Malu 'Aina

Please pass the word on the GMO bill.  You can testify in Hilo and other satellite county offices.

Council Meetings:

Tuesday             Oct 15 at 8:30 am               Committee Meetings – Kona

Wednesday       Oct 16 at 9:00 am               Council Meetings – Kona

Please pass the word on the GMO bill.  You can testify in Hilo and other satellite county offices.

Upcoming Special Council Meeting– Kona   Public Testimony Welcomed

Tuesday            Oct 15 at 4:00 pm          GMO Bill #113, Draft 2

Re: STATUS of GMO Legislation:

Bill 113, Draft 2 (MW Bill) Prohibits Open Air Genetically Engineered Crops and Plants.

So the question is do you want this island  to become one more GMO dominated island with increasing domination by multinational chemical corporations, or do we take advantage of the opportunity to be a model of non-GMO crops and seed production with an emphasis on eco-friendly ag practices and policies? Let us hear from you.

To follow the Council’s GMO discussion on the Government Access TV – Channel 55: please contact the Office of the County Clerk-Council Services at 961-8255.

Testimony before the Committee on Public Safety & Mass Transit (2 min. time limit)

by Jim Albertini, president of Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education and Action

Kurtistown Hawaii.

33 years farming in Kurtistown growing a wide variety of organic fruits and vegetables

 Testimony in Support of Bill 109 and Bill 113 to Ban GMOs in Hawaii County

I like the direct, comprehensive nature of Bill 109. If I would change anything, it would be to eliminate jail time as a consequence. We don’t need to put more people in Jail. As for Bill 113, I like the simply stated prohibition, but the exemptions seem way too broad with no sunset date.

The basic issue is this: Genetic engineering (GE) and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are not part of the natural process. GMOs are not hybrids. Let’s be clear about that. The unintended consequences of GMOs like the consequences of global warming, may be irreparable. Given such possibilities, it is time to practice the precautionary principle. It is the pono thing to do for people, plants, and animals, for the land, for the water, the air, for the earth itself.

The spirituality of Native people the world over has a reverence for nature and natural processes. There is a genuine organic interconnection of people to nature. People are not separate from nature. It is realized when we destroy nature we destroy ourselves. Arrogance comes in when people separate themselves from nature and from one another and begin to view everything as a commodity to be bought and sold for personal gain. Industrial agribusiness and GMOs are examples of this.

If our world is to survive we need to return to nature and respect for natural processes and the environment and begin to restore what we have lost. We need action from the council and we need it now to stop GMOs in Hawaii County. Mahalo.

Jim Albertini

Sept. 4, 2013

Jim Albertini Malu ‘Aina Center For Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Ola’a (Kurtistown) Hawai’i 96760 Phone 808-966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org www.malu-aina.org

Please pass on the message below from Kerri Marks.  Mahalo.

Jim Albertini

August 2nd 2013 Newsletter from

Margaret Wille

                     Councilmember, District 9

               County Council                                                                          

 Tuesday August 6 at 1:30 pm – Communication 271.703, the current draft of the GMO Bill #79 introduced by Margaret Wille will be deliberated by the Committee on Public Safety and Mass Transit (This Bill would restrict the cultivation of GMO crops.)

Public testimony will not be heard as this is the continuation of the July 2^nd – July 3^rd  and the cancelled July 30^th meetings at which 223 of 276individuals testified in support of the Bill (approximately 500 signed up to testify, but many were not able to wait a day or more to be heard). To date, there have been more than 700written testimonies sent in withthe vast majorityin support of the bill.

  I encourage you to attend the meeting to observe the discussion either in person at the Hilo Council Chambers or via video conference from West Hawai‘i Civic Center, Waimea, Pahoa or Ka’u.

 It is vital that we as an island community make a decision at this time whether to go in the direction of GMO biotech industrial production as the principal agricultural model on this island or pursue more eco-friendly diversified local farming, including organic, conventional or “natural farming”.   The experience both in Europe and in Latin America is that where GMO crop production is permitted, other modes of farming are wiped out.

The related food sustainability/resilience question we are addressing is not how much food we can grow but rather how much nutritious safe food we can grow — for both present and future generations.

 This Bill is also about making decisions that affect our island community here, in other words AG home rule.  If we do not seize this moment to determine our own future, you can be sure that come January when the state legislature convenes, the GMO lobbyists will be crafting state level legislation to usurp our right to county level local decision-making. For this reason any effort to postpone or create an elite stakeholder task force, in place of passage of this legislation, will for practical purposes equate to killing this Bill and foregoing this opportunity to chart our own future.