our. absurd to really harsh things that happened in the night. i i. was. one of them are 14th 2006 i was substituting for a 5th grade class all of sudden it's kids come bursting in

a library really agitated one of the boys to the health room and on the way he collapsed the next morning syngenta was denied and i do not we were not spraying anything but the teachers had actually gone out and taken pictures when all this chaos was going on the school and students were being and they were spraying right in the fields right adjacent to the school a follow up study was done on that it's a $32.00 page study the last 4 pages are the chemicals that they have found what i mean i can your middle school we have shown an association between organophosphate exposure as measured by those metabolites in the mother's urine during pregnancy and shortened just station abnormal neonatal reflexes decreased mental development in the children and 2 years of age decreased i.q. at age 7 and 10 years of age pervasive. developmental disorder which is like autism

symptoms attention problems in school age poor executive functioning in pre-adolescent and we have also shown that there are separate people that might be more affected than others i have virtue of their genetics. protecting our kids from chemicals is a common sense thing that everybody can get behind leave points to examples in recent years of students getting sick from pesticides used by farmers in their 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 we've seen example after example where we've 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 there's no question otherwise why would that a chemical company workers themselves be geared up and suited up what happened with why i'm 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 is been the case it doesn't monitor the air it doesn't monitor the water it doesn't 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 didn't know when and i didn't know what.

we require our kids to go to school why don't we require these companies to at least inform the parents or the school administrators what they're spraying when and where. so we started to ask questions like well what chemicals are they spray how do we manage runoff i said 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 what's going on this was a group of young people and they were saying gary can you do something about this issue gary started meeting with representatives of the seed company as they deny the use of that which was a very potent herbicide that's questionable and banned in a lot of places because they've clearly said they're not using the and i was like well can you get records like how do we prove that they're not using those laws for the records that's 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 you're telling me like you can't get the records so he goes well i'm going to i'm submitting freedom of information department of agriculture $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 leave misled me they flat out lied and as we went through the process of these community meetings we slowly put together this bill bill 2491 this is serious serious stuff that deserves our attention turns to be deserves we don't was now. it's a bill from people who really were educated on what was going on and were concerned . it was a good way to make a conscious decision. 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 are 500 feet 100 feet around shorelines for pesticide disclosure including general use pesticides on a daily. bases from these companies as well as health and environmental impact study. to ask for simple protection and this closure is is a human right really i think it's something that we're all entitled to know is. what are we breathing what's in the air what's in our water and how is it affecting us it's 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 that's what it entails. 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 quality veteran center turned out for a packed passionate public hearing about bill 2491 cops were turning around they grabbed their eyeballs of thousands of people it was not what anybody expected orders dressed in red shirts wave signs of said stop poisoning for money they testify that large biotech companies shouldn't be allowed to keep the public in the dark about pesticide g.m.o. usage that they encountered pushback from opponents stressing these blue shirts that said we are ag they are you the proposal the 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 it's 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 that's a big cost the cost on our health of having tons of posts aside sprayed every year on our soils into our water into the air that's a cost they're treating the island of choli as if it were a business in liquidation they're converting its us to cash and they're 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 so new readers are just bills or community over this bill as you know your supporters say bill 2491 would stop poisoning in paradise little lady she would reply to all oprah winfrey with your. beautiful mother they are. the you. know 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 it was joy there was every the can possibly imagine all of us and i get this call after we passed the bill mayor wanted to talk to us and he wanted to tell us before he told the

rest the world that he decided to veto the bill and call while he the mayor has taken a bold stand against new g.m.o. regulations the fallout is intense some critics are calling mayor bernard value a sellout i think. right now we're still having to deal with that that's why. we need the world's help today the county council decided to override the mayor's veto of bill 2491. 5 this comes after an emotional battle on the garden aisle but there could be legal challenges ahead by january 10th 2014 we're being sued by far the largest chemical companies in the world to be honest with you i wasn't surprised just in learning that they his chief of these companies this is what they're 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 he's saying the state's responsible for doing that the state's not doing that so it's my responsibility and he's saying i can't and that made me more committed to find other ways to keep finding this fight my heart hurts knowing that the people that i live among us are being exposed to these pesticides the truth is is that we have changed winds and there really. no amount of buffer zones that are actually going to protect us from pesticides that are airborne. he says her 3 year old son in law a kid and other koichi 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 doctor issues at their home why the chemical companies are some of the strongest lobbyists that we have in congress yes i know there's an undue amount of influence they have but certainly they. spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year in lobbying and in champaign funding to buy their way through congress phed.

