HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0271.896 2012-2014 J Yoshimoto
From: Ben Berry <bberry5 @uwyo.edu>
Sent: Friday, July 26, 2013 11:49 AM
To: jyoshimoto @co.hawaii.hi.us; bford @co.hawaii.hi.us; vpoindexter @co.hawaii.hi.us;
donishi @co.hawaii.hi.us; dkanuha @co.hawaii.hi.us; gilagan @co.hawaii.hi.us;
keoff @co.hawaii.hi.us; mwille @co.hawaii.hi.us; (Margaret Wille);
counciltestimony @kauai.gov
Cc: khamilton @wyfb.org
Subject: GM County Legislation Comments
Attachments: Hawaii Comments.docx
Attached are comments on the Hawaii Island County Bill 79 and Kauai County Bill 2491.
Thank you for your time,
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1 Ref. Dote JUL 0 2 2013
Dear Members of the Kauai County Council and Hawaii Island County Council,
The Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation opposes the passage of legislation Hawaii Island County
Bill 79 and Kauai County Bill 2491. These pieces of legislation would hobble the ability of companies to
do research critical to keep the food production for the world in pace with demand for food. These
companies and their research have an impact on an international level, and a very tangible on our home
state of Wyoming.
To begin, Hawaii Island County Bill 79 outright bans these businesses from continuing to work
on any more genetically modified crops. While only the industry could express how much time, money
and research would be lost while they were forced to move, it can only be assumed that there would be
major losses and costs passed on to farmers around the world. Kauai County Bill 2491 even would stop
producers from doing their own trial and error to stay ahead of each new generation of weeds which pose
as serious competition for each year's crop. These industries have not only made a large impact in their
markets by having breakthroughs science, but those breakthroughs have made huge differences to farmers
around the world by enabling agriculture to thrive when it should have failed.
Second, on an international impact level,National geographic presented the most recent numbers
claiming that the global population would easily go from 7.2 billion and counting to 9.6 billion by 2050.
Each new person added is another mouth to feed. There is little room for agriculture to build out, and
there must be a better way for crops to be more efficient with the receding space available. In fact,the
United Nations Environmental Program has predicted that the current form of farming with the rate of
land loss to urban sprawl the farm food production will fall short of the amount of food demanded by the
growing populations. This is why genetically modified crops are necessary. Whitty et al. did a
comprehensive study presented in Nature magazine earlier this year vehemently rejecting the bans of GM
crops and food because from a global perspective humanity has much larger problems than presented in
the GM debates in western countries. While the crop yields are not make or break for the United States to
fine tune our ability to keep production up, Whitty et al. describes the situation in Asia and Africa as dire
with the level of hunger and malnutrition people are currently facing being enormous and the fact that a
much higher proportion of the population in both continents depends on agriculture for their livelihoods.
Small debates in our country have a far larger impact elsewhere in the world where the bottom line is life
or death, not just foreclosure of farms and companies.
Wyoming greatly relies on genetically modified seeds to help boost their crop production; a clear
example is the sugar beet industry. Craig Spencer, an agriculturist with Western Sugar, was quoted in the
Wyoming Star Tribune saying that there had been a seven-ton uptick in the beet harvest in the past 15
years. He went on to say that ninety five percent of Wyoming beet producers use the roundup ready beet
seeds from Monsanto. Lyle Evelo, a farmer in Wyoming, attributes this increase all to the genetically
modified seeds produced by Monsanto. Simply, if there is less competition in the field then there is a
better chance for increased production. Furthermore, University of Wyoming researchers have found if
the beet producers were no longer able to grow GMO beet crops then they would lose around twelve
percent profits. Brian Lee, agricultural economist and primary researcher,was quoted in the Wyoming
Public Media saying that for every acre there would be an eight hundred and thirteen dollar trade off with
profitability. When it comes to being able to thrive in the face of adversity, Wyoming relies on such
technological advances.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
Sincerely,
Ben Berry
Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation Intern