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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0271.080 2012-2014 Page 1 of 1 Murashige, Laura COUNTY CLERK COUNTY OF HAWAII From: Dennis Gonsalves [dennisgonsal @gmail.com] - Sent: Monday, May 13, 2013 1:40 AM 7013 MAY 13 AM 46 To: counciltestimony @co.hawaii.hi.us Cc: Gonsalves, Dennis Subject: Testimony Against bill 79 Attachments: GonsalvesGMOBanTestimonyHawaiiCounty.5.13.13.docx Dear council members: Attached is my testimony against Bill 79. Aloha, Dennis Gonsalves Comm. No 7 . Ref. To: 1 P5M7G- R f. Date MAY 1-4 2013 5/13/2013 Date: May 12, 1013 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 From: Dennis Gonsalves, PhD Born and raised on sugar plantation in North Kohala Led the development and commercialization of the transgenic papaya the saved the Hawaiian papaya industry Retired at end of 2012 as the Director of the USDA Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center, Hilo, Hawaii Subject: Testimony against Council Bill No. 79 My name is Dr. Dennis Gonsalves and I am testifying against Council bill No. 79 as a private citizen. I retired at the end of 2012 as director of the USDA Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center in Hilo Hawaii. I was born and raised on the Kohala sugar plantation in Halaula, North Kohala. I still have a sister Nora Luke and brother Stanley Gonsalves who have lived in North Kohala all their lives. I often visit and stay in North Kohala as I was fortunate that my sister Nora virtually gave me our plantation house that I was raised in. A number of my childhood friends still live in North Kohala; that place is special to me although I now live primarily in Hilo. I graduated from the Kamehameha Schools in 1961, received my BS and MS degrees in agriculture from the University of Hawaii, and my PhD in Plant Pathology from the University of California at Davis in 1972. I was assistant/associate professor at University of Florida 1972-77,and associate/professor at Cornell University from 1977 to 2002, rising to the endowed Liberty Hyde Bailey Professorship in 1995. I left Cornell University in 2002 to become the director of the USDA Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center (PBARC). I primarily came back to the Hawaii to partially repay Hawaii for what it did for me. I endeavored to make PBARC a world class research center and do it `local' style. I never forgot my roots. I retired at the end of 2012. Needless to say, I was shocked and really saddened when I saw bill 79 that the Honorable Margaret Wille, Council Woman of Kohala, introduced to propose a ban of further commercial production of new transgenic crops on Hawaii Island. In my opinion, this type of bill further serves to divide the people of Hawaii and Hawaii island in particular. I know about transgenic crops and biotechnology because I spent over 30 years investigating this field and I led the research team that developed the transgenic virus resistant papaya that virtually saved the Hawaii papaya industry. I personally worked with the research team and led the writing of the deregulation packages that we submitted to US agencies to get the transgenic papaya deregulated in the US. I then led the research team and the writing of the package to successfully get the Hawaiian transgenic papaya deregulated in Japan. Just prior to my retirement, PBARC and the University of Hawaii submitted a package to get the Hawaiian transgenic papaya deregulated in mainland China. I get invited to speak all over the world on the transgenic papaya story. The genome of the transgenic papaya was sequenced and featured on the cover of Nature in 2008. The transgenic papaya has been very thoroughly investigated and is safe for human consumption and for release into the environment. Unlike the opinion of Bill 79, I can say that the US agencies have done a thorough job in analyzing our data of our transgenic papaya. The results are published in numerous refereed journals for all to see. However, I don't want to spend time refuting the allegations and speculations in bill 79 as I am sure others will do that. Rather, I'd like to briefly speak to the rationale on why we did the work and the impact on human beings, and my efforts to help school kids in Kohala. I started to work on controlling the papaya ringspot virus in 1978 at the request of the Dean Furtick of the UH College of Tropical Agriculture and Human resources. The virus was in Hilo and the rationale was that if the virus entered Puna it would devastate the industry. Thus, we did proactive research in advance of the virus getting into Puna. It took us from 1985 to 1991 to develop a transgenic papaya that was resistant to the virus. The virus entered Puna in May 1992 and we were fortunate enough to deploy the transgenic papaya in 1998 to save the industry. What if we did not do proactive research since research does take time to execute? The industry would have collapsed. Thus, an action like bill 79 would only serve to stymy research and prevent efforts to help agriculture. We did the research to help PEOPLE. Papaya farmers a hard job that many people don't want to do. The research was not done to divide people. And, it also resulted in preserving a crop that is arguably the most healthy and cost effective fruit in Hawaii. One can get five papaya for a dollar in the farmer's market. I can tell you that that was not possible when the virus was raging in Puna. Can organic and transgenic papaya farmers grow papaya on Hawaii island? Absolutely. However, they need to know the facts and figure out ways to co-exist and work together. Bill 79 serves only to divide organic and transgenic papaya growers or other growers. I would be happy to help in this area. I grew up in a happy but not wealthy home since my father was a common laborer in the sugar plantation. I feel very lucky and fortunate that people had faith in me and gave me an opportunity to advance in a scientific career. I want to help youngsters and I must say I am partial to the 'lesser privileged' schools like Kohala as compared, for example, to the Kamehameha Schools. I have gone back on a number of occasions to speak to the Kohala Senior Citizens and to Kohala High School about the papaya work and science in general. I was so happy when last year a student from Kohala High came to PBARC to do directed research with one of our scientist. I even got to talk story with his parents when they visited PBARC. We certainly need to continue to help these youngsters. Again, bill 79 will only serve to discourage school kids to look at science as a career- whether they take up biotechnology our not. There is no need to put up any type of obstacles that might discourage them from having an inquiring mind and perhaps see the joys of science. Lastly, I took up science to help people through research. I am now retired and I really 1 hope that such divisiveness over GMOs will not harm research efforts to help people. In fact, the best thing, in my opinion, is for the bill 79 to be withdrawn and productive discussions take place on points of GMOs. Aloha, Dennis Gonsalves 789 Hoolaulea Street Hilo, Hawaii 96720