oh. even.

manufacture consent instead of public wealth. when the ruling class isn't protect themselves. with the flame and. certainly the woman said. starting really in the 1980s under reagan at that sure and deregulation you had the fed takeover and their sole purpose at that point was to try to squeeze workers completely out of the global economy so wages never went up real terms signs that

but stock markets keep going up and the reason to justify this is that the fed will say we need to try to take care of deflation even know that they are causing to you place in an environment where their money printing is increasing the debt. of the chemical industry is dictating and manipulating the regulatory process at every level and what's happening in quiet is really a template for what they've already done to the rest of the country and what they want to do the whole world the reason we don't have better safety standards is because there's 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

let's consider linda fisher 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 she's 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 busy within the e.p.a. to advise her organization of how to get through safety issues another example is. oddly here's 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 japan corporation's agricultural enterprise you can also look at someone like clinton uter who is also at the u.s.d.a. and was a u.s. trade representative and he's on the board of my kitchen which is a wholly owned subsidiary of dow chemical but perhaps one of 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 it's amazing that the legal infrastructure even allows it. the e.p.a. won't bancorp pyra fots 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 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 they're telling is by corrupting our political process. in addition to the importance of protecting our communities that live in these environments every day it's hypocritical. can't bring apples or any kind of fruit or any food from the mainland because of agriculture restrictions yet chemical corporations can experiment with genetically modified crops with pesticides that are bad throughout europe when you're looking at how we market our environment to millions and millions of people around the world and 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 terrorism industry i would say 40 close to 45 percent of our economic engine is sent to the robot tourism industry. all. the tourists come here. they come here for our environment. our pristine waterfalls our pristine oceans and beaches. but the are coming year not knowing be maybe exposing themselves to the chemical drift to really restricted use pesticides not only in the air but also. 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 are tourist swimming so a lot of the visitors. are also swimming in the cold of chemicals. in november of 2013 when caught. passed bill 249 when it was the shot heard round the world and what you've seen since then in 201-520-1620 extension 17 is the interaction of multiple bills all of which have tried to do 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 there's millions of dollars there but there's 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 i'm 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 it's particularly important in that kind of environment to look at them more closely in the state isn't looking at them at all that 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 we're fighting for isn't just an environment that's safe from chemicals we're 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 too i believe that if every person who's chosen to buy local buy 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 there how our ability to survive not just off of our land on our soil but our quantic resources and our resistance they're 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 can't 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 we've had for hundreds or 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 so what they left behind the degradation of our ecosystems the wiping out of species the complete disregard for human life and environmental health. if this continues there's no future for our kids really tried working with them and evidently they don't really care about us we're just collateral damage. it took me 30 years to before this house. i don't want to leave this home i don't have to give them the satisfaction of beating me.

we are so prone sister. lived here for well over a 1000 years did not just survive. the strife. naturally and organically. it's my quit to protect things that really are manifestations of my abscessed it's about protecting. water. i can't sleep at night and call myself an educator and i'm there and a practitioner if i sit back and allow it to be misused and poison

those things are not acceptable. people my age are really starting to stand up. and they've done their homework. you can never really lose when you're standing with the truth when you look at the arc of human history it has been people's movements that have always change the world that hasn't been the democratic party the republican party of the labor party or wherever it is in power in any one of these countries it's been movements it's 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 that's united so many different groups. you would think from looking at these bottles that this was an isolated local group of activists careening problems but the real truth is this debate about environmental toxins in general and specifically is raging around the world country after country

is becoming concerned about this issue so we're 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.

love. love love. love love. love.

the tramping ministration he is again obsessed with the random without evidence or facts iran is simply to blame for everything under the sun and then there is john bolton for his days at the national security council number. i.

the u.s. central command releases new images that it claims provide further evidence iran was behind last week's attack on the oil tankers in the gulf of oman. and with tensions in the region rising iran declares it will further rollback its compliance with the landmark 2015 nuclear deal if steps are not taken within the next 10 days to shield it from the effects of u.s. sanctions. a report about alleged u.s. cyber attacks on russia's power grid raises questions about whether donald trump is being briefed by his intelligence services on their operation. and in saudi arabia to the international community for asylum after reportedly suffered.