State of Hawaii

Biggest Threat to Food Sovereignty

Aside from Hawaii being one of the largest GMO testing sites -- possibly the largest in the world, with over 8000 acres of open air testing of mostly corn, sunflower, soy, and cotton -- now the University of Hawai'i is engineering wheat, rice, and grapevine genes into the sacred kalo plant [taro] and patenting them. A plant sacred to the Hawaiian people, legend has it that Halola (kalo/taro) sprouted from a deceased boy; it is considered ohana (family) and is propagated by huli (these are the tops of the plants that are replanted -- often in water -- and have been handed down for many generations. There are over 70 varieties of native, Hawaiian taro, and there is no proof that GM taro will not cross with native varieties, contaminate water, soil/ land or sea. Hawaii's state legislature continues to allow GMO experiments in Hawaii, threatening our already highly threatened biodiversity; it has amended the Kalo Bill and allowed it to be killed and thus has removed all protection of the sacred kalo!