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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0271.207 2012-2014 Submitted: May 24, 2013 COUNTY CLERK COUNT? OF H To: Hawai'i County Council HAWAII Councilwoman Witte, Chair of the Committee on Agriculture 209 MAY 24 N1 & 3 Councilwoman Poindexter, Vice Chair of the Committee on Agriculture From: Terri Cabreros Re: Testimony in support of Bill 79 Banning GMO in Hawai'i County Chairs and Council members, My name is Terri Cabreros, born and raised on this island and a resident of Hawaiian Paradise Park. I support Bill 79 - Banning GMO in Hawai'i County for the following reasons: • Before the FDA decided to allow GMOs into food without labeling, FDA scientists had repeatedly warned that GM foods can create unpredictable, hard-to-detect side effects, including allergies, toxins, new diseases, and nutritional problems. They urged long- term safety studies, but were ignored. (See attached: Genetically Modified Foods Info) • The increasing usage of Roundup herbicide on Roundup Ready GMO crops which is becoming ineffectual. (See attached Roundup/Glyphosate Studies a Monsanto's Superweeds) • Although Monsanto claims that Roundup breaks down into harmless substances, it has been found to be extremely persistent, with residue absorbed by subsequent crops over a year after application. And if you're spraying it regularly, year after year, how much poison do you think the soil is retaining? (See attached: Roundup Studies and Info on Glyphosate in Roundup) • The effect of Roundup on soils...heavy use of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide is doing irreparable damage to the soil. (See attached: Effects of Roundup on Soil) • The Development of "Superweeds" and "Superbugs." (See attached: Monsanto's Superweeds and Monsanto's Superbugs) • The need to learn from our past: The Sugar Cane Industry and the damaging, long-term effects; two decades later, continues to affect our soil and contaminate our water (see attached: Learning From Our History) • We also need to learn from what is happening on the other islands: I have seen and heard about the horrible effects of GMO crops on the islands of Moloka'i, Mau'i, Oahu and Kaua'i, and how it is devastating these islands. Hear what the people of Hawai'i have to say about their land being devastated and their people being sickened. See attached: Excerpts from Islands at Risk: Genetic Engineering in Hawai'i) If GMOs are as safe as Monsanto claims, why would they block independent research that should prove their claims? If GMOs are as safe as they declare, why would they spend millions of dollars blocking labeling? Companies with legitimate products to sell would welcome confirmation, wouldn't they? Comm.No. °Z 7�. .207 Ref.To: P/P S/N TC Ref.Date, JUL 2 2013 If we continue to allow Monsanto products, namely GMO seeds/crops in, as did all the other islands, we are letting the devil in the back door and it will be complete destruction...total devastation of our land...not might, but will, happen. We cannot afford to compromise on this issue. We need to stop the madness...beginning here...beginning with us, beginning with our land. We need to get back to the basics...sustainable, organically grown agriculture...enriching the soil for present and future growing. And people, we live on an istand...if we are cut off from the mainland, we are on our own...what are we to eat if we are unable to grow food because our soils are poisoned. I propose we rid our island of all GMO production; develop organic vegetable and fruit fields; more grass-fed beef ranges as well as free-range chicken areas. 64 countries ban or label GMOs...we are in a unique position to market sustainable, organically grown products. Why are we not looking into these things? Thank you for this opportunity to voice my deep concerns Terri Cabreros HC 3 Box 4669 Keaau, HI 96749 Phone: 966-8927 Genetically Modified Foods Info http://www.responsibletechnology.org/gmo-dangers (GMO Dangers - Genetically modified foods...Are they safe?) The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) doesn't think so. Before the FDA decided to allow GMOs into food without labeling, FDA scientists had repeatedly warned that GM foods can create unpredictable, hard-to-detect side effects, including allergies, toxins, new diseases, and nutritional problems. They urged long-term safety studies, but were ignored. http://responsibletechnology.org/docs/industry-studies-are-flawed.pdf (Industry Studies on GMOs Are Often Flawed by Design and Fail to Reveal Effects) "A 2011 published paper in the journal Food Policy showed how financial or professional conflicts of interest influence outcomes of peer-reviewed articles on the health risks or nutritional value of genetically modified foods. This comes as no surprise to independent researchers who, for years, have pointed out how industry-funded research is