How To Take Down A Giant Part 6 (Opinion)

Tuesday, November 29, 2011 by: Hesh Goldstein
Tags: GMOs, Hawaii, Monsanto

(NaturalNews) As this movie's plot begins to unfold more and more, Hawaii's Attorney General appears to be pushing back into a corner more and more. I am confident that before long that corner will be so tight that they will have no where to go.

So, I received a reply to my last letter. It was dated November 15th. The relevance of that is that their replies are taking longer and longer. This is what I mean by them getting backed into the proverbial corner. Anyway, the letter goes like this:

Dear Mr. Goldstein:

Our office's October 17, 2011 response to your earlier correspondence stated that "my client, the Hawaii Department of Agriculture, disagrees with your interpretation that the use of Roundup, per se, is a violation of the Hawaii Pesticide Law . . ." Your letter to me dated November 2, 2011 indicates that you presumed that this interpretation was made by the Board of Agriculture Chairperson, Russell Kokubun. Your assumption is incorrect and in fact, I was conveying the interpretation provided by the Department's Pesticides Branch Chief, Tom Matsuda, whom you have apparently spoken with by telephone. Your November 17 letter questions the basis for the Department's interpretation that Roundup use is not, per se, a violation of the Hawaii Pesticide Law. Your disagreement with the Department's position should be discussed with the Department's Pesticide's Branch, and with Tom Matsuda, Branch Chief, in particular. The Department of the Attorney General is the attorney for and provides legal services to our client agencies, including the Department of Agriculture, and provided the information in the original letter merely as a courtesy to you. As noted, the information came from the Department of Agriculture and therefore should be discussed with them directly.

Very truly yours,
Haunani Burns
Deputy Attorney General

It's taken me a few days to stop laughing but my response was as follows:

November 25, 2011

Haunani Burns
Deputy Attorney General
425 Queen Street
Honolulu, Hi 96813

Dear Ms. Burns:
Thank you for your last response dated November 15, 2011.

As I understand it, it is your position to refuse, under my request and after citing specific Pesticide State Law, to enforce the State of Hawaii Pesticide statutes with respect to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup Ready weed killer.

You have made it very clear that you have shifted the burden of a decision back to the very agency that is refusing to take action - the Hawaii State department of Agriculture - where an investigation should be initiated in the first place.

The State Head of the Agriculture Department, Russell Kokubun, and his Pesticides Branch Chief, Tom Matsuda, who having received ample scientific data to substantiate the calling of a moratorium on the glyphosate containing Roundup, has no interest in doing so.

Complicating this is the fact that these two individuals have been made aware that Monsanto has known, since the 1980s, and through Monsanto's own research that glyohosate causes cancer, endocrine damage and other debilitating health ramifications.

I find this to be an extreme contradiction to the positions that Mr. Kokubon and Mr. Matsuda hold in light of the fact that when speaking with Mr. Matsuda about Monsanto's Roundup being in direct violation of the state Pesticide Law his comment was, "I will look into the scientific evidence but will take no action as I do what Mr. Kokubun says to do". When I asked Mr. Matsuda if Mr. Kokubun told him to jump off the Aloha Tower would he do it?, the silence was deafening.

This reeks of anti-consumerism and pro-business as Mr. Kokubun has accepted large sums of money from Monsanto and is in a position to stonewall any investigation as his actions clearly indicate.

So, let me make this question to you, our Attorney General, perfectly clear and for the record: are you saying that if Mr. Kokubun tells you and Mr. Matsuda to ignore the current pesticide statutes that would normally require immediate action, specifically section 149A-32.5 of the Hawaii Pesticide Law which states, "Notwithstanding any law, rule or executive order to the contrary, the Chairperson of the Board of Agriculture, in consultation with the advisory committee on pesticides and also with the approval of the Director of Health, shall suspend, cancel or restrict the use of certain pesticides when the usage is determined to have unreasonable adverse effects on the environment", that you will stand down and refuse to enforce the statutes?

If this is the case please explain this unusual circumstance where a government agency, specifically yours, which is tasked with Consumer Protection, decides to overlook the public good in the face of two decades of comprehensive research denouncing the herbicide ingredient glyphosate in favor of the company (Monsanto) that produces it.

I also ask why you felt the need to go to Mr. Kokubun and ask him if Roundup's glyphosate needed to be investigated when he has already stated that although there is considerable evidence that clearly shows damage to humans and all living things, he is unwilling to even look into that evidence?
Please understand that not being a career politician nor an individual that has financial indebtedness to a corporation, like Mr. Kokubun does, I am just trying to gain some direction here and ascertain how far the corruption goes.

