A proponent of labeling for genetically modified foods accused the head of the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation of harassment Thursday at the state Capitol after he put his hand on the lens of her video camera and shoved another protester into her.
GMO-labeling supporters said they were at the Capitol to silently protest during an Agriculture Awareness Day event.
Vivian Wong said she was recording the event when she saw two protesters, Jessica Mitchell and Nomi Carmona, in a heated exchange with Dean Okimoto, the farm bureau president and owner of Nalo Farms.
Okimoto didn’t deny the exchange and said he too plans to file a claim.
"I didn’t grab the camera; I just put my hand up to the camera," he said. "And the guy pushed me, and actually I pushed him back after that."
Okimoto can be seen in the beginning of the video waving off Mitchell and Carmona, saying, "Why don’t you guys — why don’t you just go and go home." When he notices the camera, he slowly walks up to it, saying calmly, "Yeah, we don’t appreciate being filmed, OK," while placing his hand on the lens and tilting it upward.
A scuffle ensues as a man steps between Okimoto and the camera and is pushed into the camera, the video shows.
Okimoto is then seen being led away from the scene.
"We literally feel like we’re being poisoned by these people, and we still don’t do that stuff to them," Carmona said afterward. "But they get away with, like, attacking us and trying to say we’re being aggressive."
The incident was a continuation of an earlier exchange between Mitchell and Okimoto in which Okimoto acknowledged showing Mitchell his middle finger.
"At one point I guess Jessica was eating something and I said, ‘That’s GMO,’ and she said, ‘If you’re proud of your products, label them,’ so I said, ‘You know what, why don’t you not eat it,’" Okimoto recalled. "Truthfully, I flipped her the bird and I walked away."
Okimoto said he reacted the way he did because he had had enough with the GMO protesters.
"I am just so frustrated with this whole (thing)," he said. "And just their attitude — the disrespect they treat not only us, but senators, anyone who opposes their opinion … I have never seen a group that’s just so disrespectful and so rude."
Before a hearing on GMO labeling in House Bill 174 last week, Mitchell left a voice mail for Sen. Clarence Nishihara, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, in which she told him to "Go back to Japan and mess up their aina," Civil Beat reported. She apologized to Nishihara in person during the hearing.
