagine them 50-100 times more invasive and resilient. At that point, almost nothing would control or stop them.
So, not only do we face the possibility of Superweeds and Superbugs over-developing here and taking over all our agriculture and causing everyone to use more and more chemicals to control them, we sit next door to the place that is attempting to formulate, create and test the new chemicals and crops to withstand them, to the kill the Superweeds and Superbugs that have already taken over in the GMO fields and surrounding areas elsewhere in the world.
Transgenic contamination (Cross-Pollination) and the loss of our lands
We must also discuss the possibility of Transgenic Contamination (Cross Pollination). Since the introduction of GMO papaya in Hawaii County, more than 50% of the non-GMO papaya crop on the Island of Hawaii (Big Island) has been cross-contaminated by GMO papaya.
Cross contamination does occur and there are no foolproof, guaranteed, scientific methodologies or procedures to recall genetically engineered organisms or remediate the environment from any damages once genetically engineered organisms are released into the environment and contamination of the land and its wildlife has occurred.
Monsanto publicly admits to cross-contamination from its GE crops to non-GE crops on its own website stating that:
• it has filed 145 lawsuits against America’s family farmers, claiming patent infringement when Monsanto’s GMO crops have contaminated neighboring non-GMO crops,
• has settled another 700 out of court cases for undisclosed amounts concerning the same patent infringement issues, and
• investigates an average of more than 500 family farmers each year seeking reparations for patent infringement by non-GMO farmers for not protecting their crops from Monsanto’s GMO contamination.
On their own website they report that they are suing regular farmers for not protecting their crops from being contaminated by Monsanto’s GMO crops. It’s like your neighbor suing you for the water that was coming out their sprinkler system that was going into your yard because you weren’t protecting your yard from their water.
When Cross Contamination happens, there is no legal recourse for organic farmers, non-GMO farmers or citizens who cultivate non-genetically engineered plants and crops. If genetically engineered organisms contaminate their plants or crops, they stand to lose everything.
The People of Maui County find that it is important to protect the rights of farmers engaged in non-genetically engineered crop cultivation from the uncontrolled spread of genetically engineered organisms, and to protect its citizens and visitors from the associated pesticides and Chemical Cocktails involved in the growing and testing of GE crops.
This industry has no interest in protecting small farmers and local agriculture at all. Their current records and reporting on their own website shows how they have destroyed hundreds upon hundreds of farms and farmers.
Their claims that the moratorium would hurt local farmers are simply not true. What is true is that it will hurt the industry’s ability to contaminate our island and prevent them from suing us and taking our lands because we did not protect ourselves from their contamination.
It’s what they’ve done. It’s what they do everyday. It’s what they proudly report to their shareholders so they can show how diligently they are protecting their shareholder’s investments and insure market dominance.
Fugitive Dusts
Then there is the matter of fugitive dust; the brown clouds and virtually invisible clouds of dust that are spreading all over our ‘Āina. The fugitive dusts that are drifting off these fields are filled with chemicals that are affecting areas that are beyond the target area of the chemicals. There is no question that the citizens and tourists of Maui are being exposed to chemical drift through fugitive dust. No question.
Pesticide drift in fugitive dust from the strong winds carries the pesticides from their intended targets to unintended outlying areas and communities.
Shaka Movement’s Maui County Talking Points: Facts, Figures and Findings – Sept. 2014 Page 3
The air, the water, the lawns of homes and schools, the beaches, the reefs, everything, is being coated with unintended chemical drift in fugitive dust from the agrochemical operations. It is undeniable. It is a fact. One would have to defy the laws of physics and chemistry for it not to be happening.
Once this chemical laden dust gets into our homes, and everyone has this dust in their homes, the chemicals from these dusts get concentrated and mixed in our vacuum cleaners. And unless you are sanitizing your vacuum cleaner every time you use it, each time you vacuum, you are mixing chemicals and then spreading them throughout your home. And if your vacuum cleaner uses vacuum bags it’s even worse. Vacuum bags are only effective at filtering out dust for the first 12-15 minutes of use. After that, every time you use it you are spraying all the dust and all the chemical mixtures and everything within the bag, throughout your home.
And unfortunately it doesn’t stop there. These dusts and chemicals end up in our washing machines… and our washers spread it throughout our clothing, towels and bedding.
In fact… The Cornell University Pesticide Education Program has created extremely detailed and very specific instructions and protocols for cleaning your washing machine so as not to spread any of these pesticides or combinations of pesticides to your family through your laundry. This issue is so serious that they actually spent a significant amount of time, money and research to actually test all of this and create a warning and systematic protocol for managing it.
Human Contamination
Our regulatory agencies… the USDA, EPA and FDA… do not require human testing of Pesticides and Herbicides because humans are not the intended target of their use and human testing would be considered unethical. So, there is absolutely no data as to what effects we should expect in either short-term or long-term exposure to these chemicals.
Our very lives and our environment are the test. You, your children, all the visitors, all of us, ARE the test subjects in a grand experiment that no one is fully watching or talking about.
So we cannot rely on anything these agencies say about human exposure because these agencies have no data or requirements to test for the effects of these chemicals combination on us.
