The Biggest Threat to Hawaii Agriculture: Silencing their Voices

by Joni Kamiya, Hawaii Farmers Daughter, January 1, 2016 (excerpts)

So this happened the day before New Year to a local farmer on the North Shore.

Yes, someone decided to set fire to this farmer’s equipment.  What’s even worse is some of the comments that got posted.

This is extremely disturbing to see small farmers being subject to accusations like this.  It’s even more questionable when this farmer is new to speaking up for agriculture on the social media in this group.  The timing of this fire and him speaking up is a little too coincidental.  The fact that these commenters can’t recognize what’s clearly wrong from right is downright scary.

You won’t see the sources of misinformation condemning this action either.  They simply act as if nothing is happening.  This was evident with the unfolding of Bill 2491 saga when vandalism against the farms were being fueled by activists.

Even Roseanne Barr wanted in on the action thanks to Babes Against Biotech’s Nomi Carmona touting crop destruction.

So should we be surprised that their followers are so angry and fearful to even learn?  They can’t even take the time to learn from their local farmers and continue to harm their reputations online if one should try to speak publicly.  Then they point fingers at those who disagrees with them as bullies.

The likes of Ashley Lukens of the Center for Food Safety and Kauai County Council member, Gary Hooser, will never come out and condemn any of this kind of behaviors either.  It’s simply ignored.  It can’t be ignored anymore if it threatens that 1.8% of folks who grow Hawaii.  Anyone who supports people like this clearly have no aloha and is the biggest threat to Hawaii’s farmers and worse than any nanograms of detected pesticides they complain about….

The real danger isn’t biotech or crop protection products.  It’s the leaders and their followers who steal the aloha spirit from our islands.

Testimony from the pesticide buffer zone bill proposed by Ashley Luken’s group, the Center for Food Safety.

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