Aloha Maui County Counsel and Citizens of Maui,
My name is Kimberly Usher and I live in Wailuku.
You may have seen my Maui News letters to the editor and a Check-It-Out column back in 2006 where I pointed out that the top of Ho'okipa and Pauwela needed a fence to protect tourists from falling down the cliffs. Still none at Pauwela, and even if it was a short one that didn't go all the way across it would be better then nothing.
I am sending testimony today about Bill for Maui County Pesticides and Genetically Modified Organisms~Introduced by Council Member Elle Cochran
I am in support of...
•Mandatory disclosure of pesticides and genetically modified organisms.
•Pesticide buffer zones.
•Environmental and public health impacts study
•Worker protection standards
•Pesticide pre-application good neighbor courtesy notices
AND.....DEMAND COUNCILMEMBER RIKI HOKAMA SCHEDULE A HEARING FOR COUNCILMEMBER COCHRAN'S AMENDED VERSION.
•Mandatory disclosure of pesticides and genetically modified organisms.
•Pesticide buffer zones.
•Environmental and public health impacts study
•Worker protection standards
•Pesticide pre-application good neighbor courtesy notices
AND.....DEMAND COUNCILMEMBER RIKI HOKAMA SCHEDULE A HEARING FOR COUNCILMEMBER COCHRAN'S AMENDED VERSION.
I myself have had a long personal history of pesticide poisoning...
I should have died the last time but didn't thanks to Mr. Richard Amedeo of Paia, and retired County Parks and Recreation supervisor in the upcountry area. Mr Amedeo was the person who started Maui's soccer program and was the coach and referee for many sports activities. He is Maui's unsung hero and should have a sports facility named after him.
He helped me move to where I live in Wailuku, and in return I invited him over for dinner ever Thursday night...One night when he came I told him I was too sick to cook, and he understood when he saw my condition. It is hard to explain exactly the sickness but I could not walk and was very weak...
He left, and the next morning returned. Richard told me that God had come to him in the night and asked him to come to my house everyday until I got better. He came every day with a cup of carrot juice and a cup of beet juice from Mana Foods in Paia. And when Richard left he took a load of laundry and returned it the next day dry and folded.
Richard lived on a fixed income and had his own responsibilities, besides the almost $5 a gallon gas at the time... He told me he had never in his life seen anybody as sick as me, as he sat in a chair by my bed, where I could barely move. At the beginning it was so strange to see all the different types of horrors my body was going through. All muscles and joints were involved with so much pain and swelling.
For 3 months I could not lean against the back of a chair or lay back in bed. I had to sit up and could not sleep for those 3 months. Every morning I cried when I saw the blue sky come, because it meant another day I survived. I could not lay back because the blood supply would stop circulating to my arms. I lost 10cm of fingers and toes- which was terribly painful.
I could not get wet ...just one drop of water would set my body off into terrible chills. I could not go into air conditioning because it would start a cascade of symptoms. My hands and feet were turning blue, and all the vessels in them collapsed. I could not lift my arms to feed myself. Richard brought food and spoon fed me.
Richard took me to the doctors 3 times a week for 5 months...I went to a lot of different doctors. All claiming my own body was attacking itself. I was diagnosed with frost bite at one time. Rheumatoid arthritis was diagnosed by some doctors, and then by others that it was not that. Finally one doctor recognized that my blood was not clotting right. I was diagnosed with a blood clotting disorder, finally, and given blood thinners in September 2008, after severe suffering since April 2008, but began that January 2008.
NO DOCTOR HAS OR WILL INVESTIGTE PESTICIDE POISON. I begged them to. 30 doctors refuse to step into the danger zone of going against their masters- the pharmaceutical corporations. It would go bad for them. Since every chemical corporation has a pharmaceutical company spin-off. I could not even get a note that was required where I live to stop the poisoning!
HOW HARD IS THAT!
Right now I am pretty close to being better, but who knows when I will wake in the middle of the night and not be able to move again...And that lasting for a year or more. Because this was not the 1st time this illness happened to me...4 times now. Starting in 1995, then 2001, and in 2006. each time a pesticide was put in my home or work environment. It was hidden- beyond my control.
