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The sustainability radio show airs every other Friday from noon - 1:00 PM on KKCR. Tune to 91.9 FM island wide or you can stream the show via the internet at www.kkcr.org.
Walter Ritte, Hawaiian activist from Molokai and Jerry Konanui, Taro grower and educator from Hawai`i Island, talk with us about GMO taro on today's show.
What is Taro?
Taro is the staple of the Native Hawaiian diet and at the core of the Hawaiian culture. Hawaiians believe the taro plant to be sacred. Taro, called "kalo" in Hawaiian, is central to the Native Hawaiian creation story.
Taro is a plant with a broad, beautiful, nutritious strong leaf shaped like a huge heart. Imagine a completely hypoallergenic, versatile, mineralized, satiating vibrant tuber with unique and starchy richness and the ability to be made into everything from pie, to “burgers” and chips, to a smooth, purple-ish, creamy staple dish called “poi.” Even those who do not have the creation story of the taro in their heritage know that taro, in these islands that we love, is sacred. It is one of the single most well-know, important, and reliable plants in all of Polynesia, and the locals take a deep pride in its profound history. Various names for parts of the taro plant indicate its interwoven history with the Hawaiian people: the place where the stem meets the leaf is called the piko, or navel. The stem is the ha, the breath, and the cluster of shoots (or keiki, meaning children) that surround the mother plant are called an ohana, or family.
Here in Hawaii, the growing and cultivation of the kalo plant is a tradition that stretches back for more than a thousand years. The Hawaiians loved, honored, and cared for kalo and were in turn, as the creation story implies, fed and supported by it for generations and generations. By tending carefully the kalo, the Hawaiians eventually cultivated more than 300 varieties by selecting the plants for certain conditions, climates, and soils and by hand-pollinating over years and years.
Why A Moratorium on GMO Taro?
GMO taro:
Undermines the genetic integrity of taro, sacred to the Hawaiian people;
Threatens the taro market and livelihood of taro farmers. Taro production yields over 6 million pounds annually valued at $3.3 million.
Threatens the biodiversity of the taro plant;
Could cause new, unexpected problems in taro cultivation;
Could contaminate traditional varieties of taro and take away taro farmers’ ability to choose what they grow in their lo’i; and
Overlooks the wealth of traditional knowledge about growing taro that has been passed down through generations and generations.
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED TARO IN HAWAII Here in Hawaii , the growing and cultivation of the kalo (or taro) plant is a tradition that stretches back for more than a thousand years. The Hawaiians loved, honored, and cared for the kalo plant as their older brother, and were in turn fed and supported by kalo for generations and generations. By tending carefully to the kalo plant, the Hawaiians eventually cultivated more than 300 varieties of taro. Today, the proud history of kalo in Hawaii is being threatened. Genetic engineers at the University of Hawaii and the Hawaii Agricultural Research Center are currently developing genetically engineered taro in laboratories here in Hawaii . They are altering the very genetic foundation of the taro plant by inserting genes from other, unrelated organisms. This process:
- Undermines the genetic integrity of kalo;
- Threatens the biodiversity of the taro plant;
- Could cause new, unexpected problems in taro cultivation;
- Could contaminate traditional varieties of kalo and take away taro farmers’ ability to choose what they grow in their lo’i; and
- Overlooks the wealth of traditional knowledge about growing taro that has been passed down through generations and generations.
Genetically engineered taro has not yet been released into the Hawaiian environment, but it could be released soon. Genetically engineered crops are living, dynamic organisms that interact with their environment and impact the other plants, animals, soil, and water that surround them. Once released, there is no way to recall genetically modified organisms (GMOs); they will permanently become a part of our ecosystem. It would be disrespectful to the tradition of Hawaiian taro cultivation, foolish, and irresponsible to threaten the agricultural and cultural heritage of the taro plant by releasing GMO taro into the Hawaiian environment. There is a small window of time in which concerned farmers and citizens can make it clear that we do not want GMO taro, and stop the open-field release of GMO taro in Hawaii . Please contact UH and express your concern about the release of GMO taro, and call our county government and urge them to ban the release of GMO taro on Kauai . At UH, call Dean Andrew Hashimoto of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources at 956-8234, or email dean@ctahr.hawaii.edu . Here on Kauai , the mayor can be reached at 241-6300, and the county council at 241-6371.
