Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 25, Number 12, 1 December 2008 — Hawaiʻi County Council: No can grow GMO [ARTICLE]

Hawaiʻi County Council: No can grow GMO

At a specially convened meeting that stretched into the wee hours of November 13, the Hawai'i County Council voted to reverse Mayor Harry Kim's veto of Bill 361, banning the genetic engineering of kalo and coffee in Hawai'i County. The bill is now an ordinance, and violators will be frned $1,000. Bill 361 was introduced by Native Hawahan eounehman Angel Pilago to help protect kalo, a staple crop considered the eldest Hawaiian and thus sacred to Hawaiians, and Kona coffee, a unique eeonomie resource for the island. Proponents of the ban fear that engineered varieties of kalo and coffee could contaminate organic and other specialty varieties of the plants, something that has happened with other engineered crops. Opponents of the ban say scientifrc engineering is needed to protect important crops from disease and pests, and some faimers fear that the GMO ban could be extended to their crops. The bill was initially passed 9-0 by the eouneh in early October.

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