There’s a lot of interest in the Maui GMO ban which was passed by a slim majority in this week’s general election.
Professor Emeritus Dick Mayer, who taught economics and geography at UH Maui College, compiled a spreadsheet to display voting data on the GMO initiative and kindly shared it.
Here’s one portion of his larger spreadsheet. It shows the percentage of “Yes” votes at each polling place in the county, organized by representative districts.
Quickly scan the data and you’ll see that the “Yes” votes ranged from 81% in Hana down to just 29% in Kaunakakai. That’s a huge range, and is likely to cause problems for Rep. Mele Carroll, whose district includes both extremes.
Click here to review Mayer’s full spreadsheet, then share your assessment of these data.
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it appears Wailuku, Kahului, Molokai and Lanai had far more “no” votes.
my impression is that people in these ‘hoods are far more likely born & raised in Hawaii. (to be politically correct.)
i have seen a significantly different population in the ‘hoods of Kihei, Lahaina and Makawao and Pa’ia, which got the “yes” votes.
interesting. interesting. interesting. ………..
there is definitely a local/transplant pattern in the vote and possibly a stronger correlation between Filipino concentrations by precinct. but also consider the Anderson/Vaught race in 2004 which was also county-wide. some local people who are within the ILWU/ILWU-pensioner voter-gravitational field are known to vote for the underdog if they feel the competition isn’t fair. they don’t want to be associated with what feels like plantation style “fixing” of a race. the last minute reporting that the multinationals had spent far more than Lingle did for re-election in 2006 breaking all records was definitely enough to change some people, enough people, to Yes. that is likely a better explanation when compared with the two charter amendments that were also on the ballot.
OMG We all gonna turn into kumquats:
NYTimes:
“A potato genetically engineered to reduce the amounts of a potentially harmful ingredient in French fries and potato chips has been approved for commercial planting, the Department of Agriculture announced on Friday.
The potato’s DNA has been altered so that less of a chemical called acrylamide, which is suspected of causing cancer in people, is produced when the potato is fried.
The new potato also resists bruising, a characteristic long sought by potato growers and processors for financial reasons. Potatoes bruised during harvesting, shipping or storage can lose value or become unusable.
The biotech tubers were developed by the J. R. Simplot Company, a privately held company based in Boise, Idaho, which was the initial supplier of frozen French fries to McDonald’s in the 1960s and is still a major supplier. The company’s founder, Mr. Simplot, who died in 2008, became a billionaire.
The potato is one of a new wave of genetically modified crops that aim to provide benefits to consumers, not just to farmers as the widely grown biotech crops like herbicide-tolerant soybeans and corn do. The nonbruising aspect of the potato is similar to that of genetically engineered nonbrowning apples, developed by Okanagan Specialty Fruits, which are awaiting regulatory approval.”
What scares me is the firehose of GMO campaign contributions soaking our politicians at the city, state and federal level . Even high school and college level policy makers get inundated with money in the form of funding for their programs or scholarships .
Looks like the bluer the collar, the more the “No” vote.
Looks to me that Monsanto scared their workers on Molokai, presenting it as a jobs issue knowing that Monsanto is the largest employer on the island. Here’s a good article on how this issue needs to be presented going forward.
http://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/election-bang-maui-bans-gmo-crops/
“t” wrote:
“it appears Wailuku, Kahului, Molokai and Lanai had far more “no” votes.
my impression is that people in these ‘hoods are far more likely born & raised in Hawaii. (to be politically correct.)”
This GMO debate will end up being decided in the courts, so the practical result of the initiative is to give the anti-GMO horde an excuse to go on social media and to give each other thumbs up for every “I told ya so!” comment.
While the vote won’t ultimately decide the issue, it does show how the battle lines are drawn in Maui County. One would hope that this issue does not fracture the respect and Aloha spirit that residents customarily have for one another. But times are a-chagin’. Economic hard times and desperation can sometimes lead to ugly confrontations.
Dear Molokai,
Eat Your (non-GMO) Veggies … Or Else!
Sincerely,
Mommy Maui
“t” is laboring under a misconception. To equate “born and raised here” with either side of this vote is simply foolish. Hana, Haiku, Waihee are all heavily Hawaiian populations. And for dogs sake don’t call the people against GMOs anti-science. The chemical farming corporations bought congress and the EPA during the 80s and have repressed studies for years so yes it is really easy to find studies saying the GMOs is peachy keen, but there are many papers and books available that show that caution is a better route to take. I use roundup to kill the frickin’ cane grass so I am not “organic” but I really hate the political bribery by these corporations no matter who they are from the military industrial corporatists to the wall street criminals. America is in real trouble and most people have no clue.
“John Bruce”:
You need to review the spreadsheet that Ian posted. Hana, Haiku, Waihee are a small segment of this vote; Wailuku and Kahului are big blocks. I am not the one who is “laboring under a misconception.” i pointed out a correlation between the vote and the different populations of the voters. calling this “foolish” is a defensive response. you are avoiding numbers/studies that do not agree with your position.
i am more swayed this excellent piece from the megaconservative New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/us/on-hawaii-a-lonely-quest-for-facts-about-gmos.html
If this discussion is going to corrode to “better safe than sorry better safe than sorry” and “Evil Corporations are out to get you!” there is no point in arguing.
http://www.journalofanimalscience.org/content/early/2014/08/27/jas.2014-8124
“Prevalence and impacts of genetically engineered feedstuffs on livestock populations”
A. L. Van Eenennaam and A. E. Young
Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis, CA 95616
—
“Evil Corporations are out to get you!”
The precincts are arranged with a basically similar population. You are the one who mentioned the outsiders and I only mentioned that population wise every part of the island is essentially evenly split ethnically except for maybe Wailea, Kapalua and parts of Kula. And yes, Monsanto is among the top of the evil corporations in the world. Many people who voted no did so purely for the jobs issue and of course the issue of having any government oversight at all about anything. I didn’t actually try to turn anyones vote, many of my friends voted no. You would be among those.