BREAKING: Faking News

KauaiEclectic: ...And there was also some WTF? news: The Environmental Protection Agency is actually going to investigate Earthjustice's totally bogus claim that the state Department of Agriculture and Agribusiness Development Corp. are discriminating against Native Hawaiians on Kauai and Molokai by leasing land to the seed companies, which are then supposedly poisoning them with pesticides.

Its decision has nothing to do with whether the claim has any merit, and was based solely on the fact that a written complaint was filed within 180 days of an alleged violation. But Earthjustice gets to use it to make big hay and headlines: EPA OPENS CIVIL RIGHTS INVESTIGATION OVER PESTICIDE USE IN HAWAI`I.

Though The Garden Island billed it as “breaking news,” it was actually just a regurgitation of the Earthjustice press release, replete with its poster child, Malia Chun, again using her poor kids to advance her deceptive agenda. Malia is still clinging to the claim that hair samples showed her kids had 32 pesticides. Except the pesticides found in the highest concentrations come from home use consumer products, not agriculture. And hair tests are dubious, anyway.

It's actually kind of amusing to see EJ claiming the seed industry's agricultural practices are discriminating against Hawaiians and violate their civil rights, considering how many kanaka gladly work for those companies

And I giggled a bit when I read Earthjustice actor attorney Paul Achitoff self-righteously sputter: “The spraying of toxic chemicals on and near Hawaii’s affluent neighborhoods would not be tolerated.”

Who the hell does he think is engaging the services of the pest control companies, and buying expensive homes near golf courses? And let's not forget that streams in the toney Honolulu neighborhood of Manoa had the highest pesticide levels in the state. Heck, the affluent neighborhoods are spraying toxic chemicals on themselves.

read … Musings: Breaking, Faking News

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EPA Opens Civil Rights Investigation Over Pesticide Use In Hawai`i

Community groups had asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to investigate whether Hawai`i agencies are violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

News Release from EarthJustice, March 9, 2017

HONOLULU — Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it is launching an investigation into whether the Hawai`i Department of Agriculture (HDOA) and Agribusiness Development Corporation (ADC) have been violating Title VI of the U.S. Civil Rights Act by engaging in practices that have the effect of discriminating against Native Hawaiians. Title VI prohibits a recipient of federal funds from acting in a manner that has a disparate impact on the basis of race, color, or national origin, regardless of whether the impact is intentional.

ADC facilitates the constant drift of pesticides and pesticide-laden dust into Native Hawaiian communities by leasing thousands of acres near them to heavy pesticide users, primarily genetically engineered seed companies, that spray tens of thousands of pounds of toxic pesticides each year. ADC makes no apparent effort to avoid these impacts, to protect these communities or even to consider the effects of its actions on them.

Although HDOA has broad powers to limit communities’ pesticide exposure — through enacting regulations, restricting pesticide registration, and enforcing pesticide use laws — it has made remarkably little effort to do so. Instead, it routinely registers pesticides for local use without considering their impacts on Native Hawaiians, has lax enforcement, and fails to enact or support protections such as buffer zones and pesticide disclosure. These failures disproportionately harm Native Hawaiians in West Kauaʻi and on Molokaʻi, where large populations of Native Hawaiians live very close to large-scale spraying operations.

Community groups The Moms On a Mission (MOM) Hui and Pōʻai Wai Ola/West Kauaʻi Watershed Alliance, represented by Earthjustice, filed a complaint in September 2016 calling on EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to launch an investigation into whether the state agencies are violating the civil rights of Native Hawaiians by allowing and encouraging heavy pesticide use near their communities.

“I am a Native Hawaiian mother of two children who have had to be tested for pesticide exposure,” said Malia Chun, member of The MOM Hui. “Both my children tested positive for 32 different pesticides. I come from a community with one of the highest populations of Native Hawaiian and native speakers in the state of Hawai`i. We are surrounded by test fields for genetically modified crops that have restricted-use pesticides sprayed on them daily. We need action to protect my community’s health and wellbeing.”

“We are pleased the EPA has agreed to investigate these practices,” said Earthjustice attorney Paul Achitoff who helped draft the complaint. “The spraying of toxic chemicals on and near Hawai`i’s affluent neighborhoods would not be tolerated. It’s not acceptable in these neighborhoods, either. Native Hawaiians deserve much more than the State’s vague assurances and voluntary gestures from pesticide users.”

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Read the complaint:  LINK 

CB: EPA To Probe Whether Pesticide Use Harms Native Hawaiians