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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0385.017 2012-2014 Page 1 of 2 COUNTY CLERK Murashige, Laura c'?llt ,, nr A\ All From: Jan Kama [kama©hawaiiantel.net] 2013 SEP _3 All Il: 140 Sent: Sunday, September 01, 2013 10:33 PM To: counciltestimony @co.hawaii.hi.us Subject: Testimony Against Bills 109 and 113 Hawaii County Council Committee on Public Safety & Mass Transit Wednesday September 4, 2013 1:30 p.m. Testimony Against Bills 109 and 113 Committee Chair Ford and Members of the Committee: I speak as someone who was raised on a farm and whose family has been in farming for more than five generations in Pennsylvania. I know first-hand the challenges of farming and the hardships of farmers. I know first-hand about crop failure, and that my father and grandfather worked very hard to make a living from farming, and that their fields would have been fallow without the support of the seed companies and hybrid or modified seeds. I was there, I worked hand-to-hand with them for more than 20 years. It is very hard work to be a farmer. And harder still when others try to dictate what can or cannot be grown on their land. I oppose Bills 109 and 113 because any anti-GMO legislation in Hawaii County will discriminate against our farmers and ranchers who choose to use approved genetically engineered technology to grow safe and wholesome food and other agriculture products. These Bills also damage Hawaii's reputation for producing some of the best crops on the planet, harms our markets, and eventually destroy our agriculture industry. I am pro-farming and the right to farm in the United States of America, still a free country, under laws of and regulated by the USA and the State of Hawaii. Hawaii's farmers and ranchers may need virus resistant GMO crops to protect Hawaii from the next papaya virus strain, banana bunchy top virus, tomato spotted wilt and other vegetable viruses, or the bacterial citrus greening disease that is destroying the Florida citrus industry and may soon come to Hawaii. Furthermore, this bill will stop development of GMO ornamental and floral crops with enhanced horticultural or disease resistant characteristics. These Bills would prohibit livestock and aquaculture producers from efficiently growing cost effective feed locally, requiring them to import at a higher price the exact same feeds. How will Hawaii County farmers and ranchers compete when everyone but us has access to GE technology? The consensus of independent scientific organizations worldwide is unanimous and can be summed up by this statement from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, "The science is quite clear: crop improvement by the modern molecular techniques of biotechnology is safe." I support the open letter from the Hawaii Papaya Industry Association to Hawaii County Councilperson Margaret Wille which appeared in Sunday's Hawaii Tribune-Herald. Comm.No, 3 85• / 7 Ref.To; PMm'T G Ref.Cate, )tt' 0 4 2013 9/3/2013 Page 2 of 2 Please vote against Bill 109 and Bill 113. Janet L. Kama 13-3510 Oneloa Street Pahoa, HI 96778