Richard Ha writes:

Kaua‘i is having discussions about large corporate seed companies, GMOs, fear about the safety of our food supply, etc. It’s very similar to the discussions we are having on the Big Island.

Jerry Ornellas wrote a good article for the Kaua‘i newspaper about treating each other with respect—after all, we live on an island!

Jerry is president of the Kaua‘i County Farm Bureau and a good
friend of mine. I’ve known him, as a fellow banana farmer, for more than 30 years.

I listened to the anti-GMO testimony at the Hawai‘i County Council a few days ago. It is very apparent that most of the animosity was directed at the large seed companies, particularly Monsanto. In the heated discussion, small farmers and their families, including their small children, were getting caught in the crossfire.

We all need to take a deep breath and think about what we are trying to accomplish. I think that the goal should be to move the Big Island toward food self-sufficiency.  For this, we need all our farmers. We must try to help all farmers make money. We must not cannibalize from one group to benefit another group.

One huge piece missing from this discussion is the part that finite resources play in this discussion. We do have indigenous resources that could give Hawai‘i a competitive advantage to the rest of the world. We have curtailed throwaway electricity, which could help us all. But we need to have a strategic vision of where we want to go.

Right now, the Council is stumbling from amendment to amendment. It is responding to fear. There is no strategic direction to what we are trying to do.

Our political leaders need to be responsible and lead!