FDA ruling may lead to monumental change

In a landmark ruling destined to save billions of animal and human lives, the Food and Drug Administration has ruled that meat cultivated from animal cells is safe to eat. The ruling was granted to Upside Foods, funded by Bill Gates and Richard Branson, but also by meat industry giants Cargill and Tyson Foods.

In the past decade, the cultivated-meat industry has grown to more than 150 companies on six continents, backed by $2.6 billion in investments. They all grow meat from animal cells in clean manufacturing plants, rather than in cruel filthy factory farms.

An estimated 70 billion animals are macerated or suffocated at birth, or raised in tiny cages, each year to produce today’s animal meat and dairy offerings. Consumption of these products has been linked conclusively with elevated incidence of killer diseases. Production of animal-based foods pollutes our waterways and groundwater supplies, destroys wildlife habitats, and accounts for 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

The forthcoming massive switch from animal agriculture to plant-based and cultivated meat and dairy products offers a truly monumental change in kindness to animals, human health, environmental pollution and global warming.

LESTER NAITO, Lahaina

Lobby to keep Hawaii’s strong gun restrictions

Say it ain’t so! I’ve been bragging about Hawaii’s strong gun laws when talking to Mainland friends for 25 years! Now I hear the powers that be are caving, loosening gun laws and even taking applications for open-carry?

We are now half-time residents but spent the first few after retirement on the Mainland closer to our grandkids. When we first arrived there, I was gobsmacked by the number of shootings (slaughters) — churches, schools, concerts, shopping malls and more. True, in a lot of them, assault rifles were used, but many shootings are with handguns.

I see the reports on the news every single night. Some punk, usually a young man who snapped, pissed off because his girlfriend broke up with him, or he lost his job, or someone bullied him, someone incapable of coping with the smallest events in a normal life.

The gun lobby says we need stronger mental health programs; they are disturbed, but no one ever recognizes it before the fact — only after.

The idea that we can round up every angry person and get them help so they won’t shoot anyone is preposterous. The better idea is don’t let them have guns! The gun lobby knows it, the NRA knows it, the “Trumplicans” know it.

What happened, Hawaii? Did some NRA dollars have an influence? We spent a winter in Arizona, and I can’t explain how bizarre it felt to see men, and even some women, walking around with guns on their hip.

They say they are carrying to protect themselves from other people who are carrying, or to protect their Second Amendment rights, or because “this is America.”

I urge everyone to contact our new governor; call, send letters, e-mail, but do something. Loosening Hawaii’s gun laws is a mistake that can’t be undone. Like assault rifles, handguns are for one thing… and it’s not hunting (animals).

PENNY WEIGEL, Lahaina

It’s a perfect time to cut taxes

Christmas is just around the corner, but everything is not joyful. Considering Hawaii’s high cost of living and the nation’s record inflation, many Hawaii families are taking a hard look at their finances and calculating how inflation and recession will affect their holiday plans, if not their entire economic futures. But there is some good news: Hawaii has a state budget surplus of about $2 billion, and that is expected to grow to about $10 billion over the next four years. It also has $800 million in its emergency reserve, or “rainy day” fund.

All of which is to say: it’s a perfect time for our returning and newly elected state legislators to cut taxes and remove barriers to economic growth as a way to lower the state’s back-breaking cost of living.

One good place to start would be to exempt medical services from the state general excise tax. Not only would it help lower our healthcare costs, it also would help address the shortage of medical professionals in our state.

If you haven’t done so already, I encourage you to sign and share the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii’s petition asking for just such an exemption.

And yes, a GET exemption for medical services would reduce state tax revenues by about $200 million a year. But considering the size of the state’s budget surplus, lawmakers could cut taxes even more and still come out ahead.

Another idea would be to lower the GET rate in general. Reducing its rate by just one percentage point — from 4 to 3 percent — would put $1 billion dollars back into the economy and have the bonus effect of benefiting low-income earners who spend a higher proportion of their income on the tax.

Our lawmakers could also slash our income tax rates, which are the second highest in the nation. And if they want to help the tourism industry, they could reduce the transient accommodation tax, which originally was supposed to be only temporary anyway, leaving tourists with more money to spend in the private sector. The point is, there are plenty of ways our legislators could put money back into the pockets of Hawaii taxpayers. All that is needed is a little creative thinking — and empathy for Hawaii’s struggling families.

Ironically, we learned just this week that the state went to the bond market to borrow $800 million — which, oddly enough, is the same amount as in the rainy day fund.

We could ask why the state needs more taxes, fees or bond debt, especially when it has such a comfortable budget surplus. But whatever the reason, it’s still a perfect time to cut taxes, trim costly regulations, reduce barriers to housing and, in general, work more seriously to lower Hawaii’s exorbitant cost of living. A state legislative resolution urging Congress to reform the Jones Act, which adds to Hawaii’s shipping costs, also would be nice. In any case, we can all see that Hawaii residents are having a rough time as it is, and the future is worrisome. Lawmakers can do their part to help turn this around, keeping in mind the good news: the state budget surplus. What a wonderful holiday gift it would be if our state legislators let it be known that reducing Hawaii’s high cost of living is to be their primary focus in the coming new year.

DR. KELI’I AKINA, Grassroot Institute of Hawaii