Kauai is sharply divided over the issue of local GMO farming as emotions are stoked by fear-mongering, rumors and lies. One of the Kauai County Council members has proposed a strong set of laws that could send these companies packing, leaving up to 800 Kauai residents unemployed. This is my personal analysis and my opinions.
A month ago I was pro Bill 2491, anti-GMO, anti-chemical company. I saw Gary Hooser at Starbucks and thanked him for what he was doing. I happily shared the scary Facebook memes, images of people in Hazmat suits, stories of how these horrific greedy corporations are poisoning Kauai’s children. It was just common sense that corn with human and lizard genes, terminator seeds, patented life, Monsanto wanting to control the entire world’s food supply, was unacceptable.
But I heard that maybe Bill 2491 might cause people to lose their jobs. So I decided that if I am going to support a bill that actually effects the lives of my neighbors, not just faceless corporations, then I should learn what the heck I’m talking about. A friend talked about “intellectual honesty,” and that motivated me, too, to be sure I’m not just repeating bad information. I was lucky in that I didn’t have a lot invested in being anti-GMO, unlike many activists who see it as their life’s purpose, or who’s entire social network is based on the anti-GMO cause. Changing sides in their case is just too psychologically costly.
It’s amazing, when you suspend predetermined positions and look for facts and data, how the foundations of an issue can fall like dominoes in a child’s playroom.
I’ve never been a conspiracy theorist, so I applied common sense to the conspiracy theory that the majority of the world’s scientists, all of the federal government, all 17,000 EPA employees, 106,000 USDA employees, all Hawaii state regulatory agency employees, and many of my friends and neighbors on Kauai are all paid off by Monsanto, a company with revenues less than 3% of Walmart’s. Maybe pro biotech folks are not all greedy uncaring shills who are selling out humanity for a wide screen TV. And maybe I should consider the views of tens of thousands of scientists and hundreds of thousands of farmers before 100% supporting a bill written by one non-scientist, non-farmer politician.
Just mentioning on Facebook the possibility that some GMO industry employees might actually not be baby killers lead to the Kauai anti-GMO crowd demonizing me. It was startling, in fact, how quickly people who’d called themselves my friends berated, insulted and attacked me on Facebook, not for saying I was pro-GMO, but just for saying I was not in support of some provisions of Bill 2491. When confronted with the realization that some of the people I was aligning with were hateful zealots, it was even easier to wonder if I was being mislead. Their zealotry sparked my analytical mind to hunker down and think scientifically, with my brain instead of my emotions.
The second thing I did was actually read Bill 2491’s provisions and THINK about what it would mean in the real world. I was shocked, because I thought it was a transparency bill, a “right to know” bill. After all, that’s what everyone is saying, even when I point out the other provisions. But it turns out that’s only a small portion of the Bill. I’ll get into the full Bill below.
The third thing I did was start actually looking at the information being used to attack the GMO companies locally. As it turned out, it was almost all personal attacks, emotional blackmail, malicious lies, rumors, urban legends, sensationalism, exaggerations, outdated information, and anecdotal stories. It was all based in fear-mongering, like Fox News uses against Democrats. There are some reasonable anti-GMO activists, but I don’t know many.
So while looking for science to support the anti-GMO position, I found myself stretching to find anything scientifically viable, and that a lot of what I thought was true was not. Did you know Monsanto isn’t even on Kauai? Did you know the self-proclaimed “GMO Expert” Jeffrey Smith‘s degree is in Purusha Mediation and Natural Law from the Maharishi University of Management?
I did, however, find hundreds of solid, peer-reviewed studies concluding GMOs are safe. These are the studies the anti-GMO people say don’t exist. Now I’ve been told that most of these have been dismissed because they’re funded by GMO companies. Interestingly, when a study is paid for by anti-GMO organizations, or is done by anti-GMO organizations who’s income is based on continuing the fear of GMOs, those results are okay, even when they’re not even peer-reviewed. It’s called cognitive dissonance. But even if I give them that, say, 500 of the 600 cited studies are suspect, well, that leaves 100 good studies. Yet the anti-GMO crowd dismisses them, too, just because, and says there are NO studies saying GMOs are safe.
Finally, because I don’t believe that any scientist that doesn’t agree with me is a “paid shill,” I met with pro GMO scientists. Yes, they were willing to meet with me. In fact, they invited me to meet. I was invited to tour the local GMO farms (I haven’t yet), and found out most of the anti-GMO people on Kauai, including Gary Hooser, have been invited, too, but have turned down the opportunity to listen to their opposition. These pro GMO “corporate shill child poisoners” were respectful, talked science and data, did not demonize anyone, did not personally attack anyone, did not use emotional blackmail or indirect implied accusations of evil. It was quite refreshing after all the anti-GMO dishonest junk I’ve been barraged with. A two hour rational conversation about GMOs! With data! And they didn’t even grab a child and kill her in front of me!
