Remove ImagesMaui County
The Maui 10
Who’s the county’s most powerful player?
February 08, 2007
RANK PREVIOUS COMPANY
1
2 Weinberg
Foundation
2
3 Maui Land & Pineapple Co.
3
4 Dowling
Co.
4
5 Maui
Electric Co.
5
6 Makena
Resort
6
7 Tesoro
Hawai`i
7
1 Monsanto Hawai`i
8
8 Alexander
& Baldwin
9
9 Wailuku
Water Co.
10
10 Hawaiian
Telcom
RISE OF THE GMO BILLS
Really bad news this week for Monsanto, the global
herbicide/genetically modified food manufacturer. A bunch of anti-GMO
bills are moving through the state Legislature this week. There's HB
704, which "Provides a 10-year moratorium on testing, propagating,
cultivating, growing, and raising genetically engineered coffee and
taro." There's HB 1577, which "Temporarily prohibits the growing of
genetically modified coffee" and "Allows research on genetically
modified coffee in environmentally secure facilities." Then there's HB
1048, which "Prohibits the growing of crops that produce
pharmaceuticals" and "prohibits laboratory work relating to
biopharmaceutical crops." And there's SB 958, which calls for a
moratorium on genetically modified taro production. None of these bills
target Monsanto Hawai`i directly, but should they pass, they could
foreshadow far more restrictive anti-GMO bills in the future. Monsanto
would have fallen even further were it not for a Jan. 29, 2007 Pacific
Business News story that said GMOs are now "the second biggest crop
category in Hawai`i."
BONE TO PICK
Maui Land rises a notch this week on news that construction at two
sites of the former Kapalua Bay Hotel—soon to be The Residences at
Kapalua Bay—has stopped after crews uncovered ancient Hawaiian remains.
"That whole area, that Kapalua area, is considered sacred because of
the thousands of remains on the sand dunes," Maui Island Burial Council
Chairman Charles Kauluwehi Maxwell, Sr. said in a Jan. 29, 2007 online
Pacific Business News story. After the remains have been handled in the
most appropriate way possible, construction will resume. Man, Maui Land
gets to build anywhere! MTW