often designed specifically to force a conclusion of safey." http://responsibletechnology.org/article-gmo-soy-linked-to-sterility (Genetically Modified Soy Linked to Sterility, Infant Mortality) "...many scientists, physicians, and concerned citizens don't think that the public should remain the lab animals for the biotech industry's massive uncontrolled experiment." Russian biologist Alexey Surov says, "We have no right to use GMOs until we understand the possible adverse effects, not only to ourselves but to future generations as well. We definitely need studies to clarify this. Any type of contamination has to be tested before we consume it, and GMO is just one of them." Roundup/Glyphosate Studies http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/roundup.cfm (Health and Environmental Impacts of Monsanto's Roundup Pesticide) Although Monsanto claims that Roundup breaks down into harmless substances, it has been found to be extremely persistent, with residue absorbed by subsequent crops over a year after application. Roundup shows adverse effects in all standard categories of toxicological testing, including medium-term toxicity, long-term toxicity, genetic damage, effects on reproduction, and carcinogenicity. http://www.reuters.corn/article/2013/04/25/roundup-health-study-idUSL2NODC22F20130425 Heavy use of herbicide Roundup linked to health dangers-U.S. study - April 25, 2013) • Study says chemical residues linked to disease • Roundup developer Monsanto says glyphosate is safe • Researchers say more study is needed Heavy use of the world's most popular herbicide, Roundup, could be linked to a range of health problems and diseases, including Parkinson's, infertility and cancers, according to a new study. Those residues enhance the damaging effects of other food-borne chemical residues and toxins in the environment to disrupt normal body functions and induce disease, according to the report, authored by Stephanie Seneff, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Anthony Samset, a retired science consultant from Arthur D. Little, Inc. Samsel is a former private environmental government contractor as well as a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body," the study says. We "have hit upon something very important that needs to be taken seriously and further investigated," Seneff said. http://responsibletechnology.org/docs/damaging-effects-of-roundup.pdf (Damaging Effects of Roundup (and its active ingredient glyphosate) • When Monsanto introduced Roundup Ready crops 1996, they boldly claimed that herbicide use would decrease as a result. It did - slightly - for three years. But over the next 10 years it grew considerably. Total herbicide use in the US jumped by 383 million pounds, or about 10%, in the 13 years after GMOs came on the scene. The primary reason for the increase is the accelerating spread of herbicide tolerant weeds. • Farmers are applying significantly more Roundup. Nearly half of the huge 13-year increase in herbicide use took place in just the last 2 years. • The glyphosate concentration in the soil builds up season after season with each subsequent application. http://responsibletechnology.org/docs/gmos-inevitably-contaminate-and-persist.pdf (GMOs Inevitably Contaminate and Persist) • GM crops are a source of self-propagating genetic and environmental pollution. • The spread of GMOs takes place through cross pollination, seed movement, "volunteer" crops (growing from previous years' unharvested seeds), and accidents by seed companies and farmers. http://www.gracelinks.org/blog/685/are-you-roundup-ready-high-levels-of-glyphosate-in-city-folk (Are You Roundup Ready? High Levels of Glyphosate in City Folks' Urine, and More Bad Monsanto News-March 7, 2012) A new study from the Ithika Journal of Ecology has found significant concentrations (5 to 20 times the limit for drinking water) of glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup, in the urine of city dwellers. Glyphosate is linked to birth defects, endocrine disruption, cancerand abnormal sperm. Studies have also discovered traces of it in our blood and found that it even crosses the placental barrier to enter unborn fetuses. Roundup has a variety of uses, but is primarily applied to genetically engineered "Roundup Ready" crops, which are bred to withstand its application. Not surprisingly, the ubiquitous - and toxic - herbicide is present in groundwater, streams, precipitation and even in the air in US agricultural areas, but is used far less frequently (mostly for sidewalk weed removal) in urban areas, so the results of the study are cause for concern. Effects of Roundup on Soil http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2011/08/monsantos-roundup-herbicide-soil-damage (USDA Scientist: Monsanto's Roundup Herbicide Damages Soil - August 19, 2011) http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/12/us-glyphosate-idUSTRE77B58A20110812 (Roundup herbicide research shows plant, soil problems - August 12, 2011) "The heavy use of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide appears to be causing harmful changes in soil and potentially hindering yields of the genetically modified crops that farmers are cultivating, a US government scientist said on Friday. Repeated use of the chemical glyphosate, the key ingredient in Roundup herbicide, impacts the root structure of plants, and 15 years of research indicates that the chemical could be causing fungal root disease, said Bob Kremer, a microbiologist with the US Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service." "...it is killing micronutrients in the soil that they (the plants) need. Harmful fungi and parasites like fusarium, phytopthora and phythium are on the rise as a result of the poison, while beneficial fungi and other organisms that help plants reduce minerals to a usable state are on the decline." http://www.non- gmoreport.com/articles/jan10/scientists_find_negative_impacts_of_GM_crops.php (Scientist finding many negative impacts of Roundup Ready GM Crops) "This system (Roundup Ready system) is altering the whole soil biology. We are seeing differences in bacteria in plant roots and changes in nutrient availability." "The most obvious impact is on rhizobia, a bacterium that fixes nitrogen. It has been shown that glyphosate can be toxic to rhizobia. (Nitrogen fixing bacteria are important to soils because nitrogen is the most commonly deficient nutrient in many soils.) Monsanto's Superweeds http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2011 /07/monsanto-superweeds-roundup (Monsanto's "Superweeds" Gallop Through Midwest - July 19, 2011) "...farmers are discovering that when you spend years dousing land a single herbicide, ecosystems adapt. Roundup Ready crops, meet Roundup-defying weeds." Such "superweeds" have been vexing farmers for several years now, but this season, according to a stark report in Monsanto's home-town paper The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the problem is galloping out of control. "In recent years, farmers have had to supplement Roundup with other, harsher herbicides, subjecting their land to highly toxic chemical cocktails. But now, weeds are developing resistance to the cocktails, too." The Post-Dispatch reports that "in some areas of the state, certain weeds have become resistant to three herbicides. In Illinois, some weeds have become resistant to four." The problem is accelerating, because the resistant weeds are driving out their non-resistant counterparts, and also cross-pollinating them with the resistant gene, spreading it far and wide. "...there's not much we can do about pollen flying through the air,a nd that's why we see such rapid spread of resistance." The USDA openly acknowledges the superweed problem and even delivered a pretty good explainer on it in its environmental impact statement on Roundup Ready alfalfa. Yet it keeps deregulating or choosing not to regulate at all new Roundup Ready crops... ...Monsanto's market dominance is so complete that farmers literally have no other alternative than to buy Roundup Ready seeds. For example, it's virtually impossible to buy non-Roundup Ready sugar beet seeds. More info: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/attack-of-the-superweed-09082011.html (Attack of the Superweed - September 08, 2011) http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/blogs/monsantos-dirty-secret-roundup- creating-super-weeds-more-ex (Monsanto's dirty secret: Roundup creating super weeds, more expensive food - August 15, 2011) Monsanto's Superbugs http://www.naturalnews.corn/040120 GM crops_Monsanto_chemical_resistance.html (GMO multi-toxin crops continue to backfire s more insects become resistant to crop chemicals - April 29, 2013) "...research out of the University of Arizona uncovers a growing resistance by pests to even the most advanced crop chemical technologies in use today. Published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the new study explains how multi-toxin GM crops are quickly losing their ability to fend off pests, which could lead to complete GMO failure in the very near future if alternate interventions are not enacted." "Contradicting the concept of redundant killing, cross-resistance resistance means that selection with one toxin increases resistance to the other toxin." GMO technology will never overcome pests and weeds, and will only make the problem worse over time. http://naturalsociety.com/monsantos-gmo-crops-ravage-us-usda-ignores-dangers/ (Monsanto's GMO Crops Ravage US, USDA Ignores Dangers - January 2, 2012) "At least 8 populations of insects have developed resistance, with 2 populations resistant to Bt sprays and at least 6 species resistant to Bt crops as a whole." "...biotech scientists are now creating even stronger genetically modified