Debate in Hawaii over GE Crops

Friday, June 15, 2001

Hawaii farmers defend genetic testing
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By Lisa Asato
Star-Bulletin

Two national groups are calling for a moratorium on testing genetically
engineered crops in outdoor fields -- an area in which they say Hawaii leads
the nation.

U.S. Public Interest Research Group and Genetically Engineered Food Alert
also said that selling genetically engineered foods should be halted until
independent studies can prove that they do not harm humans and the
environment.

But Richard McCormack, plant manager for Pioneer Hi-Bred International in
Waialua, said the United States has some of the strongest regulatory
standards in the world regarding product safety.

And, he said, the USDA is not alone in regulating genetic engineering. The
Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency also are
involved.

"It's significant scrutiny," he said, adding that genetically modified crops
are put through three to 10 years of tests before they are cleared to enter
the marketplace.

The groups' action follows release of their report, based on data provided
by the U.S. Agriculture Department. Between 1987 and 2000, the department
authorized almost 29,000 field tests of genetically engineered organisms
despite uncertainties over their effects on the environment and inadequate
regulations to monitor their impacts, the report said.

"Any new technology must be tested, but there are important scientific
issues that must be addressed before genetically engineered foods can be
released into the environment," Ahnya Chang, local campaign director for
PIRG, said yesterday. "To conduct field tests before this has been done is
both premature and hazardous."

The report found that Hawaii leads the nation in field test sites for
genetically engineered crops such as corn, coffee, pineapple and papaya.
The state has 3,275 outdoor testing sites comprising an estimated 8,563
acres, the report said.

Chang said the picture is incomplete because the groups could not readily
access information such as how crops are being tested, types of pesticides
being used and locations of the sites. She said such data are protected as
"confidential business information."

McCormack, who is also the president of Hawaii Crop Improvement Association,
the trade organization for eight seed-corn companies, said, "The federal
regulatory agencies are not rubber stamps, because their business is to
protect the American public."

Tish Uyehara, deputy director of the state Agriculture Department, said
biotechnology has a "tremendous economic impact" for Hawaii.

She said the seed-corn industry, which deals partly in genetic engineering,
is worth $33 million to $35 million annually for Hawaii. She said
researchers who developed a disease-resistant papaya saved Hawaii's papaya
industry in the early 1990s when the ringspot virus nearly wiped out local
crops.