Printed in the Molokai Times

Letters to the Editor, Friday, April 6, 2007

Good Move House AG Committee

Dear Editor:

Kudos to the House Ag Committee!

Representative Clift Tsuji and the House Agriculture Committee are to be highly commended for not enacting any anti-GMO Bills this session. This is because they had the wisdom and the courage to stop a policy decision that was not needed. The University of Hawaii already had an agreement not to do any genetically engineered research on taro until further discussions with the Hawaiian community are completed. Therefore, banning genetically engineered taro would simply be a waste of tax dollars and precious time.

The legislative session lasts only five months, so elected officials have more pressing matters to address that truly require government intervention.

Nevertheless, special interest groups press ahead, forcing agencies and legislators to "pick sides" among biotech, conventional, and organic production methods. This move, too, is unnecessary because all three production systems are critical to the economic viability and sustainability of Hawaii's agriculture.

Instead of more Bills to ban genetic engineering research of any crop, farmers and interested parties on all sides of the issue should establish a dialogue and process to develop a framework of successful co-existence with the goal of mutual success and prosperity for all agricultural producers.

Loren Mochida
General Manager
Tropical Hawaiian Products