Bt as farmers use even more pesticides to combat the resistant bugs. And this is just one example of how biotech corporations and GMO crops are threatening the environment and humankind alike." http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011 /08/29-4 (Monsanto Corn Plant Losing But Resistance - August 29, 2011 by The Wall Street Journal) "Iowa State University entomologist Aaron Gassmann's discovery that western corn rootworms in four northeast Iowa fields have evolved to resist the natural pesticide made by Monsanto's corn plant..." http://grist.org/article/first-came-superweeds-and-now-come-the-superbugs/ (First came superweeds; now come the superbugs! - March 25 2010) "...Monsanto's other flagship product, its "Bt" line of genetically modified seeds which emit their own pesticide in the form of a naturally occurring toxin, is now under threat from resistant insects." Learning From Our History Use of Atrazine: http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2013/03/11/18548-pesticide-contamination-of-drinking-water- worries-state-health-officials/ (Pesticide Contamination Of Drinking Water Worries State Health Officials - 03-11-2013) • For years, Hilo residents' drinking water has been contaminated with the chemical atrazine - a popular weed killer used on thousands of acres of sugar cane fields that lined the landscape up until a couple of decades ago. • The chemical has tested within safe limits established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. But scientists and health advocates are increasingly concerned that atrazine could be harmful to human health at lower levels than previously thought. • Atrazine has been tied in scientific studies to cancer, changes in sex hormones and birth defects. • In addition to leaching into sources of drinking water, it poses a particular threat to agricultural workers in fields where it is sprayed. http://thegardenisland.com/news/local/experts-atrazine-a-real-threat-to-westside- residents/article_bb8ba5bc-855b-11e2-85c9-001a4bcf887a.html (Experts: Atrazine a real threat to Westside residents - March 12, 2013 - Waimea, Kauai) "One of the world's most widely used and controversial herbicides, Atrazine - which is manufactured by Syngenta - has been banned in Europe since 2004 due to groundwater contamination risks." Tyrone Hayes, Biology professor at the University of California at Berkeley said, "Atrazine, first introduced in 1958 in the U.S., is used particularly on GMO and experimental corn, and historically on sugarcane in Hawai'i and Florida. Each year, the U.S. uses 80 million pounds of Atrazine." http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsbtog/?p=9906 (Water Testing for Atrazine Severely Lacking in Hawaii - Beyond Pesticides, March 8, 2013) Sugarcane and pineapple production in Hawaii is threatening aquatic life as years of Atrazine applications, a pesticide regularly used for corn production too, has run off into rivers, streams, and groundwater sources. Islands at Risk (Part 1) - Genetic Engineering in Hawai'I by Earthjustice (uploaded on January 24, 2007) http://www.voutube.corn/watch?v=P29nhSR1l30 Paul Achitoff (attorney, Earthjustice): As long as these crops are grown in open fields, the risk of contaminating the food supply is great. Walter Ritte (hunter, Hawaiian activist): This is a whole industry that's going to threaten all of us on every island and all of our biodiversity. Militant Trask (Director, Indigenous World Assoc): We're really fighting an unholy alliance made of very powerful and wealthy transnational corporations, but our own state of Hawaii which is allowing it and facilitating it... Hanohano Naehu (Da Hemo Wai Bros.): They poisoning our aina. They poisoning our ohanas. They poisoning the place that we love. Walter: We knew nothing on the Island of Moloka'i about GMO until one day there was a rumor that there was "strange things" being grown in our corn fields. The whole farming community on Moloka'i was changing and we didn't even know. So now our farm lands were being turned into experimental plots. Research plots. They were growing things that we could not eat. They're growing things that we didn't even understand. Militant: We found that Hawaii had been targeted as a national and international sacrifice area for biotech and genetic modification research. Nancy: And the largest multi-national companies in the world, Monsanto, Dow, DuPont, Syngenta were all here using Hawaiian soils to do the very highly experimental crop production. Walter: They would say, "well, who are these guys? Who is this Monsanto? Who is this Dow? So you go google and you find out "whoa, these are full on chemical companies. They not farmers. They the guys who produce Agent Orange, PCB's... Hanohano: (Moloka'i) The sign says it's just Hawaiian Research because they shame put their name...Monsanto. Nancy: Now these companies call themselves Life Science