Wife of Judge Barry Kurren connected to big agribiz interests in Hawaii?

Judge Barry Kurren keeps  ruling against attempts by Hawaii residents and environmental groups to rein in the GMO/pesticide industry through the courts.

The following article questions whether Kurren can be an objective interpreter of the law, as he has significant conflicts of interest in the form of his wife Faye's involvement with The Nature Conservancy (TNC). As the article notes, TNC takes significant funding from Dow and other GM/agrochemical companies – the same companies that the Hawaii residents and groups have been trying to restrain. TNC also has Monsanto and Dow on its business council, and TNC’s CEO is strongly pro-GMO.

Faye Kurren's involvement at board level in The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii, at least in the past, is confirmed here.

The OECD takes a serious view of conflicts of interest in public servants arising from the interests of spouses and family members (do a search in the document for "family"). It states, "Identifying and resolving conflict-of-interest situations is crucial to good governance and maintaining trust in public institutions."

Such trust would appear to be lacking in the case of Kurren.
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Exposed: The Judge in the Monsanto-Maui lawsuit is tainted

by Jon Rappoport
Nov 26 2014
http://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2014/11/26/exposed-the-judge-in-the-monsanto-maui-lawsuit-is-tainted/

In a previous article, I ran down Judge Barry Kurren’s wife’s connections to big biotech in Hawaii.

Now I have more. Much more.

Judge Kurren is overseeing the Monsanto/Dow lawsuit against Maui, where the people recently voted to halt Monsanto/Dow GMO research.

Does the Judge have a conflict of interest?

Is the Pope Catholic?

Until at least the fall of 2011, Judge Kurren’s wife, Faye, was a trustee of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) (twitter), a 6-billion-dollar environmental group.

TNC specializes in working with mega-corporations, who donate major money, in return for receiving TNC’s “good housekeeping seal of approval” as friends of the environment.

It’s all very cozy.

In 2011, TNC leveraged a blockbuster deal. Dow pledged a $10 million donation. In exchange, Dow could forthwith use the TNC logo on its site and all its products.

That’s like painting a cobra’s hood with Mr. Rogers’ face.

This would be the same Dow whose GMO/pesticide experiments on Maui the voters decided to stop.

The voter stoppage provoked the lawsuit from Dow and Monsanto.

Faye’s husband Barry is the Judge in the case.

Faye was a trustee at TNC, who took $10 million from Dow.

So…what are the chances Faye’s husband will step on Dow’s face in the lawsuit?

Getting the picture?

There’s more.

TNC’s business council includes luminaries like Monsanto, Coca Cola, and of course, Dow.

Among TNC’s corporate funders: again, Dow; Coke, DuPont, Pepsi.

Could the ban-GMO movement ask for more vicious enemies?

Search the extensive TNC website and try to find one negative mention of GMOs or toxic pesticides in their “championing of the environment.”

And what about the boss at TNC?

The CEO is Mark Tercek, former managing partner at what Matt Taibbi calls the “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money”:

Goldman Sachs.

Tercek is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the vampire squid’s brother.

Tercek writes: “We would also be smart to put more focus on making GMO technology available to lower-income farmers, given the potential benefits that climate-resilient GMO crops could bring to the developing world.”

“Climate-resilient.” Sure. What’s wrong with those damn crops that keep demanding decent weather? Fix them with new genes from Dow. Can’t wait for food that doesn’t need water or topsoil.

To repeat: Faye Kurren, Judge Kurren’s wife, was a TNC trustee.

Case closed.

Find a new Judge.

This one’s tainted.