Big Island GMO ban approved

Farmers' testimony, informal poll unites council in 9-0 vote

by Bret Yager
Hawaii Tribune-Herald Staff Writer
Thursday, October 9, 2008

The Hawaii County Council has banned genetically modified coffee and taro from the Big Island.

Three council members changed earlier votes against the proposal to unanimously pass Bill 361. Councilman Stacy Higa said that testimony and a phone survey set aside his fears that there was not a clear majority of coffee farmers supporting the ban. Opposition to genetically modified taro has been clear all along, council members said.

Councilors listened to nearly seven hours of testimony ranging from the technical to the emotional.

Supporters of the ban spoke of fears that genetically modified crops might be field-tested and released here, lowering the value of specialty coffee crops, adulterating and contaminating food sources, and creating health ramifications that have never been fully studied.

Do genetic engineering if you wish, ban supporters said -- just do it on some other island.

"All of these professors with their big words are just scare tactics," said Nohealani Casper, a University of Hawaii at Hilo forestry major. "Kalo is just fine and it will continue to be just fine. Kalo is my older brother. It is my job to protect him, as it was his job to feed us."

Opponents of the ban -- including representatives from farm associations, the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, the Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce and trade groups -- fear the ban is just the beginning and will soon spread to other crops, hobbling agriculture at a time when genetic research is needed to combat pests and disease.

Plus, some said the anti-GMO message essentially reflects an anti-innovation, anti-technology prejudice.

Prior to public testimony, Mayor Harry Kim asked the council to consider putting off a vote, with an eye to creating a council of stakeholders to come up with a way that research could go ahead in a way that is acceptable to all.

Kim said the issue was unnecessarily dividing the community.

"I feel you can establish very strong guidelines on how this research can and should be done," Kim said.

"Coffee farmers out there are terrified of GMO," responded Councilman Bob Jacobson. "Taro farmers are not coming forward to oppose this. It's the people who have money, like Monsanto and Dow (large chemical and seed companies), who are creating the dissension."

As the council voted for the ban, Angel Pilago, the bill's author, said the council of academics, government and community members should still be formed, and the law can be amended later if findings warrant.

"Our core issue is of home rule, to not allow genetic engineering to be foist on us," Pilago said.

Hamakua Councilor Dominic Yagong's staff called 89 coffee farmers islandwide and found that 82 percent supported the ban. All but a handful of those supporting GMO testing said they'd only support laboratory -- not field -- testing, said Yagong, who supported the ban in earlier votes but later worried that it wasn't clear where the coffee growers stood.

Councilors were skeptical that some of the farm organizations opposing the ban had even consulted their membership on the subject.

"I wanted to hear directly from the farmers, not from someone who said 'I represent so and so.' The most important stakeholders are the farmers," Yagong said.

Lisa Gibson, president of the Honolulu-based industry association Hawaii Science & Technology Council, said the bill sends an anti-technology message at a time when the economy is a vital issue.

"This bill is essentially anti-science," Gibson said. "It does not value innovation and sends a chilling message to those considering doing business here. It says loud and clear that the Big Island is not interested in growing its science and technology economy."

Said Jerry Konanui, a Native Hawaiian taro farmer: "One hundred percent of Waipio taro farmers are against GMO taro. How will it effect our environment, our streams, drinking water and oceans? Where is the data saying it's safe? The cautionary principals are not being applied here. We're ingesting this stuff. GMO coffee will be just like papaya. You won't be able to tell."

Papaya growers made repeated references to genetic engineering to combat the papaya ringspot virus after the industry was devastated in the 1980s and '90s.

"Research must start before disaster strikes. There are plenty of rules already in place that protect the environment and food supply," said papaya grower Rusty Perry.

Russell Ruderman, owner of Island Naturals health food stores, presented the other side of the coin with a story about an organic papaya farm that had been destroyed after being contaminated by pollen from genetically modified papaya.

"No one can guarantee that won't happen to coffee following the first field trial," he said.

"The end of the GMO road is every farmer having to pay a fee to Monsanto (for genetically-modifed seed)," Ruderman said. "There has been a lot of fear-mongering by multinational corporations that we'll lose our food supply (to diseases). It's utterly nonsense."

Hector Valenzuela, a University of Hawaii at Manoa crops extension specialist, said that there have been no human trials to prove genetically engineered foods are safe.

"Once we release GMO products into the food system, there is no way to track it because there are no controls," Valenzuela said.

Noting that strong winds and hurricanes can scatter pollen great distances, Valenzuela speculated that it would be very difficult to control field trials of genetically modified plants.

But genetic research is needed to combat taro leaf blight, which has wiped out more than 90 percent of crops in the Solomon Islands, said Susan Miyasaka, lead scientist on a UH-Manoa project to genetically modify Chinese taro.

"Imagine if that virus reached Hawaii," Miyasaka said.

The ban removes the option of doing badly needed research to improve disease resistance, said Miyasaka, who noted that she has no intention of field-testing Chinese taro.

"I hear lawyers say 'we have no intention' all the time," Kona Councilwoman Brenda Ford said.

She made it clear from the beginning where she stood on the issue.

"We're being treated as if we don't have a basic knowledge of genetic modification, as if we're anti-science. It's very offensive," said Ford. "I have 1,296 signatures on a petition supporting this ban. It's not that we don't understand, but that we're supporting people who don't want their crops adulterated."

"We have heard massive amounts of testimony saying don't do this," Ford said as council members voted.

Councilmember J Yoshimoto said testimony from coffee grower helped him decide to change his vote to support the ban.

"The coffee issue was a sticking point, but after today, the issue has become clearer to me," Yoshimoto said. "The County Council has listened to the people."

Council Chairman Pete Hoffmann noted that the bill only restricts two crops.

"I'm not against proper GMO research, but it was clear we needed to put a marker down in the sand," Hoffmann said. "If other parts of the state want to do this, let the universities and other high-paid companies make that happen."