Recent years of students getting sick from pesticides used by farmers near schools this is really great and several incidents in 2008 in why man koichi where dozens of students got sick after a pesticide was applied on a nearby seed corn plot weve seen example after example where weve had to rush children from a Public School to an e. R. Like the ones i work in across the state for severe area long problems we know that these chemicals have consequences they are major irritants theres no question otherwise why would that a Chemical Company workers themselves be geared up and suited up what happened with why im a middle school was particularly egregious the state of Hawaii Department of agriculture does not do its job with respect to investigating complaints about pesticide drift and for years this has been the case it doesnt monitor the air it doesnt monitor the water it doesnt monitor the soil to make sure that pesticides are not leaving the fields and going into where people live and play and work. As a mom i think about what would i do. If i had to send my child to School Every Day alongside a field where i knew they were spraying pesticides but i didnt know when and i didnt know what. We require our kids to go to school why dont we require these companies to at least inform the parents or the School Administrators what theyre spraying when and where. So we started to ask questions like well what chemicals are they spray how do we manage runoff i send an email to gary who is or asking him about it what we can do what how we could start a bill to get these Chemical Companies regulated so we can put a stop to it or at least find out whats going on this was a group of people and they were saying gary cant you do something about this issue gary started meeting with representatives of the seed company as they deny the use of that which is a very potent herbicide thats questionable and banned in a lot of places theyve clearly said theyre not using accion and i was like well can you get records like how do we prove that theyre not using those laws for the records thats when everything started to get interesting. At the point that there was something going on the more i dug into it the more troubling it became. So youre telling me like you cant get the records so he goes well im going to im submitting freedom of Information Department of agriculture so 600. 00 in like 3 months but we got a list of 22 different restricted use pesticides many of those are banned in other states and other in other nations and above all there was actually in 3 different forms. These companies have lied to me personally and directly as a Council Member about a number of questions move misled me they flat out lied and as we went through the process of these Community Meetings we slowly put together this bill bill 2 for 9 this is serious serious stuff to deserves our attention to is about deserves we dont was now. From people who really were educated on what was going on and were concerned. It was a good way to make conscious decisions and. How to deal with these companies it asks for buffer zones very minimal buffer zones much smaller than in other states around schools homes hospitals and shorelines and other sensitive areas there 500 feet 100 feet around shorelines for pesticide disclosure including general use pesticides on a date. Basis from these companies as well as health and Environmental Impact study. To ask for simple protection and this closure is is a human right in the i think its something that were all entitled to know is. What are we breathing whats in the air whats in our water and how is it affecting us its a violation of the most fundamental human right that people who are being subject to experiments need to be fully informed of all the risks before they allow themselves to be a part of this experiment and thats what it is. And june 20th actually it became public and then we had the 1st hearings and then the marathon hearings went out. Today an estimated 2000 people inside and outside of the court a veteran center turned out for a pac passionate public hearing about bill 2491. 00 cops were turning around to grab their chairs of thousands of people it was not what anybody expected orders dressed in red shirts wave signs of said stop poisoning for money they testified that large Biotech Companies shouldnt be allowed to keep the public in the dark about pesticide g. M. O. Usage that they encountered pushback from opponents dressed in these blue shirts that said we are ag they are yet the proposal to bad testing of experimental pesticides dmoz infringes on their rights and would hurt the local economy the value of the biotech industry in hawaii has been grossly exaggerated the number of jobs that are involved in this industry is relatively small its in the hundreds and then if you balance it against the impacts taking the best Agricultural Land in the state that could be used to grow food to feed a population well we are importing a large majority. Of our food from somewhere else thats a big cost the cost on our health of having tons of posts this side sprayed every year on our soils into our water into the air thats a cost theyre treating the island of quiet as if it were a business in liquidation there concerning its as us to cash and theyre promising a few years of pollution based prosperity it was looking like they were going to pass the bill but on another large 4 to 6000 people and people surrounded the county Council Building and demanded for the bill to be the message you think might be easier to sell or this bill is not still your readers or do this rules or community go for this bill as you know your supporters say bill 2491 would stop poisoning in paradise little lady should have reported oh it would for sure. Beautiful on the way every. Little. To what you county Council Members voted to approve a controversial g. M. O. 1 just closure bill around 330 this morning when the bill passed it was unbelievable there was just an overwhelming i mean there is tears there was joy there was only the can possibly imagine all of us and i get this call after we passed the bill mayer wanted to talk to us and he wanted to tell us before he told the rest of the world that he decided to veto the bill and call why the mayor has taken a bold stand against new g. M. O. Regulations the