The law is clear and right there on the books but it takes someone like the Attorney General, the Health Department, and the Department of Agriculture to enforce it, yet none of these agencies acts or thinks for themselves. They do what Mr. Kokubun tells them to do.

So, what we have is a Governor appointee, Russell Kokubun, making up his own rules to support a corporation that benefits him and his cronies financially!

Unfortunately, after several decades of massive use and continuing this in the future, the birth defects, cancers, and other adverse health atrocities will be rampant world wide, with no one understanding why it is happening to them.

I am wondering if you have small children or perhaps even close friends that do or have children and pets that are loved? Now imagine that every time you and those children or pets go to the city or state parks in bare feet after they have sprayed the grounds with Roundup and it is absorbed directly into their blood stream, that it will manifest years later as a major disease with those affected wondering what they did to inherit this.

If there is no proof here, why did the City Parks Director, after a grass roots movement that caused hundreds of calls from mothers that use Kapiolani Park with their small children, ban the use of Roundup in Kapiolani Park?

In a past letter to me you said that you have a direct responsibility to support a state agency, your client, but the goal of the Attorney General's office states that its function is to "safeguard the rights and interests of the people of Hawaii by being the defender of and the advocate for the people and undertaking appropriate legal and other actions on their behalf". Where is the safeguarding of our rights in your response and who has the priority, the People, being the citizens of Hawaii that pay you
your livelihood, or the Department of Agriculture and Monsanto?

In as much as you are in possession of the reports that I sent you, namely:

*The Huffington Post article, "Roundup: Birth Defects Caused By World's Top-Selling Weed Killer, Scientists Say".
*UH professor Hector Valenzuela's report of the suppressed scientific report available at
http://www.scribd.com/doc/57277946/Roundupan... BirthDefectsv5
*Professor Valenzuels"s report on "Alternatives to the use of Roundup Herbicide".
*The article, "Monsanto's Roundup May End Bananas - And they're merely the Canary in the Mine".
*The article, "EU Regulators and Monsanto Exposed for Hiding Glyphosate Toxicity",

maybe you could explain to me how, when a product (Roundup) puts the people at serious health risk, which is confirmed by all of the above, most notably the 52 page report with 359 references compiled by noted and peer-respected research scientists, you, rather than taking the position of protecting the people and rather than adhering to your goal of safeguarding the rights and interests of the people of Hawaii by being the defender and advocate for the people and undertaking appropriate legal and other actions on their behalf, instead defend a corrupt Department of Agriculture and employee whose sole mission is to protect a corporation to which he is financially indebted?

From the failure to allow labeling of GMOs, the spread of GMO seed crops in Hawaii, and the unsafe use of pesticide, Mr. Kokubun can always be depended upon by the GMO, genetically engineered Monsanto group and our other genetically modified Hawaii politicians that have accepted campaign contributions from Monsanto, to protect their interests over those of the people, which Mr. Kokubun allegedly was commissioned to do when he was appointed to his position by Governor Neil Abercrombie.

How foolish of me. Governor Abercrombie is one of our genetically modified politicians as well.

Hawaii's Pesticide Law is quite clear when it states that a moratorium on a pesticide's use can be implemented until a thorough, independent (not from Monsanto's scientists) test can be done to determine that assertion. Yet, despite this and despite the fact that Monsanto has covered up since the 1980s and the government regulators since the 1990s, that these severe health ramifications from exposure to the glyphosate in Roundup exists and is very real.

In a study released by the International Journal of Biological Sciences, analyzing the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, the researchers found that Monsanto's corn is linked to organ damage in rats.

According to the study, which was summarized by Rady Ananda at Food Freedom, "Three varieties of Monsanto's GM corn - Mon 863, insecticide-producing Mon 810, and Roundup herbicide-absorbing NK 603 - were approved for consumption by U.S., European, and several other national food safety authorities".

Monsanto gathered its own crude statistical data after conducting a 90-day study, even though chronic problems can rarely be found after 90 days, and concluded that the corn was safe for consumption. The stamp of approval may have been premature, however.
In the conclusion of the aforementioned IJBS study, researchers wrote:

"Effects were mostly concentrated in kidney and liver function, the two major diet detoxification organs, but in detail differed with each GM type. In addition, some effects on heart, adrenal, spleen and blood cells were also frequently noted. As there normally exists sex differences in liver and kidney metabolism, the highly statistically significant disturbances in the function of these organs, seen between male and female rats, cannot be dismissed as biologically insignificant as has been proposed by others. We therefore conclude that our data strongly suggests that these GM maize varieties induce a state of hepatorenal toxicity.... These substances have never before been an integral part of the human or animal diet and therefore their health consequences, for those who consume them, especially over long time periods are currently unknown".
Monsanto has immediately responded to the study, stating that the research is "based on faulty analytical methods and reasoning and do not call into question the safety findings of these products".