Learning from Hawaiian farmers’ experience with the GMO papaya In 1998, the University of Hawaii , in partnership with multinational biotechnology corporations, developed and commercially released a genetically engineered papaya to be resistant to the ringspot virus. The GMO papaya is Hawaii ’s first and only experiment with genetically engineering our commodity crops. When we examine the impact that genetic engineering has had on our state’s papaya industry, it is clear that it would be a grave mistake to release GMO taro into the Hawaiian environment. Some of the impacts the GMO papaya has had on Hawaiian farmers include:
Lower market prices and higher costs : The GMO papaya has never fetched a market price comparable to the conventional or organic Hawaiian papayas. While the price per pound of the GMO papaya is lower, the cost of production is higher, due to the input costs of buying GMO seeds and maintaining the GMO trees. Since the introduction of the GMO papaya, the number of papaya farmers on the Big Island has decreased by half.
Closing of export markets : Japan , a major importer of Hawaiian papayas, will not accept GMO crops, and South Korea stopped buying papayas from the Big Island because of their concern about GMO contamination. Now Hawaiian papaya farmers who ship to Japan have to test all their trees for contamination, which is cost-prohibitive and punishes conventional and organic farmers for other farmers’ use of a technology they do not want and did not ask for.
Unanticipated problems with the crop arose over time. The GMO papaya was engineered to be resistant to the ringspot virus, which it is, but the GMO tree is a weak tree and has proved to be more susceptible to the blackspot fungus. Now farmers are spraying their trees with fungicides every 10 days, which is both toxic and expensive. The GMO papaya addressed one problem and caused another.
Contamination of conventional and organic farms, and the UH papaya seed stock. A composite sample of organic, conventional, and wild papayas from across the Big Island showed a 50% level of GMO contamination, and a sample of UH’s Waimanalo variety papaya seeds, which they sell as being GMO-free, was also found to be GMO contaminated. Contamination was also found on organic farms on Kauai and Oahu . When one group of farmers chose to grow GMO papayas, many other farmers ended up growing them too, even if they did not want them and did not knowingly plant them. In the same manner that papaya growers share seeds with one another, taro growers often share huli; because GMO varieties do not look different than conventional varieties, traditional strains could accidentally be replaced by genetically engineered taro, contaminating taro lo’i.
Liability threats : Hundreds of farmers in the US and Canada have been sued or forced to pay patent fees to avoid being sued by biotech companies when their crops have been GMO contaminated by neighboring fields or by unintentionally buying and planting contaminated seeds.
Health hazards : Dutch researchers found the GMO papaya contains two known allergens. If follow-up studies prove that the GMO papaya does harm human health, the degree of GMO contamination in Hawaiian papayas could mean that our papayas are inedible for an indefinite period of time. Unlike chemical pollution, genetic pollution can never be cleaned up. Other commodity crop groups in the state recognize that genetic engineering could harm their industry, and have taken proactive steps to protect their markets. For instance, the Coalition to Protect Hawaii Coffee, which represents a unanimous position of coffee farmers, processors, and retailers statewide, successfully worked to move the University of Hawaii and HARC to agree to stop any open air release of GMO coffee in Hawaii at this time.
Despite the problems created by the GMO papaya, UH and HARC are currently developing GMO taro, pineapple, sugarcane, and banana in laboratories, threatening our other major Hawaiian commodity crops. Instead of devoting research money to genetically engineering solutions to agricultural problems, which in turn create new problems, the University of Hawaii and the state and federal governments should put money into finding farmer-friendly, low-cost solutions to the problems farmers face. Please call UH and our county government today to urge them to protect our other commodity crops from genetic engineering.
Locally, you can contact:
Hawai`i SEED, a statewide non-profit, is a coalition of grassroots groups composed of farmers, doctors, scientists, lawyers, activists, and Native Hawaiians working on 5 islands to educate the public about the risks posed by genetically engineered organisms and dedicated to promoting diverse, local, healthy and ecological food and farming that supports real food security for the Hawaiian Islands.
GMO FREE KAUA'I
Our mission: To raise awareness and educate the public about the health, economic, and environmental risks of genetically modified organisms, while providing meaningful ways to work towards creating a GMO-free Kaua'i.
Genetically modified organisms are here on Kaua'i in crops and foods. Please join the campaign for a GMO Free Kaua'i.
Genetic Engineering on KauaiThe multinational corporations that dominate the genetic engineering industry have made a home for themselves here on the Garden Island. DuPont/Pioneer, Monsanto, Sygnenta and others have selected the state of Hawaii (and Kauai in particular) as the place to conduct some of their most experimental open-air field trials of genetically engineered crops. We are concerned about the effects these introduced, novel species will have on our public health, our local agricultural economy, and our fragile environment.
GMO-Free Kauai is a group of citizen volunteers from all sectors of the Kauai community working to move our island's agriculture away from genetic engineering. On this page you can learn more about the campaigns we are working on, ways you can get involved, and upcoming events. Thank you for taking the time to learn more about this important issue.
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