10-09-2013, 04:25 AM
Another reason I oppose this legislation is that it is very shortsighted. The plant I grow most, bananas, is threatened by Panama Disease 1, which is here, and race 4, which will get here eventually. We also have Banana Bunchy Top Virus. At the moment, there is no need to grow GMO bananas in Hawaii, but there is no doubt these will get worse here and not only make medium and large scale banana farming as exists here now impossible. It will also mean even home growers like myself will have to go back to eating imported bananas. However, if other plant genes confer resistance to Panama disease and BBTV, a way to save bananas in Hawaii would be to introduce those 2 genes. There are many banana cultivars that only exist in Hawaii, because they mutated slightly over time after being brought here by the first Hawaiians. They are far more susceptible to these diseases than most other banana cultivars. Many of them have already gone extinct. While they aren't native plants, they are very much like heirloom varieties of other plants. Is it better to simply let them go extinct instead of inserting 2 genes in them from other plants? This law will guarantee they go extinct here. Traditional banana breeding is horribly slow and cannot even be done for many varieties. FHIA in Honduras has spent millions of dollars and decades of research, and even now has only a couple dozen conventionally bred varieties available that are resistant, but not immune to specific banana diseases. A good example is what is going on with citrus in Florida. There are no plants that even show resistance, so the only option is GM, and in the meantime, massive amounts of pesticides are being used. Maybe Florida should just let them all disappear and begin importing citrus. That certainly seems a less sustainable option than inserting some other plant genes.
One of the arguments I have heard is that if you consume GM foods such as papaya and Bt corn you are consuming viral and bacterial DNA. That of course, is true but a ridiculous argument. Everything you eat has bacterial, fungal, and viral DNA on it, in many cases incorporated into the plant's own genome naturally. Human beings have possibly close to half of our genome being retroviral DNA. Bt is something spread on organically grown crops because it is considered organic. The organic greens I grow have traces of Bt because I use this approved organic pest control to control moth larva that otherwise destroy them. Certainly all the organically grown papaya here has the same ringspot viral DNA on it that has been inserted into GMO papaya.
The current legislation will severely restrict farming being viable here in the long term as various crops face new introduced diseases and pests. If it had been in place before papaya was saved, papaya farms would be gone. In fact people like myself who grow only non GMO papaya benefit from the herd-immunity effects of most of the papaya grown here being ringspot resistant due to GM technology.
The fight against the big agribusiness corporations is going to have the most impact if dealt with at the federal level. Why mess with long term sustainability of local farming and home gardening, while having almost no impact on these companies or their overall practices with county-level bans?
One of the arguments I have heard is that if you consume GM foods such as papaya and Bt corn you are consuming viral and bacterial DNA. That of course, is true but a ridiculous argument. Everything you eat has bacterial, fungal, and viral DNA on it, in many cases incorporated into the plant's own genome naturally. Human beings have possibly close to half of our genome being retroviral DNA. Bt is something spread on organically grown crops because it is considered organic. The organic greens I grow have traces of Bt because I use this approved organic pest control to control moth larva that otherwise destroy them. Certainly all the organically grown papaya here has the same ringspot viral DNA on it that has been inserted into GMO papaya.
The current legislation will severely restrict farming being viable here in the long term as various crops face new introduced diseases and pests. If it had been in place before papaya was saved, papaya farms would be gone. In fact people like myself who grow only non GMO papaya benefit from the herd-immunity effects of most of the papaya grown here being ringspot resistant due to GM technology.
The fight against the big agribusiness corporations is going to have the most impact if dealt with at the federal level. Why mess with long term sustainability of local farming and home gardening, while having almost no impact on these companies or their overall practices with county-level bans?