companies (Monsanto, Syngenta, Dow, Dupont, BASF, Aventis, ProdiGene, Zeneca, Cargill) and they are genetically engineering and patenting the foods of the world beginning with the grain crops that everyone needs to live. Paul: In the past ten years or so, we have had here more than 2,000 field tests of experimental genetically engineered crops and this is more than any other place in the world. Most of these field tests have been food crops like corn, soybeans, but some of them have been tests of experimental crops designed to produce drugs and industrial compounds. Hanohano: None of the corn you can eat, kay...none of the corn you can eat. (Sign posted: "Experimental Crop - Not for Human Consumption Nor Animal Feed") Commentator: What exactly is genetic engineering? The insertion of genes from one species into another resulting in the creation of a genetically modified organism (GMO). Walter: They're actually forcing...forcing foreign things into foreign things...animals crossing with plants, other animals, even putting human genetics into the plant. Nancy: This is not done in the natural world, in fact, in the natural world, nature has put up all kinds of barriers to prevent this from happening. Hanohano: They making monstas. They genetically modifying organisms that nature would never cross and they don't know how the result going come out. Nancy: Although the genetic engineers would like you to think that their techniques are extremely precise, it is very, very different than that. Eloise Engman (founder, GMO Free Maui): What they do is, they coat little balls of tungsten or gold with genetic material and they literally fire these little balls with a gun [biolistics] at a petrie dish of cells, all kinds of things get rearranged in the cell. Lorrin: And God help you if you blast it onto a gene which is essential, which you need. Eloise: But in the process, they're adding things like antibiotic resistant genes... Lorrin: If that gets out, gets onto germs, then the germs become resistant. We have a bad problem with drug resistance...antibiotic resistance. These things are not benign [of a gentle disposition; gracious]. These things are quite unknown. Elisha Goodman (Hawai'I Organic Farmers Assoc): GMO's have entered 70-75% of processed supermarket food here in the United States. It's in processed soy, processed corn, that includes corn syrup, canola oil, all kinds of things and we don't know what it's doing to our children...it hasn't been tested. Genetically engineered food can enter the market with almost no testing done whatsoever. Lorrin: I'm use to testing drugs and vaccines...effecacy and safety. How does one show safety if you give me a new product? I take to the lab, I grow it with little bacteria, I take it to animals, then I take it to humans. These kind of studies we do for drugs and vaccines are exactly what genetically engineering food needs. We act on what we call the Precautionary Principle. The Precautionary Principle tells us we do not put things into human body or into the environment, especially irreversible things in life forms, that we don't know about. When the FDA says we know about these things, I question that. I don't see the data. Show me the data...human data. There is none. Paul: The National Academy of Science has been saying for years that genetic engineering, generally and bio-pharmaceutical crops in particular pose definite risks to the food supply and human health and the environment, and to a large extent, these warnings have gone unheeded. Lorrin Pang, MD, MPH (Dept. of Health, consultant - World Health Organization): "The industry will say that no harm has been shown. But gee, what have we seen...increasing in the last ten years in Hawaii. A lot more prematurity, attention deficient disorder, a lot of different kinds of cancers, we see adult onset diabetes in young children. They're gonna say, "you can't prove it from this..." I didn't say that...you said...industry said, "we don't see anything rising." We certainty do in the last ten years and I can't piece it together because it's not labeled." Islands at Risk (Part 2) - Genetic Engineering in Hawai'I by Earthjustice (uploaded on January 24, 2007) http://www.youtube.corn/watch?v=5Hdfds8yoAY Commentator: Over 50 countries require labeling of GMO's [Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, China, European Union, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan Thailand...] but here in the United States, no labeling is required at all of any kind. Eloise Engman (founder, GMO Free Maui): Even though 90% of Americans were polled by ABC news saying that they would like GMOs to be labeled, largely so that they could avoid them, our government has been completely unresponsive to that. Paul Achitoff (attorney, Earthjustice): There have been repeated calls for labeling of genetically engineered foods and the industry has effectively blocked