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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0385.081 2012-2014 Page 1 of 1 Murashige, Laura COUNTY CLERK C 11"T f �,°- ► :`dill From: mega os [mega_os©yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, September 03, 2013 7:09 AM 2013 SEP "3 PH 12: 01 To: counciltestimony©co.hawaii.hi.us Subject: Bill 109 and Bill 113 Aloha, I have a question for the county council. First, let us replace the slang acronym "GMO" with the proper scientific terminology: genetic engineering (GE). What entire category of a scientific field are you prohibiting on Hawaii island? Are you prohibiting the entire area of science that is genetic engineering? How about basic biology that is the foundation of genetic engineering? The human genome was sequenced in 2000. It is now 2013. The genetic scientists that sequenced the human genome likened the event to having a book full of unrecognized characters and the sequencing was like going through the book and picking out and sorting the individual letters used. Using the book analogy, it would be like picking up a book without being able to read, then starting by noticing words are made of letters and there were 24 letters. This doesn't mean you can read the book yet, but during the next pass, you notice different combinations of the basic 24 letters formed different words, and with the following passes, various words become recognizable. The analogy is where the individual letters represent gene base pairs and the words are DNA. The point here is genetic scientists have had 13 years to learn how to read the book of life. Even if they don't know what the meaning of every "word" is, they now know how to read it with ever more powerful computer simulation tools. This is not a blind science. So, my question is, what is being prohibited here? Just genetic engineering of all plant life, or just vegetables and fruits including flowers, or anything that grows including weeds and invasive species, or just all science is forbidden? Of course, if you prohibit genetic engineering of fruits and vegetables, then you will have to prohibit any further teaching of biology on Hawaii island and will need to purge the libraries of all books pertaining to biology and genetic engineering. Please stop using the slang GMO and start calling it what it is, genetic engineering. Also, the slang term Frankenfood is inherently ridiculous applied to genetic engineering. Frankenstein was put together out of cadaver parts, there was no genetic modification used at all. Mahalo. Ted Stethem Pahoa, HI Comm. No. 3 rs. 8/ Ref. To: P/P3H1TG Ref. Date SEP 0 4 2013 9/3/2013