Goldstein says that seed companies can harvest three to four yields of corn per year in Hawaii compared with only a single yield in the continental U.S. thanks to its temperate tropical climate. Other parts of the world with similar climates may also be well suited for corn and soybean seed production. But Goldstein notes that Hawaii has the added advantage of extensive amounts of available land due to the downturn in sugar and pineapple over the past decade, a victim of skyrocketing production costs compared with lower rates in developing countries.
As a result, many U.S. seed companies, including Pioneer Hi-Bred, Monsanto and Syngenta, have turned the Islands into a sprawling living nursery for GM corn seed. Genetically engineered corn seed is now the top crop in Hawaii, comprising 92 percent of the state's GM seed industry valued at $97.6 million for the 2006 to 2007 season.
"Genetically engineered crops can actually help our environment, help our economy, and secure jobs for our agricultural workers," says Ching Yuan Hu, associate dean of research at the University of Hawaii at Manoa's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. Hu is quick to point out, however, that he only supports the development of GM crops in which cross-pollination with non-GM crops can be prevented to ensure that engineered traits will not dilute the gene pool of conventional crops, thereby causing target species to develop resistance.
The university is currently engineering seeds for disease-resistant bananas, a new variety of papaya, and Spanish lime—plants that Hu deems safe. Hu notes that it generally takes from seven to nine years to bring a new GM seed to market.
But not everyone is on the GM bandwagon. Critics worry that the pests genetically engineered crops were originally created to withstand will eventually build resistance to the crop, and that the engineered traits will spread virulently via the wind, birds and bees.
"One of the biggest concerns with growing crops like Bt [Bacillus thuringiensis] corn [engineered to produce the pest killer, Bt, which has been used for decades by organic farmers to control crop-eating insects] is that you're putting insects under the greatest selection pressure to become resistant to Bt, a natural insecticide," says Bill Freese of the Center For Food Safety, an environmental advocacy group in Washington, D.C., that promotes alternatives to unsustainable food technologies. He adds that if insects become resistant to this natural pesticide, organic farmers may lose one of their best and safest antipest weapons.
"The broader implications of growing GM crops is that it will create unwanted genetic material and traits in a wider and wider swath of major crops," such as spreading herbicide tolerance or pest resistance into wild relatives and then outward from there, Freese adds.
Conventional Hawaiian papayas have already come under scrutiny by organic farmers and environmental organizations in Hawaii for "genetic drift"—crops grown from non-GM seeds that test positive for being GM. In response, South Korea stopped buying papayas from the island of Hawaii, and Hawaiian papaya farmers who ship to Japan now have to test their trees for contamination and certify that they're "clean". In other words, these countries don't trust the genetic integrity of Hawaii's "non-GM papayas," which in turn has economically harmed many of the islands organic papaya farmers, and can lead to them losing their organic certification.
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11 Comments
Add Commenti don't like planting GM products. you can't use seeds from one year to the next. it's like "hybrid massacre".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-t7PmonBEA&feature=channel_page
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GM is poison, not any proof of its safety. The people of Hawaii should burn these genetic monstrosities down! All Monsanto and DuPont care about is cornering the market and making absolute profit. It is time to revolt against this evil.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have lived on Kauai for almost 20 years. I find that when I eat the locally grown fresh corn I don't digest it at all, yet I can eat other imported fresh corn.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey forgett to mention that most of the weeds they talk about are Hawaiian herbs that grow wild. We've grown sugarcane, pineapple, vegetables and fruits without using any pesticides and they have been healthy and delicious. With GMO you don't get that; it's a means for corporations to own the foodplants so they can charge you for it and control it. They have contaminated our lands that affect our aquifers and in the end our territory will be inhabitable for humans. The U.S. have always stated that Hawai'i is expendable. They have disrupted our eco-system to experiment with hazardous materials. We don't want any GMO/GE experiments in Hawai'i.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey forgett to mention that most of the weeds they talk about are Hawaiian herbs that grow wild. We've grown sugarcane, pineapple, vegetables and fruits in our yards without using any pesticides and they have been healthy and delicious. With GMO you don't get that; it's a means for corporations to own the foodplants so they can charge you for it and control it. They have contaminated our lands that affect our aquifers and in the end our territory will be inhabitable for humans. The U.S. have always stated that Hawai'i is expendable. They have disrupted our eco-system to experiment with hazardous materials. We don't want any GMO/GE experiments in Hawai'i.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAt least the focus here seems to be the massive control the large corporations will have over what we *eat*. What we need to stay alive, to say no less.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe safety scares are (mostly, IMO) just a way to keep the general public from buying them. Ok, they are *probably* *mostly* safe, but that in no way makes it OK to decimate natural species, take over the gene pool, encourage pollution of the water table with every increasing levels of pesticide and herbicide (one of the 'selling points' is that they're resistant to the really nasty toxins it takes to kill off every conceivable competitor for resources).
