Aloha peace ohana,

This is an historic day.  I just sent Mayor Billy Kenoi the following email.  I urge your to send your own mahalo message. Below is the Mayor’s statement on signing the bill.

Solidarity,

Jim

Aloha Billy,
You have taken a courageous pono step for the future of this island in signing Bill 113 to ban future GMOs on Hawaii Island.  This is a defining moment for both the people and the aina.
Mahalo nui loa and Christmas blessings to you and your family.  We are all very proud of you and you have honored all who have gone before us.
Jim
—
Jim Albertini Malu ‘Aina Center For Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box 489 Ola’a (Kurtistown) Hawai’i 96760 Phone 808-966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org www.malu-aina.org

Mayor Billy Kenoi signed Bill 113 on December 5, 2013. Below is the message he sent to the Hawai’i County Council:

Aloha, Chair Yoshimoto and Members:

On Nov. 19, 2013 the Hawai‘i County Council adopted Bill 113 Draft 3 adding a new article relating to Genetically Engineered Crops and Plants, and on Nov. 21, 2013 delivered the bill to me for my consideration. After careful deliberation and discussions with members of my administration and the public, I am signing Bill 113.

Our community has a deep connection and respect for our land, and we all understand we must protect our island and preserve our precious natural resources. We are determined to do what is right for the land because this place is unlike any other in the world. With this new ordinance we are conveying that instead of global agribusiness corporations, we want to encourage and support community-based farming and ranching.

The debate over this bill has at times been divisive and hurtful, and some of our hard-working farmers who produce food for our community have been treated disrespectfully. We are determined to protect every farmer and rancher. Agriculture on Hawai‘i Island will continue to grow with county assistance, investment and support. That commitment includes initiatives such as the public-private partnership to improve and expand the Pa‘auilo Slaughterhouse to support our grass-fed beef industry, and the launch of the Kapulena Agricultural Park, the largest agricultural park in the state on 1,739 acres of county-owned land. It also includes support for innovative training programs to grow the farmers of the future, and to train veterans to engage in agriculture on Hawaiian Home Lands, and the introduction and advancement of Korean Natural Farming as a sustainable method of producing healthier crops and livestock. It includes completion of the first-in-the-state Food Self-Sufficiency Baseline Study of Hawai‘i Island to measure the island’s progress toward food self-sufficiency.

We are determined to reunite our farming community to create a stronger and more vibrant agricultural sector. It is time to end the angry rhetoric and reach out to our neighbors. Our farmers are essential to creating a wholesome and sustainable food supply on this island, and they deserve to be treated with respect and aloha. We must turn now to a meaningful, factual dialogue with one another.

With my approval of this bill, our administration will launch a year of research and data collection to investigate factual claims and to seek out new directions that farming in our community should take. This work will include an expanded database detailing the locations of both organic and conventional farms, the crops that are grown, more accurate estimates of the revenue earned from these enterprises, and the challenges our farmers face in meeting food safety and organic certification requirements. We will work with our farmers and our ranchers to carefully monitor the impacts of this bill over the next year to separate speculation and guesswork from the facts.

Today our communities expect that government will be as cautious as possible in protecting our food and water supplies. We all want to minimize impacts to the environment while also producing abundant, affordable food for local consumption. This ordinance expresses the desires and demands of our community for a safe, sustainable agricultural sector that can help feed our people while keeping our precious island productive and healthy.

Aloha,

William P. Kenoi
MAYOR

Press Release http://hawaiicountymayor.com/2013/12/05/mayor-kenoi-signs-bill-113/

MAHALO THE MAYOR! cohmayor@co.hawaii.hi.us
Facebook: MayorKenoi
Twitter: @Mayorkenoi Mayor Billy Kenoi mahalo!

Mahalo for your commitment and perseverance!

GMO-Free Hawaii Island    gmofreehawaiiisland.org

Visit our Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/GMOFreeHawaiiIsland

Email:  gmofreehawaiiisland@gmail.com

2013 Christmas Appeal

Dear Friends,                                                                                            December 2013

Christmas, with its message of “Peace on Earth, Good Will to all,” is a special time of year to pause and reflect. It’s a time to take stock of what is really important in life, the values we hold dear, including our family and friends. It is during this season that I send out an “Annual Appeal” to help sustain Malu ‘Aina’s work for justice, peace, and aloha ‘aina (love for the land). It’s also a time to say thank you for the solidarity over the long haul.

      Malu ‘Aina has been planting seeds and sharing food with people in need, the least among us, for 33 years, and all of you have been part of that effort in one way or another. This sense of caring for one another, providing mutual aid, is one of our core values. Oh how I wish we were seeing less need and more justice and joy, but that is not the case. The gap between rich and poor is widening. It appears that personal gain for the .1% has displaced concern for the common good. For many, hope of a better life, is in short supply.

     Malu ‘Aina is now in its 637^thconsecutive week of sponsoring a Friday Peace Vigil at the downtown Hilo Post Office/Federal Building. Each week a new peace leaflet is prepared for worldwide distribution on the internet and on the downtown street corner. 637 weeks is more than 12 years of ongoing wars and trillions of dollars spent for death and destruction. There seems to always be enough money for new weapon systems and wars, but never enough money for building a more just world, meeting basic human needs and caring for the earth.

      Together, we want to see a change in priorities, a world where we fight less and talk more; where love and kindness, not violence, is affirmed as the law of our being; where everyone has the basic necessities of life; where “justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream;” and where we treat the earth, our mother, with the respect she deserves.

      In this Holy season, and the year around, we are truly blessed by the gifts of your solidarity – your peace, good will, aloha, and financial help.  Thank you for the sharing of your lives. Together, we help each other keep the faith and never give up the promise of peace and hope for future generations, The English philosopher, Sir Francis Bacon, advised centuries ago that “wealth, like manure, only does good when we spread it around.” Today, even Pope Francis agrees. Amen!

With gratitude and aloha,

Jim Albertini for Malu ‘Aina

Donations are tax deductible if checks are made to: Center for Non-violent Education & Action

P.O. Box 489 ‘Ola’a (Kurtistown), Hawai’i 96760. Phone (808) 966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org

1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, anti-Hawaiian, etc.
5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.

Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (December 6, 2013– 637th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office

Please pass the word to others on this.  Mahalo.
Jim Albertini

Important decisions affecting Mauna Kea’s Future will be made in Hilo
and Honolulu on Friday the 13th, 2013. Spooky. Mark this date in your
calendars.

In Hilo, State Judge Nakamura’s Courtroom at 9 a.m. arguments will
be heard to overturn the BLNR permit allowing the180 feet tall 30
Meter Telescope, proposed to be built facing Waimea Town.

Will Mauna Kea be handed over to the University “gratis” for another
65 years of despoliation and industrialization, with little DLNR
oversight? If you are there, Attend the Honolulu BLNR hearing, 9 a.m.
at their office building (despite having to make that decision on the
island where the land is being leased.)

Please pass this message on to people who care about Mauna Kea and
land use on our aina.

Nelson
—
Nelson Ho
198 Hoku St.
Ph. 933-2650 c: 315-4850
Hilo, HI 96720