I Shill for No One!

by Joni Kamiya, Hawaii Farmers Daughter, February 10, 2018

As a kid, I was taught the lesson to treat everyone fairly. It was bad to tease others by calling them names and using derogatory terms. Apparently, when you grow up to be an adult, that rule disappears.

Esteemed professors and even “leaders” are unaware of the insults they throw out that are very elitist and dehumanizing.

As I’ve stated over and over, I have never worked for any ag corporations or any biotech company at all, but when faced with facts, these people seem to resort to ad hominem attacks. To them, I must be lesser or a human and easily dismissed.

This is what bothers me the most about the organic industry’s tactics to use fear but when called out on it, they pull out the shill or troll card. They take full advantage of ignorance to make people feel bad for buying that GMO food as if it’s a lesser kind. It’s mean to manipulate a person’s emotion to get a sale on something that really isn’t better for the environment or healthier.

The insulting attitudes of the organic supporters is telling of the reality of this marketing scheme. It really is about the well-fed, wealthy white person dictating to the public what they should and shouldn’t eat. Just look at the Stonyfield commercial using young white girls touting unfounded claims.

I’ve been saying this for years that it’s becoming clearer that the organic industry must be finding it increasingly more difficult to sell products based on its own merits. If they keep resorting to fear to get people pay more, there’s a reason for it.

When I stopped at the market today, that became all too evident. There were 2 kinds of Romaine lettuce being sold. One could pay $2.89 for a huge head of conventional kind or 3 small heads that was a third of the size of the single head of organic lettuce for $3.69. This example shows clearly how it will take more land to grow those organic heads just by a side to side comparison.

Most consumers will shop price first which is likely why the organic variety wasn’t moving as fast and was browning at the stems and outer leaves.

Those who continue to politicize the ag issue have very shaky stances not based in evidence. Like Sen. Josh Green, Rep. Kaniela Ing, and even Dr. Marion Nestle resorting to the shill accusations, that is all they have left to cover themselves with. Though it’s far from the truth, they want their followers to not think about what’s being said and close minds to thinking. It’s the same reason why the organic activists rely on fear. It’s effective at stopping critical thinking.

Some people shop on impulse and don’t think about it. Others look carefully at the product and compare quality and prices. That requires thinking skills, which one should never turn off when going online.

The Hawaii State Legislature is once again politicizing the GMO issue and conflating it with pesticides. I’d honestly wish they’d get a clue that 5 years of battling and pandering to elites isn’t helping anyone when they don’t operate on facts. If they’d spend more time on growing more farmers and paying attention to those on the land, we might actually get closer to a real goal of achieving self-sufficiency. Isn’t that the common ground needed already?