And that's before you mention that you're giving control of either what you live on, or your ability to grow the product that makes your living, to a massive, faceless company that's only in it to squeeze money out of you, year by year by year.
The article did not include the many studies and large amount of scientific data showing that foods developed through biotechnology are as safe as their conventional counterparts. Numerous independent agencies have studied the safety of GM crops and concluded they pose no danger to our food supply. In 2004 a National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine report evaluating health effects of genetically modified foods concluded that assessment of food safety based solely on method of breeding is "scientifically unjustified," and noted that adverse effects from transgenic foods have never been documented. Similarly, the World Health Organization concluded that GM foods on the market are not likely to present risks for human health any more than their conventional counterparts in their report Modern Food Biotechnology, Human Health and Development: An Evidence-Based Study (June 2005).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe article highlights biotech papaya, a successful application of biotechnology benefiting the Hawaii papaya industry. Papaya ringspot virus was decimating island papaya farms when biotechnologists produced a virus resistant variety. Now, Hawaiis papaya exports are growing and organic farmers benefit from the presence of resistant papaya in growing areas, which reduces the spread of the virus by insects from one farm to the next. Accurate information and scientific evidence that sheds light on the issue helps all of us better understand the current and future potential applications of this technology. Hawaiis biotech papaya and adoption of the technology by local farmers provides an example of the benefits and successful application of agriculture biotechnology.
If you go to gmofreehawaii.org, you will get a different perspective from the organic papaya growers and the contamination that has occurred! Some of those organic growers went to Thailand to talk with government officials there to give them the truth before it ruins their organi papaya crops.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCurrently a GMO preemption bill is upcoming in Hawaii's state legislature which would set a dangerous precedent should it pass. No industry should be allowed to preempt from being regulated or banned, a product that can either negatively or unstably affect the DNA of human health and biodiversity of our food supply. This would include non allowance for an exemption from the a regulation of the right to know what is in our foods and on our lands. Consider 2 papers: The Dangers From Consumption of Foods Containing Transplanted DNA by Hugh S. Lehman, Ph.D. on website: http://www.saynotogmos.org/ud2006/uapr06.phpo. and scientist Arpad Pusztai honest studies on GMO and its impacts, as well as his response to a young ladies questions on the link between autism and GMOs. http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2008/05/monsanto-gmos-arpad-pusztai-looks-at.html
There is absolutely no excuse for cultural and environmental distruction of land. I'm offended to see this article and the statement, "scientists believe say the benefits outweigh the risks of damage to the fragile ecosystem" is an infringement of the sovereign indigenous intellectual property rights of all the Native people who first cultivated those crops.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe fact that gmo companies grossly overlook the cross contamination of organic crops, is an infringement on the basic human rights to grow our own wholesome gmo free food.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs a lineal descendant of Hawai`i, I'm offended at the insensitivity of this article.
The Papaya industry was decimated in on the island that I live on (Hawai`i) because Japan (the smart country) banned gmo foods from their country. As a person who lives on the big island of Hawai`i, I'm offended because the gmo's cross contaminated many "organic" home gardens therefore, making them non organic. PEople were hired to go into the communities to cut down the existing papaya trees and gave out University of Hawai`i gmo seeds. So the statement, " the papaya industry was saved", is a gross misinterpretation of the facts. I live here, my ancestors are from here, the papaya's on this island are no longer guaranteed "gmo free" so the biotech industry took our "choice" to eat good wholesome food and possibly decimated wonderful varieties of papaya cultivated from years of selective breeding by generations of Native ancestors. The UH papaya's have no taste and probably depleted nutritional value. I wouldn't be surprised if they introduced the ringspot virus into our fragile environment. If they can contaminate a whole industry..I wouldn't put it past them.
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