That's why I ask for this bill to be passed, so we can understand and see the health aspects of what is happening around us. To free doctors from the yolk and burden of standing alone with no support from the community to address pesticide poisoning.
As it has turned out- Where I live now... was a pesticide mixing house for the Wailuku sugar mill and the soil here has 2 or more times the safe level of arsenic and dioxin in it. This binds to the soil for 100 years. Add more chemicals to that, like round-up, and it becomes more toxic. We all know very well that Maui has being sprayed on tens of thousands of acres and it is bound to the soil everywhere at this point after 150 years of sugar cane. WE ARE IN A DANGER ZONE ...Adding more danger every time we add to the toxic soup.
Now we have RNAi technology in experimental processes. They want spray us with genetically modified RNA... DO SOME RESEARCH.
Here is just a little something.
Monsanto CEO and officers sales of their stocks 3rd week January 2014.
It was hinged on an agreement with a company that injects bioteched lipids into RNA that happened at the beginning of the 5 day sell-off.
The CEO, VP Human Resources,VP and treasurer, and Chief Technology officer sold off 14,716,480 million dollars ($) in Monsanto stock.
"Monsanto is expending a fair portion of its resources on RNAi applications for the western corn rootworm, which is slowly developing resistance to the B.t. corn trait.
The company is also working on topical sprays to deliver RNAi that impairs the metabolic functions of target insects.
The company hopes to use the technology to protect crops from viruses and disease as well as insects.
Monsanto declined an interview request for this story because a spokesperson said it’s too early to discuss the technology. It is still in the discovery phase, which is the earliest stage of Monsanto’s research and development work.
Commercialization of the technology may be five to 10 years away, but critics are already lining up to condemn RNAi as dangerous.
Greenpeace questions the safety of RNAi, suggesting it could suppress gene expression in other species, including humans."
http://www.producer.com/2013/
It was hinged on an agreement with a company that injects bioteched lipids into RNA that happened at the beginning of the 5 day sell-off.
The CEO, VP Human Resources,VP and treasurer, and Chief Technology officer sold off 14,716,480 million dollars ($) in Monsanto stock.
"Monsanto is expending a fair portion of its resources on RNAi applications for the western corn rootworm, which is slowly developing resistance to the B.t. corn trait.
The company is also working on topical sprays to deliver RNAi that impairs the metabolic functions of target insects.
The company hopes to use the technology to protect crops from viruses and disease as well as insects.
Monsanto declined an interview request for this story because a spokesperson said it’s too early to discuss the technology. It is still in the discovery phase, which is the earliest stage of Monsanto’s research and development work.
Commercialization of the technology may be five to 10 years away, but critics are already lining up to condemn RNAi as dangerous.
Greenpeace questions the safety of RNAi, suggesting it could suppress gene expression in other species, including humans."
http://www.producer.com/2013/
THEY WILL BE SPRAYING THIS EXPERIMENT WITH RNAi ALL OVER OUR ISLANDS... If we let them. Monsanto "HOPES" to use this technology to...? Why not say will? Because the technology is not proven. And where are the field trials they are talking about? On Maui?
WE NEED TO KNOW!!!!
I know that the Hawaii Public Retirement system is running scared, due mostly to fear of the future ..
They no longer report where the investments are in the markets, but looking at past years when they did, there is no doubt their investment is right in march step with biotech. Bank of Hawaii and First Hawaiian are also heavily invested in Monsanto.
"The largest risks for the ERS going forward, Ward and Machida said, are payroll growth, investment performance, actual contributions and mortality."
They no longer report where the investments are in the markets, but looking at past years when they did, there is no doubt their investment is right in march step with biotech. Bank of Hawaii and First Hawaiian are also heavily invested in Monsanto.
"The largest risks for the ERS going forward, Ward and Machida said, are payroll growth, investment performance, actual contributions and mortality."
Take a stand, and commit to the public and our right to know. Your pensions are always in doubt because of the markets volatility. To try and play both sides of the game is not a solution.
You have either stepped into public office to do right by the A'ina and the life here, or you don't.
Choose.
Kimberly Usher
244-0613
2049A-8 Holowa Pl.
Wailuku, Maui, HI
PS... I used to have a job and all the good things that went with it. Now I am disabled and on SSI due to my physical disability.
Stop protecting and supporting pesticide use..
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