So am I pro GMO? Well, I was never 100% anti-GMO, as anyone who has read my social media posts knows, because GMO, or biotech, is just a branch of scientific research, not evil or good, just science. But I’m less anti-GMO now than I was a month ago. And I’m 100% against Bill 2491 as it stands now, not because I love Monsanto, and certainly not because I’ve been paid (I have not, thank you very much). I’m against Bill 2491 because it’s poorly written, goes too far, is not based in facts or data, and for the sake of “just in case,” would destroy the lives of my neighbors, most of whom I don’t know.
Here is my analysis of Bill 2491. Hooser’s words are in blue, mine in black. If passed into law Bill 2491 will, according to the author of the Bill:
1) Require mandatory disclosure of Pesticide and GMO use by large commercial agricultural entities and require a buffer zoned around schools, hospitals and other sensitive areas. This applies only to large users of Restricted Use Pesticides and will not affect small farmers at all.
The “large farmers” include Kauai Coffee Company. A 500 foot buffer zone would cut their growing acreage in half. This bill does more than you think because it was hastily written by a non-scientist non-farmer politician.
Do you know what “Restricted Use Pesticides” are? I used to think they were “experimental pesticides.” That’s what I see them referred to all the time. They’re not. RUPs are simply pesticides that require a license to buy and apply, so they can’t be sold at Walmart or Home Depot, which is most pesticides. The RoundUp you buy at the store? It’s not even a RUP.
2) Prohibit open air testing of experimental pesticides and experimental GMOs. Note: This does not ban the testing but merely requires that it be conducted in an enclosed environment.
“Merely requires” enclosing thousands of acres of farmland, a task that is impossible and would simply cause the companies to leave, firing hundreds of west side Kauaians. And for what? What data is there to show that open air testing of GMOs is hurting Kauai? Do we start doing “just in case” laws for every industry? How about flowers, do we ban orchid cross-breeding, out of fear of a killer attack orchid destroying our island? Where do we stop with our fears using the “precautionary principle?” We KNOW cars kill people – a LOT more people on Kauai die from cars than chemicals. Why not simply ban cars on Kauai? Ridiculous, you say, but that’s because YOU need your car, so that’s off-limits. But YOU don’t need a farming job, so it’s okay to screw the farmers.
3) Establish a temporary moratorium on new GMO operations pending the results of an environmental impact statement and development of a permitting system. Note: This does not impact existing operations but only impacts expansion during the limited moratorium period.
If a company is told they can’t expand, why would they stay? If you think GMO research is ONLY done on Kauai, so they HAVE to stay and comply, you’re kidding yourself. And if you think, “fine, let them leave,” then please volunteer to feed and house the hundreds of people who will lose their jobs. Put your money where your mouth is. And don’t just gather with your friends and discuss this issue – go to actual people who will lose their jobs and say, “I see you and I don’t care about you.” Even better, go up to the GMO scientists and leaders on island, one on one, and say, “I believe you knowingly poison children for profit, and I want you to lose your job.” Think you can do it when it’s a real person, face to face, not some faceless corporation?
4) Require the County of Kauai to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the impact of the GMO industry and its related pesticide practices within Kauai County. This will include independent testing of soil, water, air and volunteer residents.
There have been state and federal environmental impact analyses for every legal farm on Kauai. There is annual testing of soil, water and air, publically available.
Why not have the EIS done NOW, while the GMO companies are operating, so you can see their impact before the Bill 2491 provisions? If something is found bad, then you have the proof you need to pursue the rest of the Bill, and you’ll have a baseline to analyze if Bill 2491 is even effective in the future. But here’s the thing…. if the independent EIS comes back and says the GMO companies are acting legally, and there are no dangers from their actions, will you accept that? Because you rejected the results of the investigation into why some kids got sick at Waimea Canyon Middle School because it didn’t say what you wanted it to say. So the EIS is a joke, just a way to create a moritorium to punish the GMO companies for being evil.
5) Require a permitting system for GMO operations and establishes penalties.
We can’t even get the county to do new house building permitting right, our TVR permitting system is a bad joke, and these people are going to provide permits for scientific companies? This is the most dishonest part of the bill, because the author knows it can’t and won’t be done.
6) Provides that all costs may be paid for via permitting fees assessed on those companies being regulated and via property tax directly connected to their operations.
In other words, “we want this, but we don’t want to pay for it, so we’ll make the faceless corporations pay for it.”
So this is NOT just a “right to know” Bill. It significantly cuts production, increases costs, and limits growth on a few pre-selected corporations because the author does not like those companies. It is unconstitutional (state and federal), has unintended consequences, and serves only to help the reelection campaign of the author.