Joni Kamiya
Joni is an occupational therapist by training and an ag-vocate in Hawaii on the biotechnology issue. She is a wife, mother of three, and the daughter of long-time papaya farmer and Hawaii Papaya Industry Association president, Kenneth Kamiya. After completing her BS at the University of Hawaii in Manoa, she continued her education at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine in the Occupational Therapy program, where she was introduced to systems thinking and evidence-based practice concepts. As the biotech controversy started to emerge in Hawaii, she became an ag-vocate in the social media circles to help defend her family’s farm. She founded her blog, the “Hawaii Farmer’s Daughter,” and engaged with social media to speak out for the technology that saved her family’s three-generation farm.
Topics of expertise: Hawaii GMO papaya story
Regions of expertise: Hawaii, US