GMO Is Not As Nice As We Thought
If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll see that it’s taken a sharp turn from just being about Kona Coffee, to talking more and more about GMO foods. In a way I regret that, because my real focus is on trying to help Bill and Mark and Mary and all the other people at Kona Mountain Coffee make the very finest coffee in the world… or at the very least, the finest coffee grown in the United States, since all of that is grown in Hawaii, and most of that is grown on the Big Island on the Kona side, where we are.
But I’m kind of an ‘overview’ guy, and because of that, I’m concerned with the long-term future of coffee, which dovetails with the future of all food crops. Genetically modified organisms, GMO crops, is the gorilla in the room, when it comes to the future of food, and so I must be concerned about it. I think we all must be. Because it’s true… we are what we eat. That is becoming more and more clear.
I give my respect to all the fine people on the Big Island who have put their time and effort into protecting Kona Coffee from turning into a GMO crop. The umbrella organization is The Coalition to Protect Hawaii Coffee. It includes the Kona Farmers Alliance, Hawaii Organic Farmers Association, Kona Coffee Council, Kona Coffee Farmers Association, Hawaii Coffee Association, Kona Young Farmers and Kona Pacific Farmers Coop. Nancy, the manager at Sugai Kona Coffee is one of the many who are particularly concerned with this issue. My hat is off to you all.
I want to be clear that I in no way speak for any of the organizations or people listed above. But I wanted you to get a feeling of how seriously this subject is being taken here in Hawaii.
This is my viewpoint. If you’ve ever done any gardening, you no doubt remember how quickly you found out that there is a lot more to it than meets the eye. A plant can be doing quite well, and then suddenly, for no apparent reason, it isn’t doing well at all. You end up with an empty pot and no idea what went wrong.
You can sympathize with farmers, whose livelihood depends on a successful crop. Whatever it takes to get that crop ripe, and and visually attractive, and marketable… well, I can see the temptation to try just about anything. You can understand them grasping at whatever help is offered, from any source, to make enough money to pay back the bank what they’ve borrowed in order to plant, tend and harvest the crop. And hopefully have enough to live on until the next crop is harvested.
That goes double or triple or a hundred times more for corporate farms. Anything to make that tomato look good enough to eat and last long enough to get to market. Anything for more profits.
But like the plant that suddenly goes wrong for no apparent reason, the food we eat is also more complex than just its appearance. It’s what’s inside that counts. And there is new evidence that what is inside GMO food is inherently, intrinsically and insidiously dangerous. GMO crops may be far less beneficial than even we anti-GMO people have thought. And that’s sort of a scary thought.
Details next time, which I hope will be tomorrow.
