HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0271.079 2012-2014 Murashige, Laura _..UNT AML I �#
From: Carol Gonsalves [carolvgonsalves @gmail.comC ]H
Sent: Monday, May 13, 2013 11:16 AM ten KO
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To: counciltestimony@co.hawaii.hi.us
Cc: carolvgonsalves
Subject: Testimony Bill #79
Attachments: Bill#79 Testimony.docx
Bill#79
timony.docx(142 K
May 13, 2013
:ear County Council,
e2ee find my testimony attached.
lours truly,
Carol Gonsalves
Comm. N c I rl. 7 9
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DATE: May 12, 2013
TO: Brenda Ford, Council Council Chair, Committee on Public Safety & Mass Transit
Margaret Wille, Vice Chair, Committee on Public Safety & Mass Transit
Karen Eoff, Member
Greggor Ilagan, Member
Dru Mamo Kanuha, Member
Zendo Kern, Member
Dennis "Fresh" Onishi, Member
Valerie T. Poindexter, Member
J. Yoshimoto, Member
Email: counciltestimony @co.hawaii.hi.us
FROM: Carol Gonsalves
SUBJECT: Testimony in opposition to County Council bill No. 79
[See especially, page 2]
I_=lm just a private citizen without a title to distinguish me from anybody else on
this island, but I do believe my voice should be heard. I grew up in the town of Hawi in
Kohala where the only road to get in and out was over the Kohala Mountains. The
community swimming pool was at Ho[:=ea, in a concrete structure that was part of an old
sugar mill torn down many years before. These were the "plantation days." We were
not allowed not to use the beautiful private swimming pool and tennis court reserved
only for management folks, for we were the locals. We thrived in the gulches and
valleys, in the streams with the lopae and i o' '.opu and of course, in the sea.
Some people might have pitied us for our isolation and way of living, for as little
children our only vista to the outside world was a visit to Grandma and Grandpa Kaiawe
in Karlohe, Kona or to Uncle Louis and Aunty Mona Hao Is home in Keaukaha. Our
world was really quite small. But we were happy, proud, and thankful for our beautiful
Kohala.
Well, a lot of things have changed since then. I have seen the world, and oh is it
small today. I volunteered in the Cornell University laboratory of my husband Dennis
Gonsalves for 14 years. Thus, I saw firsthand the production of the genetically
engineered LSunUp❑ and "Rainbow'_, papaya which he and other scientists produced
for Hawaii, trained foreign scientists on how to produce virus resistant papaya for their
own countries, and genetically engineered tomato, melon and squash for resistance to
viruses which could not be controlled in any other way than by the new technology of
genetic engineering. All of these works have been published in refereed scientific
journals, including a feature story for the American Phytopathological Society
("Transgenic Virus-Resistant Papaya: The Hawaiian Rainbow__ was Rapidly Adopted
by Farmers and is of Major Importance in Hawaii Today (Aug-Sept 2004). This work,
based on interviews of 93 papaya farmers in the major growing area of Puna showed
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that a phenomenal number (76% of the 93 farmers interviewed) of farmers had already
planted ['Rainbow _'.
I oppose County Council Bill No. 79 because I feel that you, in the Hawaii County
Council have a poor understanding of just what genetic engineering really is. As a
result, your ammendment indicates that fear is driving you to close a door that could
one day help us to continue growing a crop that is necessary to our sustenance.
I propose instead that you call on experts who are caring and knowledgeable on
this subject to provide first hand information on genetically engineered crops. These are
the truly sustainable crops of today and they are already firmly entrenched in our food
chain. I for one can vouch for Dennis Gonsalves, my husband. He._s a local too, from
Kohala. He tells the truth. He has a caring heart. He is an expert. And for those to whom
it matters, he is Hawaiian. He worked on the sugar plantation in the summers to support
himself through college pumping herbicide from a five-gallon can strapped to his back
and pushing a "Merry Tiller," so new sugar cane stalks could be planted. I propose also
that instead of banning new genetically engineered plants from our island, that we work
together to produce a unique environment where native, organic and genetically
engineered plants coexist in harmony.