COM 0212.037 1996-1998 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Testimony to the Hawaii County Council April 24, 1997 in opposition to Food Irradiation, Bill No. 62 A Question of Vision hlalu `Aina Center For Non-violent Education & Action has written a position statement entitled "10 Reasons why we should Stop" food irradiation. A copy is attached to this testimony. Instead of going into detail on any particular points in t}xis three minutes available for public testimony, I would like to speak to a question of vision and direction fox• Hawaii as we approach the 21st century, and whether or not a food irradiation plant is a step toward a sustainable future. Two hundred ,years ago, before the arrival of Captain Cook, Hawaii was 100% self-sufficient in food, clothing, shelter, etc. Hawaii was a self-sustaining society with a population of several hundred thousand people. Some estimates put the population at 1 million people. The center of the society, and the basic economic unit, was the village and the ahupua`a pie wedge land division exi,ending from the mountain to the sea in which people shared and cared for one another. Two hundred years later in the name of progress, Hawaii is at the dead end of the colonial sugar plantation era, where the best agricultural lands were taken for the growing and export of sugar in exchange for cash. Today, there are many dislocated sugar workers, valuable top soil has been washed into the sea, poisons now conY,aminate the land and our drinking water. And it's an understatement to say that the plantation system did not benefit the indigenous people of this land. Instead of a self- sustaining and self-sufficient society, Hawaii has become a colonial model of dependency, grasping for new cash crop exports to replace the cash crop export of sugar while we continue to import the basic necessities of life. Today, in a single year we even import 700,000 pounds of kalo, once considered the sacred staff of life in Hawaii. Just how dependent have we become? Walk through any supermarket, do your own informal surve,v. I suspect it is more than 95% of everything we put in our mouths comes, not just from the next ahupua`a but, from OUTSIDE of Hawaii, places thousands of miles away. This fact is a statement of a society out of balance. Someone once said that the most sound economy is rahen you market everything in e,ye sight of the heiau, church steeple, or temple, in your village. No need for extra oil tankers, cargo ,jet fuel, or food irradiation plants in that economy. I want to make a modest proposal for restoring a vision and direction for Hawaii? By the year 2020, we make Hawaii at least 50% self-sufficient in what we consume in food, if not building materials, etc. If we can agree on such a modest goal, then we need to address fresh policies to move toward that goal. Comm. No:2