COM 1424.328 2006-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

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October 30, 2008 The Honorable Pete Hoffmann, Chairperson, and Members Page 2 "To put it quite frankly, the Police Department would be the most inappropriate enforcement agency to mandate compliance with this bill, due to the aforementioned items and especially if we are given no additional funding for training to determine the difference in appearance from taro or coffee that has normal genetic conformation versus the same commodity that has been genetically engineered or transgenic." These and other points have been made by the Hawaii County Police Department on the difficulty, if not impossibility, of the Police enforcing this bill. Continuing Research Needed No one advocating for the continuation of GMO research on the Island of Hawaii would support anything that would endanger our taro (kalo) or the specialness of Hawai`i's coffee. To understand this, what needs to be communicated is the official position of the University of Hawaii as,well as others involved in GMO research. This position is that research could be a major asset in the protection of those special crops as well as others. As we know, at this time there are no laws prohibiting importation of transgenic taro or taro with other potential problems from anywhere else in the world. This is more so true with coffee. I do believe research, can help these products, help protect what people want protected, and further the development of local agriculture. This administration fully supports continued research within the established Federal Coordinated Framework, which includes U.S. Department of Agriculture, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Drug Administration and coordination with the Hawaii Department of Agriculture. It is recommended that appropriate regulatory authorities be encouraged to provide for enhanced public outreach and education on the regulatory process to educate consumers about biotechnology. Role of Hawaii in the World Hawaii Island and the State of Hawaii play a major part in global issues of agriculture. I strongly believe that this special role of Hawaii in the past and present has not been fully appreciated. Hawaii is important in addressing the food production problems of the world. This includes the role of GMO in Hawaii, especially in research. Farmers around the globe credit the State of Hawaii for major crops such as corn that are grown worldwide. There is global demand for new, improved, safe and dependable plant genetics, and Hawaii is a special place for research because of its location and its year round growing environment. This, truthfully, is also because of the structured state and federal oversight on research. The details of this oversight and control should be known to all who are concerned. It is pointed out here that the federal permitting process for GMO is stringent and does contain very specific permit conditions, as well as being very regulated.