Our consumptive lifestyles are in stark contrast to our idealistic hopes for earth and humanity – symbolically emblazoned on the bumpers of our HumVee’s, SUV’s and Monster Trucks; “Save Tibet” – “No Hawaiian’s, No Aloha” – “GMO-FREE Maui” – (and my favorite) “Boycott France” (as if…)
Did you know…
- up until 1930 Hawaii was completely self sufficient with its food supply and exporting its excess?
- Hawaii is now 90-95% dependent on food from other lands (25% of our bananas, 65% of our avocado’s, 86% of our taro) and that we have a food reserve of about 7-8 days?
- Hawaiians are 90% dependent on polluting, war-fueling, archaic fossil fuels for our electricity in a land abundant with natural energy sources.
- PLASTIC! now has a greater “parts-per-million” in our oceans than plankton? How’s that working for you, Flipper?!
And “the worst idea ever” award goes to…envelope please…the US Supreme Court for their part in allowing the patenting of life. That’s essentially what the GMO issue is all about. A race for patents, fueled by corporate greed and sustained by consumer ignorance and apathy.
A US Supreme Court’s 1980 decision allowed a scientist from General Electric to patent a bacterium he had genetically modified. This shortsighted event has allowed the US Patent office to overrule its previous “no patenting of life” policy leading to the “ownership” of over 20,000 genetically modified (engineered) genomes (with 7 million patent applications behind these). These patents are then enforced globally by the World Trade Organization.
Companies like Monsanto, who routinely bully and intimidate family farmers, are now racing to own the world’s food supply. They are targeting geographic areas that are largely populated by indigenous peoples because where indigenous cultures have thrived there is more biodiversity? Why is that? Because successful cultures (that have been around for thousands of years) know that the secret to their long term survival rests on biological diversity. Where one crop variety is vulnerable, another may be immune.
Hawaii is on the front lines of the GMO assault on natural life.
NEWS FLASH! Here in Hawaii, there are an estimated 1400 open field tests on GMO experimental crops under our very noses (experimental biopharmaceuticals are being suppressed due to lawsuits by Earth Justice), and yet our government agencies are not requiring the owners of these crops to advise the public of what they are doing and where.
GMO papaya was introduced on the Big Island in 1998. Due to the resulting genetic contamination of wild and organic papaya trees, HOFA is no longer certifying Organic Papaya farms on the Big Hawaii. In other words, it spreads…
What can you do?
Ask your grocer about their position on GMO’s (expect a blank stare, unless you shop at Mana Foods). Insist on proper labeling. Require seed manufacturers to assume liability for genetic contamination. Support your local organic farmer so that he or she is there for you when the supply chain breaks. Educate yourself and unplug yourself from “the matrix” in which you are a guinea pig. Don’t buy into the argument that “GMO’s will solve the global food shortage”. Starving “undesirables” has been a political leveraging tool for hundreds of years. The truth is that we currently have the means to feed 1.5 times the world’s population using traditional farming methods. Why it doesn’t reach everyone has more to do with government agricultural policy.
An industrial contaminant, like an oil spill, will eventually breakdown, dilute and wash away. It doesn’t replicate itself. A biological pollutant such as the introduction of GMO salmon to the wild will infect all future salmon.
It’s not that genetic modification is a problem per se. It’s that there are grossly inadequate regulations, safeguards and supervision by objective individuals or agencies. This is cause for real alarm and a call for everyone to get informed, quickly!
To learn more, visit: www.gmofreemaui.com
