Richard Ha writes:
Will you help?
Hawaii Farmers & Ranchers need your support today!
We need your help getting testimony to the Hawaii County Council opposing Brenda Ford’s GMO Ban Bill 109 and Margaret Wille’s Bill 113, which ban gmos but allow for a papaya exemption if you’re granted an exemption, i.e. pay fees disclose your farm’s location….
This might just be the biggest threat to Hawaii agriculture and our right to farm that we have ever seen.
We’re inviting you to attend the Council hearing on Sept. 4th at 1:30PM and….
Please submit testimony TODAY via email to counciltestimony@co.hawaii.hi.us
This is important to Hawaii agriculture, our farmers and our ranchers. We’re standing united together against both these bills. We’re asking you to submit testimony and to please ask five of your family or friends to do the same and ask them to ask five of their friends, etc….that is the only way we can get the numbers we need to defeat these Bills.
Remember agriculture producers only make up 2% of the Nation….Yet we feed us all! It will take knowing agriculture and the community supporting farmers and ranchers if we’re to survive and thrive…
Margaret Wille also has Bill 113 that will be heard at the same hearing (agenda attached). Her Bill exempts the genetically modified papaya and other GMO crops currently in production on Hawaii County as long as they jump through her hoops (new regulations, fees and penalties). Her Bill allows no future use of genetically engineered technology to grow feed, fight diseases in crops and livestock or using them in the future.
Despite the exemption for papaya in Wille’s Bill, papaya farmers are giving her Bill a thumbs down. Their position is that her Bill says that GMO papaya is bad but since it’s already here and widespread the County Council will let it go. She infers their contaminated and inferior; they are NOT their prime is taste and
quality. Kudos to the papaya industry for recognizing this and standing their ground…we will stand together with them. “Ag United”
As farmers and ranchers we have the right to farm…with every legal method and technology out there, organically or conventionally, with or without genetic technology and with respect for the rights of our fellow farmers and ranchers to do the same.
Here is what the World’s Health & Scientific Organizations have to say about GMO’s and genetically engineered crops….
World Health Organization “WHO”
“No effects on human health have been shown as a result of the consumption of such foods by the general population in the countries where they have been approved.”
National Academy of Sciences
“No adverse health effects attributed to genetic engineering have been documented in the human population.”
American Association for the Advancement of Science
“The science is quite clear: crop improvement by the modern molecular techniques of biotechnology is safe.”
American Medical Association
“There is no scientific justification for special labeling of bioengineered foods.Bioengineered foods have been consumed for close to 20 years, and during that time, no overt consequences on human health have been reported and/or substantiated in the
peer-reviewed literature.”
European Commission
“No scientific evidence associating GMOs with higher risks for the environment or for food and feed safety than conventional plants and organisms.”
French Academy of Science
“All criticisms against GMOs can be largely rejected on strictly scientific criteria.
Union of German Academics and Scientists
“In consuming food derived from GM plans approved in the EU and in the USA, the risk is in no way higher than in the consumption of food from conventionally grown plants. On the
contrary, in some cases food from GM plants appears to be superior in respect to health. “
Instructions on how to submit testimony:
Needs to be into the Council by 12 noon by September 3rd. Even if you are late please submit it anyway.
By regular mail or drop it off: Office of the County Clerk, 25 Aupuni Street, Hilo, HI. 96720
By email: counciltestimony@co.hawaii.hi.us
By Fax: (808) 9618912
Show up to any Council location Islandwide to testify in person.
Hilo: Council Chambers at the County Building in Hilo, 25 Aupuni Street, Room 1401
Kona: Council Chambers at the West Hawai’i Civic Center in Kona at 74-5044 Ane Keohokālole Highway, Building A.
Waimea: Waimea Council Office, at the Holumua Center, 64-1067, Māmalahoa Highway,
Suite 5.
Oral public testimony is limited to two (2) minutes total for all 4 agenda items.
Video Public Testimony: Those submitting video testimony may email a complete web address (url) to videotestimony@hawaiicounty.gov before 12:00 noon on the business day prior to the meeting. The email shall indicate the appropriate Committee or Council meeting, the meeting date, agenda item (communication, bill, resolution, or report number), and number of testifiers on the video submittal. Each video submittal shall be limited to a single agenda item. Video submittals may contain up to three (3) individual testifiers and shall each be up to three (2) minutes in length.
Example testimony (Cut, paste or change for your personal story!)
Hawaii County Council Committee on Public Safety & Mass Transit
Wednesday September 4, 2013 1:30 p.m.
Testimony Against Bills 109 and 113
Committee Chair Ford and Members of the Committee:
I oppose Bills 109 and 113 because any antiGMO legislation in Hawaii County will discriminate against our farmers and ranchers who choose to use approved genetically engineered technology to grow safe and wholesome food and other agriculture products. These Bills also damage Hawaii’s reputation for producing some of the best crops on the planet, harms our markets, and eventually destroy our agriculture industry.
I am profarming and the right to farm in the United States of America, still a free country, under laws of and regulated by the USA and the State of Hawaii.
Hawaii’s farmers and ranchers may need virus resistant GMO crops to protect Hawaii from the next papaya virus strain, banana bunchy top virus, tomato spotted wilt and other vegetable viruses, or the bacterial citrus greening disease that is destroying the Florida citrus industry and may soon come to Hawaii.
Furthermore, this bill will stop development of GMO ornamental and floral crops with enhanced horticultural or disease resistant characteristics. These Bills would prohibit livestock and aquaculture producers from efficiently growing cost effective feed locally, requiring them to import at a higher price the exact same feeds. How will Hawaii County farmers and ranchers compete when everyone but us has access to GE technology?
The consensus of independent scientific organizations worldwide is unanimous and can be summed up by this statement from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, “The science is quite clear: crop improvement by the modern molecular techniques of biotechnology is safe.”
Please vote against Bill 109 and Bill 113
Name:
Occupation:
City where I live:
Additional Comments:
Please cut and paste and revise for your use.