Native Hawaiian water protector and organic farmer Alika Atay’s stunning November election to Maui County Council has set the stage for a powerful local government coalition to challenge the alleged right of Monsanto and other agrochemical companies to drench Hawaii’s farmlands and water tables with toxic pesticide spreading GMO test farms. Tomorrow, January 2, Alika will be sworn in and the first meeting of the Maui Council will take place in the County hearing room in Wailuku at 200 High Street. Alika says he is “enthusiastic on behalf of our land, our water, our people, our children, and the children of our children because we now have a voice for representation.” Maui’s backroom government, long controlled by Monsanto and a plantation land holding company, has mounted a legally suspect effort to commandeer the County Council, as described in a new Huffington Post column titled, “Will an Illegal Backroom Government Control Maui’s Future, at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/will-an-illegal-backroom-county-government-control_us_586474e2e4b068764965bfe2 “The old guard is clinging to power,” Alika explains. “They are afraid of this push for transparency. My guess is that the corporations here on Maui have become so powerful and so accustomed to getting their way on everything that this shift represents a challenge to them.” Despite the opposition, Atay is optimistic for 2017. “But they know that change is just around the corner. When we step into that room we carry the torch of hope.”