Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 30, Number 8, 1 August 2013 — GMO DEBATE SWIRLS ON MOLOKAʻI [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GMO DEBATE SWIRLS ON MOLOKAʻI

By Cheryl Corbiell

Since the 1960s, Moloka'i residents ■ have coexisted beside fields of genetically modified seed corn that grows abundantly in the red soil, but

over the last decade the relationship between some residents and the seed companies fractured as global seed companies replaced small family-owned seed companies. Recently OHA trustees met on Moloka'i with advocates on both sides of the GMO debate. While some said the industry brings jobs and helps farmers better adapt to prob-

lems of weather, disease and pests, questions were raised of its impacts on human heahh if consumed, as well as its long-term impacts on land and water. In the first of two meetings on June 19, trustees gathered in the Dow AgroSciences building along with 80 residents and employees to learn about GMO crops. Adolph Helm, project manager at Dow AgroSciences LLC, described seed corn production in Hawai'i and Moloka'i. Seed eom production is the state's largest agricultural commodity and is valued at $250 million. Hawai'i's main eeonomie engine is tourism, but on Moloka'i agriculture is the

top industry and tourism is second. In addition, the seed companies generate the majority of the revenue in Moloka'i's agriculture sector. On Moloka'i, Monsanto Hawai'i and Dow's Mycogen Seeds farm approximately 2,200 acres of genetically modified crops. The seed companies are the largest employers on Moloka'i. "Mycogen spends $9 million per year, whieh positively impacts Moloka'i businesses and the workforce of 85," said Helm. "The majority of employees are loeal residents with 52 percent (having) Native Hawaiian ethnicity." Helm listed the extensive employee benefit packages in addition to eommunity grants that provide eeonomie assistance to Moloka'i nonprofits. Helmalso describedlarge-scale farming practices. "Commercial farming uses best practices and adheres to federal and state laws, trains employees to abide by regulations, and uses land conservation plans, integrated pest management plans and water conservation plans, so genetically modified seeds ean help farmers grow better crops by withstanding the environmental challenges of drought, disease and pest infestations," he said. "We are helping farmers stay in business and produce food." At the meeting with anti-GMO residents, Mercy Ritte, leader of Mom on a Mission (M.O.M.), along with 30 residents expressed concerns about the safety of GMO crop

■ production. The hui of mothers is raising awareness and educating the community on the issues of ehemieal agriculture and open-field testing of genetically modified crops by using Facebook,

brochures, movie nights, potluck suppers, politician meetings, letter writing and protests at GMO farming sites. Ritte lives near a GMO cornfield. She believes the winds are stirring up chemical-laden dust from the cornfields that drifts into her home and contributes to her two children's allergies and illnesses. "My children should not be affected

by the impact of corporate greed and profit," said Ritte. Although Ritte aeknowledged the corn companies create jobs, she questioned the short- and long-term effects of GMO farming. Ritte wants answers to effects on human heahh from consuming GMO foods, field ehemieal drift, GMO contamination to food crops around the cornfields, and the 50-year effects on Moloka'i's land and water. At the meeting at Dow AgriSciences, Dennis Gonsalves, a public sector scientist, explained how genetic modification is a tool to improve agriculture production. Recently retired

from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center in Hilo, Gonsalves, a Native Hawaiian from Kohala, is recognized worldwide for saving Hawai'i's papaya industry through research he had done with colleagues. In the 1990s, papaya farmers faced devastation from ringspot virus that reduced papaya production by almost 40 percent. Gonsalves said: "The disease kept spreading. Traditional control methods of crop rotations, lower densities and culling diseased trees were futile because aphids were spreading the disease. The research team inserted a gene from the ringspot virus into the papaya DNA. The gene acted like a built-in vaccine against the ringspot virus." The resultant GMO Rainbow papaya was released commercially in 1998. Within four years, papaya farmers were back in business. OHA Chairperson Colette Machado summarized the two meetings as fact-finding. "Listening is the first step to understand the divergent views surrounding GMO farming on Moloka'i," she said. "We need more dialogue to find eommon ground between all sectors of agriculture and the community." ■ Chervl Corhiell is an instructor at the University ofHawai'i Maui College-Moloka 'i. and a reading tutor at Kaunakakai. Elementary School.

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Adolph Helm, projecT manager at Dow AgroSciences LLC, said agriculture is the island's top industry. "We are helping farmers stay in business and produce food," he said. - Video stills: Ryan Gonzalez

Mercy Ritte of Mom on a Mission said she believes chemical-laden dustfrom GM0 cornfields drifts into her home and contributes to her ehildren's allergies and illnesses.