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<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> January 8, 2008 <br /> 2 P.M. <br /> <br /> Testimony <br /> Hawaii County Council <br /> Environmental Management Committee <br /> <br /> Chairman Bob Jacobson <br /> <br /> Chair Jacobson and the Committee: <br /> <br /> My name is Una Greenaway. I have been an organic Kona Coffee farmer for the past <br /> thirty years. I farm a wonderful five-acre historic farm in the ahupua'a of Kealakekua. <br /> My husband and I tend coffee trees that were planted 100 years ago by Mr. Kunitaro <br /> Motomura. Our coffee is marketed under the name Kona Old Style, and that it is. We <br /> had the great fortune this year of winning first place in the Kona Coffee Cupping <br /> Competition in November. We are now now officially the best coffee in Kona. <br /> <br /> I have been the person who has shepherded through the legislature, the bill HB1577 HD1, <br /> a five-year ban on outdoor plantings and field trials of gmo coffee in the state of Hawaii. <br /> In the past 2007 session, it was passed by the House of Representatives, with a vote of 45 <br /> for, 4 against and 2 excused. When it crossed over to the Senate, it stalled there and did <br /> not get a hearing. This past September, after relentless calls to his office, and planning, <br /> Senator Ron Menor came to visit Kona and to meet with representatives from the five <br /> main coffee organizations. Senator Menor realized after listening for two hours to <br /> farmers' reasoning and facts, that we do not want gmo coffee in our state at all. It would <br /> greatly jeopardize our very successful crop, and the markets that we sell to. He gave us <br /> his word that as far as he was concerned there would be a hearing in the 2008 session. <br /> The organizations in support of this bill are: Hawaii Coffee Association, Kona Coffee <br /> Council, Kona Coffee Farmers' Association, Kona Farmers' Alliance and the Kona <br /> Pacific Farmers' Cooperative. <br /> Coffee is a self-pollinating plant, meaning that it does not need an insect to spread its <br /> pollen to create the next generation. But when it flowers the bees in the area are in <br /> heaven. The trees literally hum. Beekeepers here on the island tell me that when a bee is <br /> hungry it can travel a six-mile diameter. In Kona the average size of a coffee farm is five <br /> acres. There are hundreds of farms in a six-mile diameter. It would be impossible to be <br /> in contact with all of the farmers in your pollen range. The reason that I mention this is <br /> this, the biotech industry has promoted "good neighborly communications" as a way to <br /> prevent contamination from gmos. Unfortunately this would not work in our case. <br /> <br /> In February 2007, Dr. John Stiles of Integrated Coffee Technologies on Oahu, testified <br /> in front of Bob Herkes' Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee, that he would <br /> have gmo coffee plants ready for field trial in 12 - 18 months. If allowed to do so, it <br /> would create a perception of contamination, around coffee in our state, regardless of the <br /> reality. In 2006 in the Midwestern U.S., it was discovered that six states' long grain rice <br />