Letter to the editor in todays Maui News: GMO moratorium would not destroy farming on Maui I earn my living as a farmer on the Big Island. I grow macadamia nuts, avocados, dragonfruit and vegetables. I have read the genetically modified organism moratorium bill that Maui will be voting on. This is not a farming ban, as the opponents have coined. We are at a crossroads. We can continue down the path of more secret poison spraying, as the biotech industry is hoping for, or take a different path. One path leads to dead soil and is chemically dependent; the other is sustainable and driven by our need for real food grown here. The multinational biotech farms are less than 6 percent of our farming lands, and yet they apply the vast majority of restricted-use poisons. We cannot eat the seed they grow and test here, it is poisonous. They arent farming, not in the sense that the results of their efforts feed us. Dont be fooled. They are here doing their experiments in Hawaii for two reasons - loose pesticide rules and year-round growing, testing and spraying. The American Academy of Pediatrics has advised parents to avoid feeding foods with pesticides to children and be aware of any crops growing next to schools and housing where pesticides are sprayed. That is all we want - to know for sure they arent harming us. A moratorium will not destroy farming on Maui, but simply give us some real breathing room to scientifically assess the impact of their kind of farming on our children and our communities. Douglas Pittman Honaunau, Hawaii
Posted on: Sat, 04 Oct 2014 18:22:08 +0000