Dr. Susan Miyasaka, a Hawaii native and Agronomist at the University of Hawaii’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, has written a response to Dr. Hector Valenzuela’s recent statement supporting Hawaii Island’s anti-GMO bill 113. The bill would ban all open-air cultivation of genetically modified crops, both experimental and those already approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
In Miyasaka’s response, she notes that this bill is not based on scientific evidence, and that “a blanket ban [on GMOs] would be misguided.”
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Hawaii County Council Bill 113 is not based on science, contrary to the claims by Dr. Valenzuela. If passed, it will prevent ranchers and farmers on the Big Island from growing legal, healthy, and safe food crops. If passed, then we are on a slippery slope where laws are based not on facts, but on opinions.
Instead of passing Bill 113, Hawaii County Council members should table the bill and first form a Task Force or Ad-Hoc committee to advise them on this scientifically complex, controversial issue. This Task Force or Ad-Hoc Committee should be composed of scientists, health professionals, representatives of federal government regulatory agencies, and commercial growers of organic and conventional and GE crops or animals.
Read the full, original story here: “The Lack of Science Behind Hawaii Island GMO Bill 113”