And if matters couldn’t get worse, the County of Maui or even the State does not have the proper testing equipment to even test what is happening to the people, nor do they even know what to test for, or are they regulated or supervised in any way to do human testing. They’ve stated that it would not be financially feasible to purchase the equipment and run the labs.
The eventual demise of the Industry. It’s not of matter of “If”, it’s a matter of “When”
The last thing to consider is the eventual demise of this industry. The product or seed that is produced right here in Kihei and Molokai is causing controversy and is being rejected all around the world, which is destroying American agricultural exports of Corn and Soy.
At least 80% of all the BT corn seed that is sold to GMO farmers around the world is manufactured here. We are the GMO BT Corn seed factory for the world.
The seeds that are grown here… and the products produced from these seeds… are considered so dangerous and potentially hazardous to the environment due to Irreversible Genetic Pollution… that the Russian government has not only banned it… but has also defined anyone who would transport such seeds, feed or food into their country as a terrorist.
Russian scientists believe that such products that we are producing right here… right here in Maui County… are so potentially dangerous to their citizens and their livestock and the entire human food supply… that they equate such sanctioned forced consumption of these products as an act of genocide to their people.
As a result, the U.S. is quickly losing the export market for GMO corn.
According to The Wall Street Journal China’s ban and stance on imports of genetically modified corn is destroying U.S. agribusiness, largely halting trade in the biggest U.S. crop in its fastest growing market. By one industry estimate, exports are down by 85% compared with last year. Since mid-November, China repeatedly has refused shipments of U.S. corn, because it was tainted with GMOs.
According to The National Grain and Feed Association China has rejected shipments of nearly 1.5 million metric tons of GMO Corn. The rejected shipments have cost grain companies $427 million from lost sales and reduced prices for China-bound shipments that must be resold elsewhere.
According to a Reuter’s report, China has now opened their doors and allowed non-GMO Brazilian corn imports to start this month, which is a further blow to U.S. exports to the world’s No.2 consumer of the grain.
In a move that signals Brazil’s intent to capitalize on the Chinese corn market and take it away from the US poisoned GMO farming exports, a Brazilian court just banned the release of GMO corn propagation in their country.
So the writing is on the wall. This is just the latest news of the truth of the worlds largest markets refusing what is being produced right here in Maui County. And as this trend continues eventually the business that is happening here will dry up, the agro chemical companies will move out… and we’ll be left with cleaning up the mess.
Shaka Movement’s Maui County Talking Points: Facts, Figures and Findings – Sept. 2014 Page 4
Two possible futures and what must be done
There are two possible futures for Maui County.
1. Things continue as they are and more and more chemicals infiltrate our lands and our lives and contaminate us beyond repair and eventually causes us to become a Superfund Cleanup Site as what has happened everywhere else the industry has operated,
2. We change what is happening and employ the most advanced natural means of food cultivation, feeding ourselves the best, most wholesome foods at a fraction of the cost, ultimately having enough supply that our crops begin exporting to the other islands and we become a shining example of sustainability and self-sufficiency to the world, which ultimately stimulates the Eco-tourism industry.
What must be done is a total transformation of how we treat our islands and it’s people. What must be done is the redevelopment of our agricultural fields through remediation practices that clean and revitalize the soils. We
must grow crops in non-harmful ways and feed ourselves at a fraction of the cost with the healthiest food available to man. Our food must be grown here, not flown here.
Industry Propaganda
In the coming months the industry will begin a very expensive campaign to discredit anyone’s concerns about their presence on the island. They will say just about every bad thing they can say about the moratorium, about us, the five citizens bringing forth the moratorium and anyone who questions anything about their operations. They will slander, malign and attempt to shame everyone and everything.
They already have spent countless thousands of dollars creating multiple television campaign commercials and offering focus group participants $100 dollars each for watching and giving feedback to their propaganda.
Ways to Participate and help be the change
The ways you can participate and counter what they do is:
• Write letters to the newspapers
• Help register people to vote
• Put your personal testimony on the ShakaMovement.org website
• Help distribute these talking points
• Help distribute other educational materials
• Help distribute yard signs
• Help wave signs at our sign waving events
• Talk to everyone you can about the truths of what is happening
• Contribute financially by making a donation
• Watch all the videos at ShakaMovement.org
• Sign Shaka’s Email list to stay current with the latest information
• Start growing your own garden
• Post and share 2-3 times per week throughout all your social media
• Volunteer wherever you can
• Connect with and motivate every 18-30 year old person you know to participate by registering to vote by October 6th, and committing to voting either by absentee ballot (recommended) or on November 4th
• Celebrate knowing you are doing everything you can to protect the keiki and ‘āina for current and future generations.
Staying focused in the storm of disinformation
The things to stay focused on are:
• Worker & public health safety
• Birth defects & health issues
• Pesticide drift & fugitive dust
• Untested chemical cocktails
• Soil sterilization
• Groundwater contamination
• Chemical runoff into ocean/reef
• Open-air field experimentation
• Unintended genetic pollution
• Cross-pollination gene transfer
• Tourism Trade Protection