The IJBS study's author, Gilles-Eric Seralini responded to the Monsanto statement on the blog, Food Freedom,

"Our study contradicts Monsanto's conclusions because Monsanto systematically neglects significant health effects in mammals that are different in males and females eating GMOs, or not proportional to the dose. This is a very serious mistake, dramatic for public health. This is the major conclusion revealed by our work, the only reanalysis of Monsanto's crude statistical data".

Once again Ms. Burns, I implore you to go deeper and instigate independent testing on Monsanto's Roundup and institute a statewide moratorium on its usage until it is determined that the alleged health ramifications due to exposure, of cancer, birth defects, embryonic deaths, organ failure, skeletal malformations, craniofacial. mouth and eye deformities, endocrine disruptions, irreversible damage to liver cells, human cell death, DNA damage, and neurotoxic effects, at any level is valid.

I would also suggest that you contact UH Professor Hector Valenzuela, Greenpeace, Earth Justice and any of the other authors of the reports sent to you for confirmation or denial of the truths presented in this letter.

I am attaching the following for you:

*The Scientific American article: "Weed-Whacking Herbicide Proves Deadly to Human Cells". (6 pages)
*The Hawaii Health Guide.com article: "Court of Appeals Dismisses Monsanto's Appeal of Biotech Beets Case, Preserves Victory for Farmers, Environment". (2 pages)
*The Wild Ones article: "The Roundup Myth". (4 pages)
* The Roundup Specimen Label indicating that contact may result in "Severe Injury or Destruction". 1 page.
* The www.holisticmed.com article: "Monsanto's Toxic Roundup". (5 pages)
*The Natural News.com article: "Monsanto: The world's poster child for corporate manipulation and deceit". (14 pages)

Again, your pledge states: "to safeguard the rights and interests of the people of Hawaii by being the defender of and advocate for the people and undertaking legal and other actions on their behalf". It does not say you are there to support the corrupt policies or politics of a Department of Agriculture employee or employees.

Have a nice day.

Aloha,

Hesh Goldstein

Cc:
Governor Abercrombie
Senator Daniel Akaka
Senator Dan Inouye
Representative Mazie Hirono
Federal Attorney General Florence T. Nakakuni
Richard Borreca - Star Advertiser
David Shapiro - Star Advertiser
Frank Bridgewater - Star Advertiser
Alan McNarie - Big Island News
Maui News

The situation is so very corrupt that it needs to be exposed. The more people that make contact with them the more they will take it seriously. If everyone that reads this would contact these corrupt politicians maybe it would finally get their attention.

So:
Governor Neil Abercrombie: T (808) 586-0034
F (808) 586-0006

Attorney General: T (808) 586-1500
F (808) 586-1259

To email the Attorney General you must first Google or Yahoo:
Email Hawaii Attorney General.

After doing this a screen will open up allowing you to complete an email.

These people need to know that this issue is known country-wide. Bury them!

Many mahalos and sincere aloha!



About the author:
I have been doing a weekly radio show in Honolulu since 1981 called "Health Talk". In 2007 I was "forced" to get a Masters degree in Nutrition because of all the doctors that would call in asking for my credentials. They do not call in anymore. Going to www.healthtalkhawaii.com enables you, among other things, to listen to the shows. I am an activist. In addition to espousing an organic vegan diet for optimum health, I am strongly opposed to GMOs, vaccines, processed foods, MSG, aspartame, fluoridation and everything else that the pimps (Big Pharma, Monsanto and the large food companies) and the hookers (the doctors, the government agencies, the public health officials, and the mainstream media) thrust upon us, the tricks.
After being vaccinated with the DTP vaccine as a child I developed asthma. After taking the organic sulfur crystals (they are harvested from the pine trees in Louisiana) in November of 2008 for 10 days my asthma reversed and has not come back over 4 years later, 18 cases, so far, of autism have been reversed, as has cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, osteoarthritis, joint pain, astigmatism, gum disease, increased sexual activity, heavy metal and radiation elimination, parasite elimination, free radicals elimination, faster athletic recovery time, increased blood circulation, reduced inflammation, resistance to getting the flu, reduction of wrinkles, allergy reduction, reduced PMS and monthly period pain, nausea, migraines and so much more. And it's only possible because of the oxygen it releases that floods the cells of the body. The sulfur, as proven by the University of Southampton in England, enables the body to produce vitamin B12 and the essential amino acids. You can find out more about this incredible nutrient also on my website - www.healthtalkhawaii.com -.
My book, "a Sane Diet For An Insane World", has been published. It can be viewed at
www.asanediet.com.