Good approach on GMO-pesticide issue

The health questions. The emotions. The misinformation.

If there’s one contentious issue in our midst that urgently needs mediation, it’s genetically modified organism (GMO) crops and products. That’s why it’s heartening to hear that the state Department of Agriculture and Kauai County have engaged locally based professional mediator Peter Adler to convene a working group to examine possible health and environmental effects from the use of pesticides applied to GMO products. The project is set for a January start, with completion by the end of 2015.

Pesticide use is just one aspect of the GMO debate, but it’s a major one, and the findings here could help guide public policies across the state.

State Sen. Russell Ruderman, Agricultural Committee chairman, rightly called this project "overdue."

Indeed — a fair assessment is in the interest of everyone who simply wants good, unhyped, reliable information on this topic.

If ya can’t beat ’em, just gotta enjoy ’em

Add this to the evidence that human beings are among the most adaptable creatures on the planet: Some Big Island folks are learning to like coqui frogs.

The same amphibians targeted for extermination as noisy interlopers are now such a part of the landscape in certain regions that residents there have grown more tolerant, a phenomenon known as habituation, according to a Utah State University researcher who addresses the topic in the December issue of Biological Conservation.

Homeowners were more accepting of coquis on their property than renters were, perhaps reflecting the fact that an owner is less likely to pull up stakes and move over nightly chirping, and simply learns to live with it.