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(Editor's note: the following letter is in response to Nov. 22, 2007 edition of Rob Report titled "Ag Lands and the 'M' Word.")
It is unfortunate that our litigious society makes the truth difficult to uncover. Thank you for noticing Patricia Braggs' continued greed and disregard for Maui in particular and people in general. I have met this woman and did not like her immediately as she seemed very aloof and separate from the world around her while simultaneously pretending to actually care. I hope that you will devote more energy to disclosing her improper behavior so that the world knows just who she really is and her true intentions, which are obviously meant for self-gain.
Ray Peters, via email
December 06, 2007
(Editor's note: the following letter is in response to Nov. 22, 2007 edition of Rob Report titled "Ag Lands and the 'M' Word.")
I hope you will continue articles like this in Rob Report.
John McCauley, via email
December 06, 2007
(Editor's note: the following letter is in response to Nov. 22, 2007 edition of Rob Report titled "Ag Lands and the 'M' Word.")
I am writing to express my disappointment with Patricia Bragg's attempt to develop Waiehu farmland after she promised a number of people she would never "sell out." Many of my friends and I are boycotting her products. It is a pity since we are devotees of Paul Bragg and what he stands for. What happened to Patricia's integrity for the natural way? Looks like fear and greed again.
Roy Genatt, via email
December 06, 2007
(Editor's note: the following letter is in response to Nov. 22, 2007 edition of Rob Report titled "Ag Lands and the 'M' Word.")
I'm really upset about what's happening with the land in Waiehu. [I'd] like to tell that lady Patricia Bragg to go home and stop trying to make money out of our Aina.
Leilani J, via email
December 06, 2007
(Editor's note: the following letter is in response to Nov. 22, 2007 edition of Rob Report titled "Ag Lands and the 'M' Word.")
I was one of the people who walked the land with Patricia Bragg when she was looking at buying this pristine land that is now up for subdivision. At the time, my ears heard, "I will farm this land and make it beautiful and productive for all. We will grow food, like I do on my 40 acres in Byron Bay, and give back to Mother Earth in this way, because I can!"
Well, do the latest actions of Ms. Bragg align with these words? No! I, for one, am tired of hearing one thing from someone, then seeing another thing happen that rapes our Earth, all in the name of the almighty dollar! It's time for us in the state of Hawai'i to wake up to the usage of our resources and how we plan for future generations.
Do we really want to rely on containers of food from the mainland, when we could grow our own? We can be a model of sustainablility for the rest of the nation. Join a group who cares and is doing something like Maui Tomorrow or Maui Coastal Land Trust.
I have been using Bragg products as a health coach and nutritionist for years. I will no longer buy them until I hear that the subdivision plans have been rescinded and I see something moving forward more in alignment with what Ms. Bragg initially said and the land is being treated well.
You may print this. I'm also going to be sending it along to Ms. Bragg herself, who I understand, wasn't Paul Bragg's daughter after all. Seems she is a big sham and no better than most of the folks running for office right now. What we see is not what we're getting! Why is that?
Laurel White, Paia
December 06, 2007
(Editor's note: the following letter is in response to Nov. 22, 2007 edition of Rob Report titled "Ag Lands and the 'M' Word.")
Rob Report is always a great addition to your paper but this week's was the best. All I needed to read was the headline and look at his great photograph and I had the whole story.
Robie Price, Haiku
December 06, 2007
(Editor's note: the following letter is in response to Nov. 22, 2007 edition of Rob Report titled "Ag Lands and the 'M' Word.")
The Rob Report about our irreplaceable farmland being lost to developers was sickening. Isn't this like sawing off the branch your sitting on? The news about health guru Patricia Bragg exploiting land for monetary gain was really shocking.
Most of us that are health conscious buy Bragg products so with all those sales she obviously does not really need the money. I am going to boycott her products as a way to send a message that we won't tolerate such hypocrisy and I urge everyone else to do likewise. Maybe then Bragg will re-think her attempt to try to make money off of land she promised to protect.
I am not going to put my money behind the raping of yet another pristine area of Maui. We need to stop this insanity before it is too late.
