COM 0883.033 2006-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Nancy Redfeather P.O. Box 906 Kealakekua, Hawai'i 96750 In support of Resolution 463-08 Date: Thursday January 24, 2008 Aloha Chair Hoffmann and Members of the Council, I fans coffee in Kona with my family. I am one of the 250 small family farms in Kona who grow, process, roast and sell our gourmet coffee to visitors and the community. According to Department of Agriculture State of Hawai'i statistics, there are 745 farms on Hawai'i Island harvesting almost 5.8 million pounds of coffee. Total farm revenue of coffee statewide last year was $37.3 million (parchment) up 88% from the year before, with Hawai'i Island revenues at $31 million. I come today to ask you to protect the genetic value of Kona Coffee. As I look around the slate at the various agricultural industries that are based on branded, value-added high quality farm products, the Kona Coffee Industry is a shining example of sustainability, high value and a healthy rural family fans lifestyle. As you may know, you cannot grow coffee just anywhere and procure the taste of Kona Coffee. Our high elevation, ash soil, cloudy afternoons, and dry cool winters all contribute to the unique taste known worldwide. In Japan such areas are designated as "national treasures " The bill before you today, which has support of the coffee growers associations, would place restrictions on the open field testing or commercial growing of any GMO coffee in the State for 5 years, but would still allow testing, propagation, and cultivation of genetically engineered coffees in "environmentally secure facilities" This seems like a fair compromise to those who are still interested in development of GMO coffees. However, since the coffee fanners have expressed a overwhelming interest in protecting the original genetic value of Kona Coffee, it seems a waste of taxpayer money and research time to develop coffees that are not desired by the growers, neither are our worldwide customers interested in buying and drinking genetically engineered coffee. Research monies available should be going toward innovations, which would actually help Hawaii's farmers. Although coffee flowers are mostly self- pollinating, when coffee is blooming in Kona, the trees are covered with bees. According to Garnet Puett, one of the largest organic honey producers in the United States who is based in Kona, bees travel 6-7 miles per day searching for food. Pollens could be easily be spread by bees from tree to tree over a wide area, and if GMO coffees were being grown in the region, each seed that was cross pollinated would be genetically engineered, and there would be no way to tell. Advocates of GMO coffee might say, we could limit their planting to other geographical regions where no coffee is grown. However, the taste of coffee is very important and this taste comes from soil and climate. It has been proven over and over again in the US and around the world that once a genetically engineered plant variety is introduced into any geographical region, it is only a matter of time before plants will be spread around knowingly or unknowingly. Keeping genetically engineered coffee out of the fields of the state of Hawai'i' is the only way to insure and protect this high value agricultural industry which is obviously growing and flourishing. Contamination events continue to wreak havoc around the US commodity by commodity. The latest being the long rice industry who is still reeling from the contamination of the long grain rice supply by a formally "unapproved" variety produced by Bayer. I have been following with interest not only the law suits which have been filed and loss to the farmers in real dollars (last I heard it was 450 million) but the Rice Industry Association's plan to rid the LL601 strain from the long grain seed stocks. The rice industry is still "unsure" of how the contamination occurred, but the current best guess is a field trial in the area of a seed-producing field. In the past two weeks Federal judges have also ruled against the USDA on their illegal "GMO Bentgrass Trial" in Oregon, in the middle of the non-gmo grass seed growing region, and rated last Friday that GMO Alfalfa will not be going forward without an EIS. The courts are becoming extremely "concerned" about the cavalier attitude of the USDA and industry as regards the long- term health of the environment and the need for conventional and organic farmers to "choose" genetic varieties free from contamination. Although interest in the development of genetically engineered coffees has waned, this bill would send a signal to the growers of this valued industry that the state understands and is willing to stand up and protect the high value of this notable product. Mahalo for the opportunity to testify, Aloha, Nancy Redfeather Kawanui Fans Kona