Source: Maui Time, Maui News, Best of Maui, Maui Activities

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Who's the county's most powerful player?

by Anthony Pignataro

April 17, 2008

MONSANTO RULES

Anyone who’s even glanced at the May Vanity Fair story on Monsanto by investigative reporters Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele knows that the chemical giant is one immensely powerful corporation. Among the myriad brutal tactics employed by the company (which grows genetically modified corn on Maui) is the practice of putting the screws to little family farms suspected of “patent infringement”—namely, such unconscionable crimes as using leftover GMO seeds from this year’s harvest in next year’s, which Monsanto deems a crime, punishable by ruinous litigation. The story documents how Monsanto agents and investigators have spied on farmers and ruthlessly accosted them in public. According to Barlett and Steele, 2007 saw “112 such lawsuits, in 27 states.”



RANK PREVIOUS COMPANY

1 3 Monsanto Hawai`i

2 1 Alexander & Baldwin

3 2 Tesoro Hawai`i

4 4 Maui Land & Pineapple Co.

5 5 Weinberg Foundation

6 6 Dowling Co.

7 7 Wailuku Water Co.

8 8 Goodfellow Brothers

9 10 Maui Electric Co.

10 9 Hawaiian Telcom



HT JUNK

How do you get downgraded if you already have a junk-bond debt rating? Beats me, but the folks over at Carlyle Group-owned Hawaiian Telcom know: Moody’s Investor Service recently did exactly that. Their reasoning isn’t exactly a mystery, given HT’s loss of thousands of land-line customers and a state PUC investigation for poor customer service. Such troubles “may have caused significant long-term damage to the company’s competitive position,” Moody’s said, according to the April 9 Honolulu Advertiser. The Advertiser story then explained that HT’s new rating is “six levels below investment-grade ratings.” MTW