HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0271.366 2012-2014 COUNTY CLERK
COUNTY OF HAWAI'I
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RECEIVED (f.‘14,..A A-
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Alo ha,and thank you for reading these testimonies.
My name is Mila Horak,my husband and I are organic coffee farmers in South Kona,and we both support Bill 79.We are
members of the Kona Coffee Farmers Association,and agree with their reasons for supporting this bill.
We do not believe Bill 79 needs the amendments,and agree that all GMO of any kind should be banned from Hawaii.
We also believe in a right to a high quality of life for ourselves,others,the land,and all this planet holds.We believe that
GMO production threatens that quality of life in many ways:by deteriorating our human bodies,our soils,our beneficial
insects,especially pollinators,our watersheds,our organic and heirloom seed banks,our international relations including
business and export potential,and traditional organic farmers across the globe.
This is a personal issue for me,because a few years back I became very ill with cancer-like symptoms in my digestive
track.After visiting doctors,who were unable to diagnosis me,the symptoms only subsided after eating an all organic
diet.When I eat GMO or foods grown with pesticides,the symptoms return.I am only 31 years old. I did not ask for this
ill-health.I was born in 1982,and grew up in this country as one of the first generations of Americans being feed GMO
food products without the knowledge or choice of what we were eating.There is significant scientific evidence that these
foods and the way they are grown are unhealthy for us,but I don't need someone else to tell me this... I have the
unfortunate experience to know firsthand.
Not a lot is know about our digestive health,and how that connects to our body's immune system.GMOs have not been
tested thoroughly enough to ensure they are safe for our human digestive tracts.
We all have known someone who suffers from colon cancer,or IBS,or IBD. Food allergies are on the rise.Celiacs
decease itself has quadrupled since the 1950's,affecting 1 in 141 Americans now.So I may be a single person speaking
from my own experience,but many people suffer from digestive upset,and have to restrict there diets because of it,often
choosing organic food when doing so.
It is a very helpless feeling to know that"unintentional contamination"of organically grown foods by GMOs occur,yet is
dismissed as being insignificant.It is not so insignificant to the organic farmers who grow the food,or the millions of
people in this country who rely on it for not just good health,but survival.
It is horrifyingly arrogant of us humans to think that we are all-knowing enough to mess around with one piece of a larger
biological puzzle,without suffering profound consequences.Our scientists have only identified approx.20%of the worlds
insects.How do we know what we are affecting with this"bio-technology",when we do not even know what is out there
to affect?
Approving this bill will be a step in the healthy direction for ourselves,who live on the Island of Hawaii,for all those who
visit,seeking a GMO free environment,and many more still,who will be positively impacted by fewer GMOs on this
planet,including the little bugs inside of our bodies and out.
Aloha
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