DEMON SEED

DEMON SEED: Apparently it's the crime that will not speak its name.

When the first word in the headline- "Decapitation"- caught our eye Wednesday we almost kept scanning the Honolulu paper for less bloody fare- until, that is, we read "of papaya trees unnerves Hawaii isle farmers."

According to the article, someone took a machete to 10 acres on the Big Island. The same thing occurred at this time last summer to 17 acres there and another farm three months before that.

But the article ended without any speculation by anyone as to a motive for the "crime," saying

(Police) said while farmers talk and speculate, they have no clues about who is committing the vandalism or why it is happening.

"There's no rhyme or reason for these thoughtless acts."

The TV news stories weren't much help either but the next day the Honolulu newspaper made clear what their theory was in an editorial that squarely pointed a finger, saying:

In all incidents, the papaya trees were genetically modified. William Julian, brother of the Kapoho farmer, speculated that the destruction was the work of people who oppose genetically modified crops or the use of chemicals to control weeds and pests...

Julian's speculation is not far-fetched. His brother, Laureto Julian, who has grown papayas since 1967, said he had harvested his first patch of genetically engineered, or GE, "Rainbow" and "Sun Up" papayas just three days before what he called "a gang of up to five people" whacked away at his trees.

The editorial predictably went on to condemn the "organized vandalism" saying:

Police need to step up their investigation of this criminality and, along with the public, recognize that this goes beyond mere property damage and is becoming a form of agricultural terrorism.

But even though it's hard to root for seeing anyone's rice bowl get broken it's apparent that the paper's editorial board has it's economic blinders pointed in the wrong direction because from our vantage point the "agricultural terrorists" are not the decapitators but the "decapitees".

Though the creators of "genetically modified organisms" (GMO)- or Frankenfoods as many depict them- claim the scientific high ground, real scientists, especially those without any economic interest, recognize the violation of the first rule of science- the precautionary principle. It says that anything being released into the wild- especially for human consumption- should be considered unsafe until proven safe rather than the other way around.

It's certainly the way the Food and Drug Administration treats new drugs. But for some reason- most likely the massive amounts of cash poured into lobbying efforts and politicians' campaign coffers- testing of GMO foods have been done subject to the use of this kind of Carrollian logic.

But safety issues aside- and make no mistake many are emerging such as colony collapse in bees which has increasingly been thought to be associated with the widespread use of GMO cereal seeds- the violation of the right of people to choose what they put in their pieholes has many hopping mad... mad enough to take matters into their own hands.

The not just lack of but actual suppression of information makes any attempt to simply refuse to buy or eat GMO products impossible. Not only are GMO foods not required to have labels informing consumers but it is actually illegal to say a product contains no GMOs. Not only that but federal law actually forbids states and local jurisdictions from enacting such informational legislation on their own.

Those who try to grow organic or even just non-GMO papayas- the latter of which, by the way, are the only ones accepted in the biggest foreign papaya market, Japan- are fed up having their crops infected by the pollen that drifts on the wind from near-by GMO fields making their harvests useless for them and their customers.

In some cases GMO seed distributors on the mainland such as Monsanto have gone so far as to actually sue those whose crops were infected by their seeds. And to add insult to injury they forbid anyone to grow their GMO brands from the seeds of their own harvests, including those whose "legacy crops" have been infected.

So far the courts- in the US at least- have bizarrely upheld Monsanto's and other GMO seed creators' and distributors' own "agricultural terrorism," although some small victories have led to ambiguity as to what will happen next in the appellate courts.

Is it really terrorism to engage in protecting your non-GMO papayas by taking matters into your own hands and physically preventing the flowering and pollen drift of the GMO brands?

Who are the real criminals- the ones who are protecting their own health, safety and livelihood where the courts have failed to protect them or those who could care less about health and safety of others as long as they get paid?

It may be "illegal" to destroy someone else's property but it certainly is at worst a form of civil disobedience, at best self-defense, to eradicate the source of the scourge of GMO crops.

THEY’LL EAT ANYTHING

THEY’LL EAT ANYTHING: The outrage that is genetically modified organism (GMO) foods is surpassed only by added insults to the injuries perpetrated by Monsanto and other GMO purveyors.

And Kaua`i is the center of the “end of food” universe where the dastardly seeds of the bastardly owned and operated Pioneer and Sygenta are grown

The lack of scientifically verified safety by “federal regulators”- a term that’s all but a joke after 8 years of dismantling- is undebatable. There is none.

