Letters | 7-12-14

Just say ‘no’ to GMO

Just say ‘no’ to GMO

It is unfortunate that Brian Lievens’ strongly biased, pro-GMO editorial published June 27 omitted the fact that he is on the payroll of Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers and that he has a vested interest in promoting GMO papaya and other genetically mangled quasi-foods.

His other omissions include both environmental and medical ramifications of GMO foods. These include the deaths of butterflies and bees who eat GM pollen, the ongoing production and development of pesticides by consumed GM micro-organisms within human intestines and even more problems, including allergies, asthma, obesity and others too numerous to include herein.

Cotton farmers in India were falsely promised higher yields with lower water and fertilizer input if they bought and planted genetically modified cotton. What they discovered by January 2008 was that 100 percent of the local water buffalo died after grazing on the post-harvest stubble in the cotton fields. This economic devastation has prompted numerous farmers’ suicides.

The American Academy of Environmental Medicine has stated that: “Several animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with GM food,” including infertility, immune problems, accelerated aging, faulty insulin regulation and changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system. The study concluded that, “There is a more-than-casual association between GM foods and adverse health effects. There is causation.”

Here in Hawaii, tens of thousands of acres on Kauai and Maui are currently being exploited by large GM manufacturers — land leased by biotech giants Monsanto and Syngenta in order to grow seed — and people living nearby are unwillingly exposed to deadly pesticides.

Let’s not allow this to happen here on our island. Just say “no” to GMO.

Donna Worden

Waimea