those initiatives repeatedly with expensive campaigns in varies states because they simply don't want the public to be able to choose. Paul: (Island of Maui &t Oahu): The genetic engineering industry has been able to maintain a culture of secrecy in which the public is not informed of where crops are being grown. Even lawmakers are not allowed to know where these crops are being grown. Nancy Redfeather: The bees in Kona can travel up to 7 miles during the day collecting pollens from that wide of an area. What if my garden here were on Kaua'I, or Mau'i, or Oahu on the North Shore, or Moloka'i? I would be extremely concerned about the cross pollination between my open pollinated corn and pollens coming from genetically engineered corns that are in the area, it could be up to seven miles. Una Greenaway (Coalition to Protect Hawai'i Coffee): Once they release it, they've let the genie out of the bottle and there's no pulling it back. Walter Ritte (hunger, activist): When we begin to realize that, well it wasn't only the transfer of the pollens that was dangerous, but it was the bacterias that they were putting in these plants, could actually fall into the ground from the plants itself and go into the soil. The other plant which picked up this same bacteria, they could get into the plants. All of our biodiversity that has sustained us for hundreds of thousands of years are gonna become contaminated because the islands are so small, 1 mean, you cannot stop the contamination. Paul: Biopharmaceutical crops (biopharm crops) are crops that have been genetically engineered to produce pharmaceuticals and drugs and industrial chemicals... Crops that have been grown in Hawaii are corn plants that have been engineered to produce experimental AIDS vaccines, experimental Hepatitis vaccines, experimental swine diarrhea vaccines...the substances that are being grown in these bio-farm crops could have very serious impacts. They can produce a severe allergy. They can produce anaphylactic shock... Kalaniva Ritte (Da Hemo Wai Bros.): (Island of Moloka'i): This is one of the GMO fields...and now you can see the preschool is right up there, not even hundred feet from the end of the field and then you get the baseball park, and you get the Kupuna housing right there...the old folks home, and little bit down is Kaunakakai School, one of the biggest schools, elementary schools on the island and the wind blows right through this whole place. Lorrin Pang, MD, MPH (Dept. of Health, consultant - World Health Organization): There are rules. When you bring things out into the field, plant crop, blowing all over the wind, guys breathing it, children living next to the school, you better show me it's safe before we bring this in. Hanohano Naehu (Da Hemo Wai Bros): Right now we stay on the west side of Kaunakakai town. This is where they do a lot of planting. They do a lot of open field testing right here. See, it's on both sides of our town. Commentator: Hawaii is a particularly bad place to be hosting all of these field tests because we're geographically small; we have a huge number of endangered species more than any other place. We have densely populated areas that are right near our agricultural areas. Mark Query (arborist): Here we are in Waimea (Kaua'i) and this is pretty much the greatest concentration of genetically engineered field tests on Kaua'i. But I think what's important here is to see the proximity to the town. Of course it's right along the Waimea river and the river goes right out to the ocean. That's another one of our concerns is what's happening to the debris, the genetic material from these crop tests that's blowing into the town. Paul: Earthjustice in 2003, filed a lawsuit against the US Dept. of Agriculture to enforce the environmental laws with respect to Bio farm crops. We had to spend months just to find out where some of these crops were being grown and what was being grown. So after more than 2 and a half years of litigation, the judge ruled in the plaintiffs favor and said that they have to assess the environmental and human health impacts of these crops before they allow private companies to go out and plant them and expose people and the environment to these crops. Isaac Moriwake (attorney, Earthjustice): The Biopharm-Algae case was a case in which a couple Biotech companies wanted to bring in a novel, genetically modified organism producing experimental drugs to the pristine Kona Coast on the Island of Hawaii. One of the world's leading experts on algae said that if a single cell, or a single drop of this genetically modified algae got out into the Hawaiian environment, it would be virtually impossible to recall. The drugs...the experimental drugs that are produced in this algae, have never been tested for their impacts on human health. So what we're talking about here is basically an open air experiment, using the Kona community and the people