fallout is intense some critics are calling mayor bernard volume a sellout i think. Right now were still having to deal with that thats. We need the worlds help today the county council decided to override the mayors veto of bill 2 for 91. This comes after an emotional battle on the garden aisle but there could be legal challenges ahead by january 10th 2014 were being sued by far the largest Chemical Companies in the world to be honest with you i wasnt surprised just in learning the the his she of these companies this is what theyre known for they do this all over the world use their money to bully communities it reveals the true intention of these companies that they obviously do have things too high. When the federal magistrate overturning 2491 it was a blow. This judge is telling me a quite county Council Member that i cannot protect my own community that hes saying the states responsible for doing that the states not doing that so its my responsibility and hes saying i cant and that may be more committed to find other ways to keep fighting this fight my heart hurts knowing that if you put out a live among are being exposed to these pesticides the truth is is that i and what you have changed and there really. No amount of buffer zones that are actually going to protect us from pesticides that are airborne. And he says her 3 year old son in law a kid and other coequal goods are sick from inhaling pesticides sprayed by large Seed Companies lasers are being handed out like candy to children almost all my friends have been nebulizer dr issue at their home why the Chemical Companies are some of the strongest lobbyist that we have in congress yes i know theres an undue amount of influence they have but certainly they. Spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year in lobbying and Campaign Funding to buy their way through congress. First. And. Oh ok. Let me follow. Up. Please. I. Can. Seem wrong oh well we just dont hold. Anything to get to shape out of this thing to come to educate and gain from an equal betrayal. When so many find themselves worlds apart. Just to look for common ground. In this community there are people who believe. Its really hard there are no jobs and you see the kids. And as a parent. I can come up with arguments and theres a lot of conflict within the game and between the teams most of the conflict i would say. Is maybe. Close one on each other and its each other is good because the state of california makes 6000000000. 00 a year of the prison complex. Where. You dont care. Anything. The Chemical Industry is dictating and manipulating the regulatory process at every level and whats happening and quiet is really a template for what theyve already done to the rest of the country and what they want to do to the whole world the reason we dont have Better Safety standards is because theres an absolute collusion and conflict of interests between those who are actually supposed to protect our safety and the fact that they actually have monetary interests with major biotech and pharmaceutical companies so for example lets consider Linda Fischer here was someone who was with the e. P. A. And then she went to join and become the head of Government Affairs at monsanto and now shes the Vice President of Safety Health and environment and chief sustainability officer dupont so her interests are not only to ensure the advancement of dupont but she also used to be at the e. P. A. And she understands all the loopholes within the e. P. A. To advise her organization of how to get through safety issues another example is terri medley heres a person who is a administrator at the u. S. D. A. And at the f. D. A. And now serves of the director of regulatory and external affairs of dupont corporations agricultural enterprise you can also look at someone like clayton uter who is also at the u. S. D. A. And was a u. S. Trade representative and hes on the board of my kitchen which is a wholly owned subsidiary of dow chemical but perhaps for the most egregious ones is Michael Taylor who was appointed by the Obama Administration prior to joining as Deputy Director of foods at the f. D. A. He was actually the head of science policy for months anto and the list goes on you have many of these people who have one foot into the biotech pharma and the other foot in the government regulatory bodies i mean this kind of collusion is reprehensible and its amazing that the legal infrastructure even allows a. The e. P. A. Wont bancorp pyra fonts reversing efforts by the Obama Administration the c. E. O. Of dow chemical the maker of the past aside here with the president applauded the decision the company saying it is confident in the health and safety of its product. These companies are criminal enterprises and the only way they can get away with what theyre doing is by corrupting our political process. In addition to the importance of protecting our communities that live in these environments every day its hypocritical turns can bring apples or any kind of fruit or any food from the mainland because i or culture restrictions yet chemical corporations can experiment with genetically modified crops with pesticides that are bad throughout europe when youre looking at how we market our environment to millions and millions of people around the world they have no idea that when they come here they may actually be being exposed to pesticides that are known to be toxic so why are we protecting a 200000000. 00 a year industry for of experimental agriculture instead of a 15000000000. 