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Monsanto Could be its Own Worst Enemy

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

Using too much water could force the company to downsize.

Editorial by Todd Yamashita

There are some who will have you think that Monsanto employees are in danger of losing their jobs at the hands of environmentalist and activists. The biggest threat to Monsanto however, is its own growth and thirst for more water.

For the time being, Monsanto is obviously here to stay. Seed experimentation has been on Molokai for three decades and with a new multi-million dollar seed drying plant and hundreds of additional acres, there is no sign that this expanding corporation will be leaving the Friendly Isle any time soon.

Monsanto Molokai is an excellent company to work for. They are the largest private employer providing more than 150 jobs with some of the best wages and benefits in the ag-labor field. They also provide our local non-profits with thousands of dollars in grants and have generally been a good neighbor.

Monsanto has also hired laid off Molokai Ranch workers, helping Molokai’s economy to rebound.

Unfortunately, the biggest threat to Monsanto workers is Monsanto itself. Like most large corporations, Monsanto’s number one priority is to maximize profits. In this case it means planting as many acres as possible, and using a lot of water – a practice which could ultimately force the corporation to downsize.

Over the Limit
Last November, General Manager of Monsanto Molokai Ray Foster said that the company was sensitive to the island’s water needs and that Monsanto had a water conservation program for times of drought.

Last month however, amidst a 20% water cutbacks mandated by the Molokai Irrigation System (MIS), Monsanto is requesting an increase to its water use. However with water supply levels in the Kualapu`u reservoir over 60 million gallons short of where it was this time last year, many are left wondering where the water will come from?

The MIS was built for the Hawaiian Homesteaders which is why the law reserves two thirds of its water for Hawaiians. As the MIS becomes short on water due to dilapidation and drought, Hawaiian Homesteaders are beginning to feel the pressure.

Non-homestead ag-users like Monsanto currently account for 84% of MIS water consumption. Monsanto itself is using almost twice the amount of water of all 209 homestead users combined.

Homesteaders have gone through the courts to fight for their rights in the past (Hawaii State Supreme Court denies Molokai Ranch pumping permit Dec 26, 2007) and are guaranteed to return should water distribution remain lopsided.

Implausible Solutions
Monsanto is offering the DOA cash to increase pumping. While this might seem like a positive effort, it probably won’t help. The MIS is the only state-run irrigation system that regularly operates at a profit, yet it is the most dilapidated and mismanaged. Obviously, positive cash-flow doesn’t equate to a better system.

Although improvements are being made to one problematic area at a time, a system-wide overhaul of the MIS, which will take years, is the only thing that will increase higher sustainable water levels.

But more water won’t necessarily help either. As homesteads continue to grow (homestead water use increased 35% in 2007) non-homestead users like Monsanto will increasingly be held to their 1/3 allocation of MIS water.

Living Within Your Means
The corporate model of taking as much as possible doesn’t work on Molokai, it never has. In 1905, Molokai Ranch started the island’s first large scale sugar plantation – they pumped so much that their fresh water turned salty, killing the entire crop before the first harvest. A century later, the Ranch put companywide operations on the line to develop La`au Point –the development’s lack of water shut everything down.

Regardless of whether or not activists and environmentalists want Monsanto to continue growing and testing genetically modified corn, it is Monsanto’s responsibility to operate within the law. Hawaiian’s 2/3 right to water specifies the limit. If Monsanto continues expanding beyond their limits and beyond the threshold of Molokai’s water capacity, like Molokai Ranch, Monsanto will be forced to downsize.

The best thing we can do to protect the jobs of those who work at Monsanto, is to ask Monsanto to curb its growth in proportion to the available water resources.

The Utility Dog and Pony Show

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

The Public Utility Commission (PUC) meeting in Maunaloa last Tuesday has once again highlighted the woeful inadequacies of our government’s civil servants. One was left in a quandary as to what is driving the PUC train, but whatever the driver may be it has drastically veered from the tracks.

The justification and purpose of a PUC is to protect the public’s interests (thus the name Public Utility Commission) against the abuses and wrongdoings of the utilities because by nature the utilities are monopolies and are prone to abuse and wrongdoing (recall the Enron energy debacle).

However, it appears that the Hawai’i PUC sees their function as not protecting the interests of the miscreant public. The Hawai’i PUC apparently interprets their function to be lackeys for billionaire Quek Leng Chang, who is the owner of Molokai Ranch’s parent company GuocoLeisure, to protect the interests of the Ranch against the ungrateful, malcontent public.