Sam Johnson, Kahului
December 06, 2007
Thanks for your story about the water quality testing done at Honokowai Channel ("Change the Channel!" Nov. 15, 2007). However, I wasn't as moved as you were to brand the inconclusive results as "chilling" for several reasons.
1) Many potential pathogens for livestock as well as humans can be found in manure of both livestock and poultry. Ag land plus rain equals pathogens in the runoff.
2) The presence of fecal coliforms does not necessarily indicate the presence of feces. The EPA, being a typical federal bureaucracy is slow to update it's information resources so please Reference the following: ("Closing the Door on the Fecal Coliform Assay," Microbe, April 2006).
As indicators of fecal contamination, coliform assays are inadequate and unwarranted for several reasons. Coliform bacteria represent only about half of the genera in the family Enterobacteriaceae, and some of the overt pathogens in this family, e.g., salmonellae, are not coliforms. As is true for the entire family, some coliforms grow primarily on green plants and in other environmental niches.
I do believe that avoiding the beach after a steady rain is a smart choice. Aside from all of the potential human and animal feces point sources, runoff may also contain chemical fertilizer and pathogens like Listeria which occur naturally in the soil.
Darrel R. Smith, Kihei
November 29, 2007
In Rob Parsons' article titled "Public (F)utility" (Nov. 15, 2007) there is an incorrect fact. When discussing net-metering programs for Solar PV systems it is stated that, "the program is only available to provide energy credits to those producing five kw or less." This should actually read 50 kw, quite a significant difference!
Rob Parsons responds: Mahalo to the Hawaii PV Coalition for catching a mistake in my article. The correct threshold figure for net-metering energy credits should have read 50kw. The incorrect figure came from my notes of the presentation by Public Utilities Commissioner John Cole, who spoke without the benefit of an accompanying Powerpoint. Several Energy Expo presentations have been added to the County website, and may be found at: www.mauicounty.gov/mayor/economic/pdf/EnergyExpo_Proceedings.
Katie Wilson, Operations Director, Hawaii PV Coalition
November 29, 2007
(Editor's note: the following letter was written in response to Hawaiian Electric Company official Peter Rosegg's Nov. 15, 2007 letter, which was written in response to Rob Parsons' Nov. 1, 2007 story "The Answer, My Friend.")
Cross-examination of experts separates the wheat from the chaff, the truth from the false, the credible from the speculative. Why is Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) so in favor of public relations people writing letters in support of biofuels, but so afraid of cross-examination?
The Wall Street Journal notes that Indonesia now ranks third in the world in greenhouse gas emissions, due to deforestation, in order to produce palm oil. The HECO-Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) report states: "palm oil cultivation has also been responsible for widespread clearing of primary tropical forests, draining of peat soils, catastrophic fires in Southeast Asia, and a number of other negative social and environmental impacts... vegetable oils are substitutable with each other."
The world reality is that all palm oil produced is being consumed. If a company insists on buying "sustainable" palm oil, then whoever was buying that now must shift to the bad stuff. The total picture does not change.
Life of the Land sponsored Dr Tadeus Patzek, a world-class biofuel expert, at a Public Utilities Commission Evidentiary Hearing in December 2006. HECO sponsored no biofuel witnesses and refused to cross-examine ours. The Public Utilities Commission ruled in favor of biofuels. Now HECO has submitted a biofuels contract to the PUC with 89 redactions. We filed to intervene. HECO opposes our intervention on the grounds that we a party in the last docket. Maui Electric Company opposed our intervention in their planning docket on the grounds that we wanted to discuss biofuels and climate change.
Peter Rosegg touts Imperium Renewables' commitment to use local feedstock. At the Board of Land and Natural Resources meeting on Nov. 16, Imperium committed to a "commercially reasonable best effort" to use 10 percent local feedstock in years 10-35 of a 35-year contract. Imperium stressed that it had to be a goal, since anything else would interfere with their ability to raise funds to pay for this proposed plant.
Henry Curtis, Executive Director, Life of the Land
November 29, 2007
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