Ka Leo O Hawaii

Issue date: 1/17/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Trevor Atkins Taro farmer Jerry Konanui, of Ka‘ū, waits in front of ‘Iolani Palace to speak on KGMB9 Wednesday morning about the need for a 10-year moratorium on the genetic modification of taro. "We can grow taro like this with dirt and water, so why do we need GMOs?" he asked, pointing to photographs of himself standing among 10-foot-tall taro.

Media Credit: Trevor Atkins Protestors embrace many of the 70 remaining varieties of taro in the Capitol lobby. One of the central arguments against genetic modification is the danger and injustice of homogenizing the diverse taro market into one streamlined variety.

Media Credit: Trevor Atkins "This is a cultural issue. This is a sovereignty issue," says longtime taro activist Walter Ritte, of Moloka‘i, just prior to the march. Turning to students, he says, "Sometimes when you go into a library, you need to be quiet. This is not one of those times. Today, be loud."

Media Credit: Trevor Atkins Students from O‘ahu's Hawaiian charter schools joined campers and other protestors at ‘Iolani Palace for a prayer before marching out of the gates and into the State Capitol lobby to make their point heard.

Last year, House Speaker Calvin Say told protestors of genetically modified organisms they would have to wait until 2008 to have their bill heard. This year, they may get their hearing.

The Senate Bill 958 and House Bill 70 call for a 10-year moratorium, or stop, to the research and patenting of genetically modified taro conducted by the University of Hawai‘i and private companies.

The bill awaits Rep. Clifton Tsuji's approval in the Agriculture Committee before it can enter the House floor for debate. If unchanged, the bill will proceed to the governor's desk.

Native Hawaiians clearly expressed yesterday their spiritual connection to their older brother, Hāloa, the taro. According to the kumulipo, a Hawaiian creation story, the sky father, Wākea, and earth mother, Papa, bore a child named Hāloa, who died before birth. Where he was buried a taro plant grew and nurtured the couple's second son, who was named Hāloanaka after his brother. From Hāloa the younger came the genesis of mankind.

Taro, or kalo, is the staple food of the Hawaiian people, and is often referred to as the most digestible, healthiest food on the planet. Its cultivation has decreased dramatically since the advent of large export plantations in Hawai‘i in the 1800s. More recently, taro businesses have focused on producing only one of the 300 varieties known to have once existed. That single variety now represents 90 percent of the industry.

Local taro farmers see genetic modification and patenting both as a theft of culture and indigenous knowledge as well as a threat to biodiversity, increasing the potential for a single disease to wipe out the industry. Genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, are known to cross-pollinate with neighboring varieties, making every farm vulnerable to the same disease.

Currently, GMO products are banned in Europe and parts of Australia, New Zealand, Africa, South America and California - largely because they have not been tested on humans. While some GMO research intends to produce disease-resistant strains of cash crops, much of it is used to engineer new drugs, chemicals and additives.

Chemical manufacturing companies Monsanto, Dupont, Dow and Syngenta already have experimental stations in Waimānalo, Kaunakakai and Waimea, Kaua‘i.

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