Printed in the Star Bulletin

Letters to the Editor, Wednesday, April 4, 2007

It Took Courage To Kill Anti-Biotech Taro Bill

Hooray for the courage of House Speaker Calvin Say and Rep. Clifton Tsuji to stand up to a small band of activists pushing for an unnecessary bill to kill taro research. I encourage them to continue the fight for reason over emotion ("Farmers protest over genetically modified taro," Star-Bulletin, March 31).

There are many reasons why a ban on biotech taro research is bad, but I find this irony telling: biotech insulin, e.g., which is saving the lives of many native Hawaiians everyday, is a blessing, but the use of biotech where it might help to save ancestral kalo is claimed to be a curse.

Rapidly declining ancestral kalo varieties may likely be lost forever in the decades ahead unless new cultivars can be produced to restore vigor and improve resistance to pests and disease by using all the tools of research available. Biotech is not the problem.

Kudos to all legislators with the courage to stand up for the people against activists who seek to prevail with fear and ignorance.

Rick Klemm
Kailua