Interested in doing something about climate change? I am, and that’s why I’m voting YES on the GMO MORATORIUM. Feeding an expanding global population during major shifts in our climate represents an unprecedented challenge. GMO’s cannot rise to that challenge because they are part of the industrial agricultural complex, where fossil fuels are used in such large amounts that it’s estimated over 50% of our greenhouse gases now come from doing agriculture this way. Our water is being contaminated, our soil degraded, and the scientific experiments that Monsanto calls ‘farming’ is killing our biodiversity. The economic impacts of continuing with this industrialized agriculture could be devastating for our future generations.
Decisions regarding safety of their open air testing of pesticides and GMO crops, which is not farming, should be based on research here in Maui County. The long-term public health impacts are huge, and it is our keiki who will suffer if we do not grab this chance as a community to protect them. Regardless of how you might feel about biotechnology, do you really think that multi-billion dollar corporations who are paying for these advertising campaigns on your television, radio, and in your mailbox have your best interest in mind? Lawsuits continue to this day to hold Monsanto accountable for their knowledge that their products of DDT, PCB’s, rBGH, and saccharin were detrimental to human and environmental health. For everything that GMO’s could be, it’s what they are not that needs to be addressed. GMO’s are not feeding Hawai’i on the scale the biotech companies claim. GMO’s have not decreased herbicide and pesticide use in Hawai’i. GMO’s have not required less water for irrigation.
GMO’s industrial agricultural model is unsustainable. It’s time we prioritize the availability, access, utilization, and stability of our food supply as climate change begins to alter our environment. As the mother of 2 children, I feel it’s time to pono up and vote YES on the GMO MORATORIUM. I invite you to do the same. We are all in this together.