The Hawai’i PUC is in effect saying, “Yes, Mr. Billionaire, we (the Hawai’i PUC) will gladly exempt you from all of the nasty, tiresome nonsense of following the law and will do all of your dirty work for you. And any time you should step into something unpleasant, we will joyfully lick your boots clean.”
 
What the Hawai’i PUC is doing is going to open the floodgates for utilities throughout Hawai’i; any utility that wants a rate increase will just have to submit an unsubstantiated, unaudited, unverified income statement depicting a loss and the Hawai’i PUC will be compelled to fall all over themselves providing a “temporary rate increase.” The Hawai'i PUC is establishing the precedent with their current actions.

The Ranch has remedies available. They can sell the utilities. They can file for a rate increase as the law allows. Or they can file for bankruptcy and the court can take the assets and determine the proper course of action. It is not the Hawai’i PUC’s function to work for the Ranch when the PUC’s wages are paid by the public. The Hawai’i PUC should only explain the options available to the Ranch and explain that the Ranch cannot cease operations of their utilities without a court order releasing them of their public responsibility.

Should the Ranch follow through on their threat to cease operations without a court release, Maunaloa Highway would be bumper to bumper with tort lawyers eager to have former utility customers sign on to their class action law suits against the Chang, Ranch CEO Peter Nicholas, and probably the PUC.

So, Hawai’i PUC, quit kowtowing to Mr. Gotbucks; get off your knees and show a little self respect. You are embarrassing all of us. In the same breath, KUDOS to the County, Mayor Travares, et al, for their appropriate response and providing a ray of hope that our government is not totally dysfunctional.

Kiawe and Sustainability on Molokai

Monday, July 21st, 2008

Kiawe (Prosopis pallida) is a food of antiquity from the Americas. For more than 6,000 years. Ancient cultures have used kiawe and its relatives for food, fuel and raw materials.

The “official” story is that kiawe was first brought to Oahu for Queen Emma and planted by Father Alexis Bachelot as cuttings from the Jardin du Rois in Paris, France.

Supposedly, from this one tree, all of the kiawe in Hawaii were born and subsequently spread by cattle and people as shade and fodder. The original tree was thorn-free originating from Southern Peru. Its mate was probably a thorn-free too, and from northern Peru or southern Ecuador.

A seed grown tree would have retained the memory of all it had ever been thereby giving it the potential to have thorns.

Somebody knew kiawe’s potential as an animal feed and shade tree and its ability to grow in very harsh conditions and capitalized on its ability to be spread by animals. By 1965, after only 127 years, there was an estimated 155,000 acres of kiawe in the state.

Ranchers made money from the forest by fattening their cattle creating some of the largest sustainable cattle operations in the U.S. Bees were brought in to increase Kiawe pollination and by 1935 Hawaii had become the largest exporter of honey in the world.

Since then, serious cattle ranching has fallen out of economic feasibility and kiawe has developed a reputation as a “trash” tree and a nuisance to beach-lovers because of its thorns. In many places kiawe forests are overgrown, becoming potential fire hazards.

However, these trees present an opportunity. By cleaning up the forest through thinning and trimming, we can create a park-like atmosphere that is accessible. The wood could be burned to generate enough electricity to operate hammer mills and other equipment required to process the kiawe into value-added products.

Kiawe beans are a non-genetically modified, non-toxic food that has been eaten by humans since times before corn was ever developed as a crop. It is known as a healthful food that mitigates diabetes, heart disease and colon cancer. There is a growing demand for both flour from the pods and honey from the flowers.

Once the forest is fire safe, it will be easy and perhaps necessary to replant with other food crops like coconuts and taro or endemic plants such as  Willi Willi, Uhi Uhi, Hala Pepe, Ohe Makai, Alahe’e and others. Kiawe creates a humid microclimate and reforesting has the effect of helping to recharge the ground water.

Water is, of course, the most important issue on Molokai, yet there are others. Recent stumbling blocks to developing a kiawe industry on Molokai come from Molokai Ranch shutting its doors and disallowing any activity on their land in the wake of La’au.

The people of Molokai need job security and food and energy self reliance in the event that Hawaii is cut off from mainland supplies.

We need to find a way to keep Molokai beautiful while protecting access to clean water, food and positive work that makes the world a better place. The community needs to own a vertically integrated kiawe industry that folds the resources directly back into the community.

Once the infrastructure is in place, Molokai could have enough food to feed the island’s population and energy to run basic needs without diesel. In the process we may begin to heal our land, our community and our reputation as exporters of clean, healthy, non-genetically modified food.

If the above interests you, please contact Neil Logan on the Big Island www.rnl3.net and neil@rnl3.net.