New Documentary Exposes Devastating Impact of Pesticides on Kauai “Poisoning Paradise” screens at the Maui Film Festival on June 23

Posted by - June 15, 2017

The devastating impact of pesticide poisoning on Kauai by the agro-chemical industry is highlighted in the groundbreaking documentary “Poisoning Paradise,” screening at the Maui Film Festival on June 23, at 10 p.m. at the Celestial Cinema in Wailea. Award-winning investigative journalist Paul Koberstein describes Kauai as, “one of the most toxic agricultural environments in all

Read More

Inspector General of EPA to Investigate Possible Safety Coverup of Monsanto’s Roundup Did EPA Exec Collude with Industry to Kill Cancer Link Evidence and Scientific Review?

Posted by - June 10, 2017

The high probability of collusion between a high-ranking Environmental Protection Agency official and Monsanto managers has prompted the EPA’s Inspector General to mount an investigation. As reported in Huffpost, the investigation was prompted by a request from Rep. Ted Lieu (D-California) to discover if the EPA staffer conspired with the agricultural giant to bias research on

Read More

Maui County Council’s Proposed 2018 Budget Supports Tourism, Stiffs Locals Testify This Week or Call Budget Chair Hokama at 270-7768 to Express Yourself

Posted by - April 26, 2017

There was a character in a William Faulkner novel who learned early in life “that words go up in the air in a column of thin smoke, but doing goes along the ground.” The Maui County Council’s old guard talks about issues affecting residents: affordable housing and “solving the workforce housing crisis”, homelessness, water quality

Read More

Monsanto Violates Maui County Agreement by Failing to Disclose Local Usage of Restricted Pesticides New April 18 Finding by International Tribunal in Hague Finds Evidence of Corporate “Ecocide” by World’s Most Nefarious Agrochemical Giant

Posted by - April 20, 2017

The agro-chemical giant Monsanto has painted itself as a kindly company bringing needed jobs to Maui and Molokai. They neglect to mention in their PR that they are drenching Maui’s farm land with dangerous cocktails of toxic pesticides. In their official 2015 report prepared for the County of Maui, under the heading Restricted Use Pesticides

Read More

The Poisoning of Democracy: Backroom Torpedoes Sink State Pesticide Law Pesticide Industry Asserts Backroom Power to Stop Common Sense Public Health Disclosure Law by State Legislature

Posted by - April 18, 2017

The 2017 Hawaii State Legislature deserves an “F” for failing to regulate in any way whatsoever Hawaii’s largest users of Restricted Use Pesticides (RUP). Most egregiously they failed to step up and ban chlorpyrifos, a known neurotoxin used widely to kill insects on the genetically engineered cornfields located on Molokai, Kauai, Maui, and  the north

Read More

Native Wisdom: Water Protector Alika Atay on the Power of We the People From Standing Rock to Maui: "Protect Our Water"

Posted by - March 25, 2017

In November, organic farmer Alika Atay, the grassroots leader of Hawaii’s ʻĀina Protector’s United effort was elected to the Maui County Council in a stunning upset (described in detail here). Atay was the lead plaintiff in the SHAKA Movement’s federal lawsuit over the invalidation of Maui’s successful GMO Moratorium initiative in 2014. This Maui Independent

Read More

State Legislature Kills Vital Pesticide Transparency Bill Secret Backroom Deal Leaves No Fingerprints or Public Record of Vote

Posted by - March 24, 2017

Hopes ran high for a proposed bill that would have helped inform and empower Hawaii’s residents about the impact of toxic restricted-use pesticides. But House Bill 790 sank after pushback from the powerful biotech industry and resistance from the old guard. “The lawmakers who opposed this measure should be ashamed,” says Ashley Lukens, director of the Hawaii Center for

Read More

Hawaii State Government Wakes Up To It’s Pesticide Problem

Posted by - December 17, 2016

The state is finally taking some first steps to address  concerns about pesticide drift from large agri-chemical company operations in Hawaii. In a joint press statement, the Hawaii Departments of Health and Agriculture described several initiatives recommended by the state/county sponsored Joint Fact Finding Group Report. Plans include a $500,000 surface water quality study (by

Read More