COM 0883.002 2006-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

JAN-04-2009 09:41 HARC 8084866020 P.Oii6 The point here is that where the stakeholders are willing, there are solutions. Where they are not willing, they seek protection. A point to be made here is that the Chair of the Departmert of Agriculture has already stated that no field testing of coffee will be allowed w thout first it study on the pollen movement of coffee. That research has not be done nor is it even been proposed by anyone. 5o what is the issue? There is none! The question for this committee is, has the risk been demonstrated sufficiently to you for you i o be proposing support to pass a LAW to protect a market? Is there a product in the pipeline that has a trait that someone is interested in enough to pay the costs of technology transfer? If so, how many more years are needed for it to be deregulated? Is there evidence that the Kona market is being threatened by customers unwilling to buy their product because of the fear of possible presence of a few genetically engineered beans? Now as I mentioned earlier, I would like to provide you with a better feel for the time frame !cr new plant development. No matter what method is used to develop a new plant it goes through a field selection process. In all cases several plants are derived which must go through the fieldlobsenation and testing selection process. Yield has historically been a driving characteristic but pest resistance (weed/insect/disease) as well as nutrient and plant structure are also important depending on the crop. That process takes years and depends on each crop cycle time from plant to harvest. I am most familiar with sugarcane since our organization has been involved with that the longest mul it takes us over 10 years to come up with a new plant that has some improved property over fie existing commercial one. In the end, we are not sure what genetic changes were made to file plant--just that it performs better and provides better test results than the existing one. Let me assure you, that process takes millions of dollars paid by the local sugarcane industry and doesn't happen without considerable reflection. There are no regulations for any of this, just careful m! thoughtful practices developed over time. With genetically engineered plants, add to the front end of that process in determining how e grow a plant in a tissue culture system from plant cells which may differ from plant to plart Other steps are to determine what part of a plant is receptive to gene insertion, tc acquire a usefil gene and get it into a usable form, to insert the gene, to grow and select cells :hat acquired the inserted gene, to use the tissue culture system to develop leaves, stalk and toots, to test the selected plants for the presence and functionality of the gene, to successfully transfer selected plants to potting material, to test the material to determine effectiveness and stability of Ile inserted gene, and finally, to safely determine effectiveness and stability under field conditions e:s outlined in the preceding paragraph. Using this technology one knows what material is providing the desired benefit and can locate it in the genetic matrix. The benefits provided are a reduction in the number of plants taken through the field selection process, which is very costly, Z.nd a quicker method of getting the trait of interest into a plant without losing other lx-neficial traits, a common problem. Hawaii Agriculture Research Center Page 2