00 Tourism Industry i would say 40 close to 45 percent of our economic engine is centered around the Tourism Industry. While the tourists come here. To come here for our barn meant. All were. Pristine waterfalls are pristine oceans and beaches. But the are coming year not knowing be also maybe exposing themselves to the chemical drift. Restricted use pesticides not only in the air but it also has the sides that are on the ground. And when we have big storms and rain storms and we have storm flooding rains all that waste water washes into the ocean and beaches which is the very same beaches that our tourists swim in so a lot of the visitors unknowingly are also swimming in a cove of chemicals. In november of 2013 when koichi passed bill 249 when it was the shot heard round the world and what youve seen since then in 2015201620 extension 17 is the inner duction of multiple bills all of which have tried to do you what bill 2491 fundamentally required the Chemical Companies to do. In 2017 alone we had 25 different bills and none of them passed and the question is why 2 things really that come to mind that have prevented Forward Movement one is you have a tremendous amount of money in the political system you look at super pacs and National Politics and think you know theres millions of dollars there but theres money at the local level too and it does have an impact. The department of agriculture has been front and center in opposing most of the measures that have been introduced of the legislature that seek Better Regulation of pesticides i think our state laws may have been great at one point in regulating traditional plantation agriculture but clearly now where we have experimental combinations of pesticides being used on a widespread basis clearly our regulations are inadequate im not aware of anybody having done an Environmental Impact statement that looks at the impacts of pesticides or genetically engineered crops on any resource on Water Quality on air quality on soil quality in hawaii you have a large number of endangered species and so its particularly important in that kind of environment to look at them more closely in the state isnt looking at them at all the governor has the power to make the statewide Disclosure Program mandatory he has the capacity to staff the Pesticide Branch to ensure that if there are pesticide violations that those are investigated in addressed within a timely manner what were fighting for isnt just an environment thats safe from chemicals were fighting for a political system that represents the interests of people and not profit the story of 2491 is the story of communities rising up against all odds. We have to make our Food Movement a Political Movement to i believe that if every person whos chosen to buy local by. Organic also chose to vote. And vote for candidates who supported their environmental vision that our political system would transform to the future of a is at stake everything is at risk when we put profits over people our environment and our livelihoods our futures our children their hell our ability to survive not just off of our lab and in our soil but our resources and our reach systems are under increasing pressure we have a responsibility to preserve our environment to protect our home and to ensure that we leave it better than we found it we cant keep poisoning our land we have to move forward to a real Sustainable Future for agriculture in hawaii one that creates more jobs more food and gives us more sustainability than weve had for hundreds and so years. We will hold these corporations accountable right now they might be able to buy out our legislature a change is coming and when it does the corporations will be held accountable not just for what they did to our people but to what they left behind the degradation of our ecosystems the wiping out of species the complete disregard for human life and environmental health. Continues theres no future for our kids really tried working with them and evidently they dont really care about us were just Collateral Damage you took me 30 years to before this house. I dont want to leave this home i dont have to give them the satisfaction of feeding me. We are so prone to of our ancestors. Lived here for well over a 1000 years did not just survive. The strife of chemicals be moved naturally and organically. Its my could to protect things that really are manifestations of my abscessed its about protecting life and. The water are all chair i cant sleep at night and call my sofa an educator and im there and a culture practitioner if i sit back and allow our line to be misused and poison those things are not acceptable. People my age are really starting to stand up. And theyve done their homework. You can never really lose when youre standing with the truth when you look at the arc of Human History it has been peoples movements that have always change the world that hasnt been the Democratic Party the Republican Party of the labor party or wherever it is in power in any one of these countries its been movements its been people recognizing that they are the ones who change the world we just had 10 to 12000 people marched through the streets of. A march that has been a Pivotal Point in this movement thats united so many different groups. You would think from looking at these bottles that this was an isolated local group of activists creating problems but the real truth is this debate about environmental toxins in general and pesticides specifically is raging around the world country after country is becoming concerned about this issue so were part of an international debate. Just disease from the sea to the people of these lanes and every day and rising up to restore balance and harmony to our island earth together we are stronger voices louder and the synergy of our actions more powerful. The. I am. The way that nations try to recreate a Gold Standard is by posing tariffs on each other to even things out and they creates an enormous bureaucracy and it creates an enormous need for banks to print. Money and contracts and it creates a need for lawyers and it creates a need for all kinds of administrators which is great for them but its a drain on the economy because i money could go into actually productive parts of the real economy supporting real jobs with real wages and real g. D. P. Growth. The son loves. The. Oh yes. Thats commercial im glad you mentioned ask for the last company and seeing and on the rest today for the match Promotion Commission see you. Richard just shoot on disk in the. Legion. You know your new car so said im not going to much to me mama its just our yeah. I i. I i i i i i. I i. I i i i i. I i i i am here mosco in the headlines this morning as the world anticipates to accuse invasion of syria president promised busy fighting on prisoners my hope over his decision to abounded 6 americas kurdish allies. People seem perfectly. Violent clashes over cuts to fuel subsidies a correspondent called to the middle of the protests. To be seen in u. K. Doctors blood from the us given to british patients in the months in the seventys and eightys could have been infected with