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Mahalo to Anna Lappe, the author of "Diet for a Hot Planet," for speaking to Hawai'i Public Radio in support of buffer zones, pesticide disclosure and better local food systems.
Chemical companies like Monsanto and Syngenta pose as "farmers" and try to make us believe that we need their "technology" and pesticides in order to feed the world. Let's call them what they are: Chemical companies peddling products that will help them sell more pesticides. They are making our food system and Hawaii's agricultural economy dependent on chemicals, petroleum-based fertilizers and commodity crops like corn.
Lappe is right when she says, "The kind of cutting-edge technology we need is the kind of technology that will free us from toxic pesticides and will create the abundant food that we need."
Her comments are supported by the United Nations, who says that right now 70 percent of the world's food comes from small-scale farmers producing real food. The U.N. also confirms that the surest way to support the growth of more food is through soil-building practices and regenerative farming. Period.
The chemical companies don't want you to know that. How much will Monsanto, Dow/DuPont, Syngenta, BASF spend at the state Legislature this session lobbying against common-sense regulations like buffer zones between schools and fields where toxic pesticides are sprayed?
Hopefully, our legislators can see through their lies too, and finally pass these regulations that we have been fighting so hard for.
Terez Amato
Kihei