It's your ConCon. What do you want to do with it? Learn - Discuss - Decide

Does High Tech need constitutional representation?

What do you think?

Permalink Reply by Rick M. on May 12, 2008 at 5:04pm: Absolutely! All this hippy backlash against GMO's has to stop. Hawaii is in the lead of experimental GMO fields and we can't have this stopped by ignorant NIMBY types who are afraid of some big, bad, GMO cornstalk attacking them in their sleep.

We need a measure that insures that the GMO patent owners can sue to stop people from stealing their technology when they get it by wind-blown cross-fertilization. It is not right that someone plants a corn field next to an experimental GMO corn field, allows the nonGMO corn to be pollinated and then gets the benefit of selling the resulting seed that the GMO company paid good money to develop.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rick M. on May 12, 2008 at 5:06pm: Although, I'm sure Monsanto has this covered. They're pretty on it when it comes to protecting their intellectual property so I'm sure well see an amendment offered from them to take care of this problem.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by digitaleye on May 12, 2008 at 5:51pm: I like the quote of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UN, 1948) Sean McLaughlin just posted:

"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Daniel Leuck on May 12, 2008 at 6:17pm: Hi Rick,

How about the reverse (and far more common) situation? I have a corn field and Monsanto comes in and plants next to my existing farm. Their pollen blows into my field, because they have taken no precautions to prevent this, and they subsequently sue to prevent me from using my own seed next year.

Note: I have no religious aversion to GMOs, I support intellectual property rights, I rarely have nightmares about corn, and I am generally not considered a "hippy" :-); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Peter Kay on May 12, 2008 at 10:05pm: I believe Monsanto et all have mitigated this reasonably effectively. Is there any evidence to the contrary?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Peter Kay on May 12, 2008 at 10:08pm: Being a free-market kinda guy, I'm more in favor of figuring how why we don't have a more robust high tech industry in Hawaii and then working hard to remove those barriers.

Personally, the elephant in the living room is Education. There's no way you have have a vibrant high tech industry without an outstanding educational system. Look at India's transformation. It didn't come about because they have offices of planning, but rather because they realized education was the road to salvation and they were able to execute on that.

Fix education. That's how we get more high tech.; ▶ Reply to This