Rather they ask others to prove GMO’s are harmful- while rejecting the scientific evidence and ecology-based science that shows the harm- in a direct and absurd assault on the scientific precautionary principle that guides real scientists- as opposed to the pseudo-scientist shills hired by the GMO companies before they go one to work for the US Food and Drug Administration and Department of Agriculture

We’re not just fed foods that have not been proven safe but are forbidden as consumers from finding out we’re eating the stuff by alowing GMO labling.

Even the premise of the industry is horrendous- the destruction of genetic diversity within a crop species alone is reason enough to forbid the ubiquitous spread of a single genetic strains.

But perhaps worse than the potential and real scientifically-based horrors of Frankenfood is the way Monsanto has invaded organic and even just non-GMO-crop-growing farms by not just intentionally destroying the genetic sanctity of their crops but then suing the farmers and taking away their farms after they have invaded them by spewing pollen from neighbors growing GMO crops.

Anyone who has read the papers, magazines and seen the TV reports and documentaries has been outraged by Monsanto’s actions in harassing farmers who want to use the traditional method of saving seeds from their harvest for the next year’s planting.

Monsanto’s agents have been shown stealing some of the crop, analyzing its DNA and claiming the farmers are growing Monsanto’s product after Monsanto conspired to spew their poisonous product on the sustainable, traditional-methodology farms.

When combined with the fact that Monsanto will not allow their GMO products to be replanted, causing farmers to have to buy all their seeds every year, this provides not just a recipe for disaster when the introduction of genetic diversity is eliminated, but insures that, if humans are to “feed the world” as GMO industry giants laughably claim is their goal, they will make money off every bite of food eaten by not just people but the domesticated animals we eat too.

Here on Kaua`i it’s almost impossible to grow corn on the Westside. We spoke to some people yesterday at the stop-GMO booth at the Kaua`i Farm Fair and found out for instance that Grove Farm will not lease ag land to anyone growing non-GMO corn, with a specific ban being part of every lease. Same goes for state controlled land and other ag land owners, especially on he Westside where the GMO seed corn is grown.

But a ray of hope is on the horizon.

The California legislature has passed a model bill that, if signed by the governor, will insure that Monsanto’s attempt to control our food future will, if not end, at least be controlled.

Bill number: AB 541, according to its Legislative Counsel's Digest says

Existing law provides that everyone is generally responsible, not only for the result of his or her willful acts, but also for an injury occasioned to another by his or her want of ordinary care or skill in the management of his or her property or person, except so far as the latter has, willfully or by want of ordinary care, brought the injury upon himself or herself.

This bill would provide a protocol for obtaining and testing a crop sample to determine whether a contract has been breached or a patent on a genetically engineered plant has been infringed by a farmer who is planting, managing, or harvesting a crop, as specified. The bill would provide for agreed or court-ordered sampling, with provisions relating to notice to the parties of sampling and results, protective orders against intentional destruction or damage to crops, and fees for sampling by or under agreement with the Secretary of Food and Agriculture. The bill would provide that a farmer is not liable based on the presence or possession of a patented genetically engineered plant when the farmer did not knowingly buy or otherwise knowingly acquire the genetically engineered plant, acted in good faith and without knowledge of the genetically engineered nature of the plant, and when the genetically engineered plant is detected at a de minimis level, as specified. This bill would limit the applicability of its liability provision, as specified.

This bill would state the intent of the Legislature, as specified, in enacting this act.

That the Hawai`i state legislature could legally pass this bill is certain. It also appears that there is no state law forbidding the institution of this on a county level.

But just ask the local candidates what they would think about a ban on all GMO crops on Kaua`i and you’ll have to search long and hard to find anyone willing to even limit them.

The drumbeat of jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs for the Westside has never been a discriminating one.

The Navy’s missile range that makes us a nuclear target is the biggest Westside employer. The GMO corn seed growing operations- done here only because it would, by GMO proponents own claims, be too ecologically dangerous to do it near major population or farming communities on the mainland- makes sustainable agriculture a joke for the island,.especially on the unproductive-ag-land-rich Westside..

Yet those employed there think that because it puts a roof over their families’ heads and food on their families’ tables it doesn’t matter how horrendous their products are

We’ve asked before how bad it has to be for people to wake up. We’ve asked- not as facetiously as some may assume- whether if these people lived in Germany in the 1940’s they would cling to the jobs at the concentration camps because the economic benefit was too great.

But passing this law here on Kaua`i it isn’t going to happen if we keep electing people whose campaigns are funded by the seed companies and their supporters whose voodoo economic models are way too kow-towing to the wider business community.

Ask this year’s candidates about this bill and the Eco-Roundtable’s proposed ban on all growing of GMO products on the island. Their answers will certainly be indicative of whether they put the public interest over the special and private interests.