Ka`u News Briefs Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014

Managed honeybees and wild bees exchange diseases that weaken them all. Photo from www.artemissmiles.com

A NEW CELL TOWER IN VOLCANO is proposed by AT&T Mobility on the south side of Old Volcano Highway at around the 25 mile market on the Hawai`i Belt Road, HWY 11. The proposed use permit will be taken up by the Windward Planning Commission on Thursday, March 6 at its 9:30 a.m. meeting in the Hilo State Office Building, Conference Rooms A, B and C. at 75 Aupuni St. The permit is for a 10,000 square-foot portion of a 785-acre parcel in the state Agricultural District, zoned Ag by the county. Some other cell towers in the area have been designed to look like trees to match the surrounding vegetation. The property is TMK: 1-1-004:Por. of 010. To comment on or “like” this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

Norfolk pine style cell towers are used, in an attempt
 to fit in with landscape.

THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART will take up the GMO issue on the Big Island, with interviews of County Council member Margaret Wille, who introduced the bill banning most genetically modified organisms in Hawai`i County, and Greggor IIegan, who voted against her bill, according to a story in this morning’s Hawai`i Tribune Herald.

Jon Stewart, whose Daily Show plans a
segment on local GMO debate.

     The bill passed and was signed by Mayor Billy Kenoi, with a companion bill passed by the County Council on Kaua`i that focused more on use of pesticides associated with GMO crops. However, the local legislation faces opposition from those that want no restrictions on GMOs and related pesticides. The pro GMO camps are taking their cause to the legislature and courts.
     The Tribune Herald story by John Burnett quotes Wille saying that a Daily Show team came here to check out the story that this county “closed the door on some multinational chemical companies.” According to the Tribune Herald, part of the Daily Show story could include pro and ant-GMO activists accusing each other of using empty or shoddy science in their debates.
     The Tribune Herald story also quotes Hawaiian practitioner and singer, songwriter Hawane Rios, who also models on the calendar that raises money for Babes Against Biotech at www.babesagainstbiotech.org/#!calendarbab/gallery. Burnett quotes the Rios view on the Daily Show segment as, ““perfect timing, because we need to get this issue out on a global scale because we have so many other issues, as well. Just getting one onto mainstream television is a big win for us because this is where we are as a people and what we do is gonna affect generations to come.”
     See more at http://hawaiitribune-herald.com. The restrictions on GMOs is also supported by Ka`u County Council member Brenda Ford.
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WILD BEES IN KA`U AND WORLDWIDE are facing stress and decline. These are not only the honeybees that live outside of commercial and backyard hives. These include bees that live in smaller colonies and help pollinate domestic and wild plants and trees. A new study shows that the wild bees “are contracting deadly diseases from their commercialized honeybee cousins,” reports an Associated Press story by Seth Borenstein.
     Unmanaged bees aren’t "trucked from farm to farm like honeybees. They provide a significant chunk of the world’s pollination of flowers and food…,” the AP story reports.

Bee sanctuary manager Alison Yahna.
Photo from www.artemissmiles.com 

    Mark Brown of University of London told the AP that his studies confirm that the decline can be attributed to “the spillover of parasites and pathogens and disease” from managed beehives. University of Illinois entomologist May Berenbaum said that while the diseases of domestic and wild bees spill over from one population to another, “the spillover for bees is turning into a boilover.” She said that honeybee hives with tens of thousands or worker bees sending diseases to small colonies of wild bees is like “Wal-Mart versus a mom-and-pop store.”
    Bumblebees alone support pollination for $3 billion in fruit and flower pollination in the Unite States, Berenbaum told the AP.
     Alison Yahna, founder of Artemis Smiles Honeybee Sanctuary and Education Center in Ka`u, supports the caring for wild honeybees, saying that wild bees, left to evolve and strengthen their own resistance to disease, can survive. She says her sanctuary provides a place “where our bees are allowed to live a natural life cycle, free of the many practices and pollutants that have contributed to their global decline.” See www.artemissmiles.com for more on bee education and tours of the bee sanctuary in Ka`u.
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J MUZACZ, SON OF KA`U TUTU & ME manager Betty Clark, has written an illustrated a book entitled Life Is Sweet: The Story of a Sugarcane Field, based on his three-month experience cutting sugarcane by hand on Ishigaki, one of Okinawa’s southernmost isles. With its vivid colors and first-hand account of life during a traditional Japanese sugarcane harvest, the book is both a children’s narrative and cultural expose. Clark said the book has a local interest because “so many residents of Ka`u still remember life during the sugar cane days in Na`alehu and Pahala.”

Working in southern Japan in sugar
is a reminder of sugar days in Ka`u for
J Muzacz.

With ties to Ka`u, J Muzacz illustrates life in sugar on
an island in southern Japan.

     Muzacz, who has an academic background in sociology, said that while the book is completely unique to the Yaeyama Islands of Ryukyu Okinawa, “many underlying themes and struggles on this small island represent much greater universal issues. For instance, that of modern farmers worldwide balancing environmental costs and benefits associated with growing crops we all love and can’t get enough of, the importance of cultivating teamwork and healthy community, respecting tradition while increasingly utilizing new technologies to maximize efficiency, and that unmatched contentment you feel after completing a long, hard day’s work.”
     Muzacz also said he found out why the Japanese, especially Okinawans, live so long. “It is interesting that Okinawa is famous for enjoying the greatest longevity among the entire Japanese population, and the Japanese themselves have the longest life span in the world. The consumption of pure Kokuto black sugar along with plenty seaweed, tofu and pork (yes, pork!) is believed to contribute to the healthy long life of Okinawans.
     “The secret to Okinawan longevity is no mystery,” said Muzacz. “It’s in the sugar!” Information about the book project is available at indiegogo.com/lifeissweet. This book, as well as Muzacz first book, Japan 365: A Drawing-A-Day, can be purchased at amazon.com. His first book is also available at Na`alehu Public Library.
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KA`U RURAL HEALTH COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION is offering to help people sign up for the Hawai`i Health Connector, the Obambacare health plan. This weekend a statewide push aims to educate more people about taking advantage of the plan that allows coverage of those persons with preexisting conditions. Call Ka`u Rural Health Community Association's Kokua Assisters at 928-0101.

SPAGHETTI DINNER & SILENT AUCTION to raise money for the Ka`u Hospital ER is today, Saturday, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Na`alehu Community Center. Ka`u Red Hat Ladies and Ka Lae Quilters are the sponsors. Tickets are $9.99 from Pahala Quilting and Ka`u Rural Health Clinic.

KA`U CHAMBER OF COMMERCE will hold its next meeting at 5 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 24 at Pahala Plantation House. Discussion will include distribution of The Directory and other Ka`u Chamber programs. Call Pres. Dallas Decker at 516-662-8789.

SEN. RUSSELL RUDERMAN’S TOWN HALL MEETING will be open to the public on this coming Monday, Feb. 24 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Pahala Plantation House on the corner of Maile and Pikake Streets. Light refreshments will be served. Call 808-586-6890 or email senruderman@capitol.hawaii.gov.

SEE THE DIRECTORY 2014 ONLINE. For a page-turning version, see www.kaucalendar.com/Directory2014.swf. For a pdf version, see www.kaucalendar.com/Directory2014.pd