of Hawaii as guinea pigs. Several community groups based in Kona, represented by Earthjustice, took the State Board of Agriculture to court and they won. And the court ruled that before any agency approves such a project for such a novel experiment, the state had to conduct a proper environmental study of the potential risks to the environment and the people of Hawaii. Note: A few months later, a drug made from a product similar to the one proposed to be tested in Kona was given to six people in a human test trial in London. All six experienced a sudden and unexpected super-immune response and were sent to intensive care suffering multiple organ failure. Islands at Risk (Part 3) - Genetic Engineering in Hawai'I by Earthjustice (uploaded on January 24, 2007) http://www.youtube.corn/watch?NR=1 Ftv=Qf-yyp9fEw&feature=endscreen Melanie Bondera (mixed organic farmer): (Kona, Hawaii Island): There's a lot of Biotech propaganda out there that the GMO papayas saved the papaya industry in Hawaii and I believe it's the opposite. We had a virus problem here and they introduced the GMO papaya and the industry has gone down since. We immediately lost our most lucrative market...the Japanese market, because in Japan they just don't accept any kind of GMO food. The Japanese market was over sixty percent of our papaya industry. The GMO papaya always gets the lowest price. I think it's very, very frustrating and sad for the small farmers and they're the ones that have gone out of business. The GMO papaya is sold unlabeled in our supermarkets and in our Farmer's Markets. People take them home, eat them and throw the seeds out and so that's in their compost pile, it's in our landscape. People are not aware of how fast and how far the GMO gene was going to spread and contaminate and what we found was that its fifty percent on this island. Half of the papayas that are not intentionally planted as GMO papayas have either some seed or tree contamination. We've also found that the university seed source is contaminated with GMOs. And this spring we partnered with Greenpeace and they came over here and showed us how to do a de-contamination. We went to a small mixed organic farm right in the middle of a GMO papaya growing area and took down those trees and properly disposed of them. Jerry Konanui (Hui Kato Moku o Keawe - Hawai'I Island Taro Group): Piko varieties [taro], except for the Piko Ulaula was more commonly planted in the lo'i type. For over a thousand years the Hawaiians grew taro. They're so intuned with their environment that certain varieties are very adept to their conditions. The Hawaiians knew which varieties to plant. Diversification - our kupuna's understood the need to grow variety. Look at your environment...what can I grow here, what variety would do better? It hurts me to hear that they're going to save the Hawaiian varieties of taro cause actually, they don't need to be saved...they're here. Mililani: The private corporation and the university researchers are now converting the universities themselves into private laboratories for research that will eventually be patented and converted into the private property of a few and this is what is known as bio-piracy. Nancy: Seed has within itself, an intelligence that it can genetically modify itself to respond to the environment. By choosing the path of genetically engineered agriculture we are narrowing significantly the amount of seed varieties that are available to the farmer today Paul: (Kihei, Mau'i) The companies that are developing genetically engineered crops are attempting to control what farmers can plant and therefore what can be grown and what people can eat. Nancy: Seed saving and improvement of seed is a traditional right that all farmers and gardeners should have. And today, because of our patent laws with genetically engineered laws, this [corn seeds she is husking] is now illegal. Una: Biotech companies always claim that this technology is there to feed the world and I believe it's exactly the opposite. When you have a GE crop, every single plant in that hundreds and hundreds of acres is exactly the same so there is no more biodiversity... Paul: And when something goes wrong with one of these crops, it goes wrong everywere. Melanie: There really isn't support for organic farming, sustainable agriculture, local marketing approaches. Hawai'i is a niche specialty market for amazing things...coffee, pineapple, banana, flowers...we can actually support ourselves with this. Instead we now have consumers in Japan and Europe saying no to produce from Hawai'i because of genetic contamination and pollution. We're going in the wrong direction for economic development. We need to reassess it. Hanohano: This is another one of Monsanto's fields. It's up in Hoolehua. Again, they spreading out over our island. We don't want them here...we don't need them here. We just like them wrap it up and go home.