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• Just a modern method

•The people applaud you

• Alternatives to alternative

Just a modern method

Recent letters from two concerned individuals about GMOs deserve a response.

It appears that the individuals do not like corporations, for whatever reason. Maybe it’s because they pay more in taxes and provide more jobs to the community than they can provide. Who knows?

If the one individual had a problem with his bees being sprayed, he should have reported it to the Department of Agriculture so they could take action. I agree he should not be subject to this, assuming his assessment of the situation is accurate.

My opinion differs from the two writers, since I believe that the biotech industry is the cutting edge of providing higher yielding crops which means more food per acre in the future. We cannot assume to feed the world using cow manure for fertilizer. There aren’t enough cows, horses, chickens or other animals in the world to provide the needed plant nutrients.

Somewhere we have to realize that university agricultural research using the most up-to-date available technology possible is the answer and not to ban certain research based on fear and innuendos spread by environmental groups seeking more and more government control.

Biotech (GMO) is just a modern (that means high tech) method of plant breeding that speeds up the process in finding new improved varieties. Some of those newly bred biotech plant varieties can protect themselves from insects and diseases, without the use of pesticide sprays, all the better for us and the environment.

If biotech crops were exterminating populations as stated, then annual plantings in the world of over 2 billion acres should be having an effect, yet the world population is increasing. Maybe it’s due to GMOs, who knows.

Don Gerbig, Lahaina, Maui

The people applaud you

Bravo, Jerome “The Shadow” Freitas, for your diligence and perseverance in holding our county Public Works Department’s feet to the fire.

You have taken thousands of pictures and traveled all over our island at your own expense to show the many safety problems that exist with our roads, our guardrails, our bridges. Your latest expose of steps on a stairway by our Kapa‘a roundabout that has “fallen into disrepair and is closed to public use” shows just one of the many ongoing problems that have never been addressed for sometimes two years or more.

And thank you, Paul Curtis, for putting The Shadow’s story on the front page of The Garden Island on Aug. 10 so people can see what this fine consumer advocate is doing to help all of us.

My good friend, Ray Chuan, once wisely said, “This county looks for 10 reasons not to do something instead of one good reason to do it.” Oh, how true.

Mr. Curtis says that Freitas doesn’t care what excuses the county gives for its inaction — forgetfulness, ambivalence, broken promises, lack of funds or lack of concern, he just wants action. And who but those tangled up in our bureaucratic maze can argue with that?

Every part of our Public Works Department needs serious help and Jerome has only pointed to one small but very important area — safety.

What can be more important than preventing the injury or even the death of one of those kids he is concerned about going and coming from the middle school.

It is unlikely that the funding of these stagnated issues is the problem. Maybe they are now but when money was available in the past the problems were still not addressed.

We have some good hard workers in our Public Works Department but leadership and/or organization at the top seems to be lacking.

Gary Hooser and Mel Rapozo both pushed hard to have a performance audit done to find out where the system is broken. But even though our council appropriated some $500,000 to have this audit done (about five years ago) the money is still available and no one wants to push the go button to make it happen — four votes would do!

As Mel said, no one is trying to get someone fired but we must pinpoint the problem if we are ever going to fix it.

Until we get resolution to this problem, Shadow, keep up the great work. The people applaud you.

Glenn Mickens, Kapa‘a

Alternatives to alternative

Mr. Moke’s “Sun over wind” letter on Aug. 11 continues to spread fear and misinformation about wind turbines. 

He claims Small Wind Energy Conversion Systems are not a person’s right to own, blocks your neighbor’s viewplanes, makes excessive noise and kills endangered bird species.

As is typical of attacks against this technology, Mr. Moke’s complaints are purely subjective (existing only within the experiencer’s mind and incapable of external verification, Webster’s), and certainly not objective (uninfluenced by emotion, surmise, or personal opinion, Webster’s).

It’s going to take more than one technology to get us off our addiction to oil. Photovoltaic technology is a good one, but works well only if you live in a area with a lot of sun exposure. Not every Kaua‘i resident does. They need an alternative technology to obtain their supply of alternative energy. Mr. Moke would cut them off.

Wind turbines are not cheap. Installing a residential unit could easily cost over $20,000. The Kaua‘i County Planning Department is trying to address this issue fairly for all residents by not thinking too subjectively regarding this technology (proposed Bill No. 2317).

I’d love to have a wind turbine in my back yard to compliment my PV panel array during the day/night. If I produced enough energy, I could then have an all-electric car too. It’s a dream, but quite unaffordable. But for those who can afford it, I say go for it! I don’t intend to stop them from doing so based solely on an opinion either.

Vincent Cosner, Lihu‘e