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[SANET-MG] Hawaii push for laws to regulate GM crops
From ABC 7 News:
Lawmakers Push Limits on Crop Modification
Location: HONOLULU
Posted: March 02, 2006 6:03 AM EST
URL: http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0306/307276.html
HONOLULU (AP) - State senators have advanced two bills putting limits on
the genetic modification of taro and coffee, crops that are key to
Hawaii's identity.The bills that passed out of a dual committee meeting
Wednesday would ban until 2011 the field testing of strains of both
plants that have been engineered or spliced with the genes of other
organisms. The modified plants could, however, be grown in greenhouses.
The taro bill also would place a five-year ban on genetically modifying
Hawaiian varieties of the plant, whose roots are made into poi, one of
the state's best-known foods. In Hawaiian folklore, taro is considered
to be a sacred ancestor of Native Hawaiians, linking them to island soil.
Coffee, particularly from the Big Island's Kona region, is a point of
pride for the islands, which are home to the only U.S. commercial coffee
plantations.
The original bills called for a decade-long moratorium on raising and
testing genetically modified varieties of both plants. Amended versions
now head to the full Senate.
Last year, senators tabled a group of measures seeking to address
farmers' fears of potential crop contamination by the pollen of
genetically modified varieties.
Nancy Redfeather, co-director of Hawaii Genetic Engineering Action
Network, said the bills' passage at the committee level was a positive
sign that the Legislature is addressing questions about genetically
modified crops.
C.Y. Hu, associate dean and associate director for research at the
University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human
Resources, said the limits would tie researchers hands in the event a
virus strikes island crops.
Genetically modified seeds were credited with saving Hawaii's
$14-million-a-year papaya industry when it was struck by a ruinous virus
in the late 1990s.
Sen. Gary Hooser, a Democrat and lead sponsor of the bills, said
lawmakers hoped to allow science to proceed while protecting farmers.
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