No ban on genetically modified coffee

It would be so helpful if the newspaper were to provide some insight here on what are the issues here? Provide insight from economic, scientific and agricultural perspective so your readership can have a deeper understanding of what is at hand here.

Hawaii's coffee reputation and sales are still driven by the famous Kona coffee. Kona coffee farms sells their coffee product solely based on the notion of a pristine, unspoiled
environment of Hawaii. Luxury and gourmet customers are a very finicky bunch: With the money they
spend they have many options. They influence the common tourist in what to buy in Hawaii and what
not. And they have a very short attention span for changes in their favorite products. Small Kona coffee farmers will not be able to educate those gourmet coffee consumers of the benefits of GMO. Business doesn't work that way - customers simply leave. Neither is this the job of the government. This would be the sole responsibility of the GMO industry and they have yet to run a major PR or marketing campaign to do this. They know that their budget for this would be in the high seven digit number to show any effect on consumers, so they rather work with the legislators than pay for influencing public opinions. It's cheaper, faster, more immediate, and difficult to reverse.

"It's a very slippery slope to begin legislating research," Gibson said. "If we're going to diversify our state, it needs to be based on knowledge."

Once the Genie is out of the bottle, can you get it back in? "We need more time to really examine these issues and understand all of the facts," said Tokuda (D, Kaneohe-Kailua). "When you have a moratorium on research, that sends a negative message out."

Is a moratorium that bad?
I am infused with confidence that legislator from Kaneohe/Kailua will look after Kona Growers concern.

If it spreads from Oahu to Big Island and contaminate the 'local' Kona coffee farms, what economic impact to Kona coffee occurs?
Wasn't there transgenic rice in CA that spread to other fields and created economic impact? Is the ocean large enough to protect Kona? Can the wind and birds and people spread transgenic coffee too?
Guess legislature did their homework and got answers to some of these questions. Will the transgenic coffee growers be legally liable if their coffee contaminates Kona growers product and can or are they willing to accept this potential liability?
Where does the University of Hawaii Ag Dept. weigh in on this issue or were they involved or too political?
Hey, I'm only in Las Vegas but hate to see my home state take the wrong turn for the instant gratification vs long term planning. See every day state and city leaders looking after the few at the expense of the many in the name of progress. Just thought I'd be devils advocate with questions left unanswered in this article.
Good comments posted by Nuuanu Reader too!

Tokuda is wrong. It is time for Hawaii to say enough is enough and end the use of Hawaii as a test lab for every GMO company that wants to try something. Until such time as the GMO industry is willing to clearly mark it's products as being GMO and making public where and what they are growing, then a moratorium is definitely in order. We need to be sending the message that we are not the worlds test lab. If that is somehow viewed as being anti-technology, then so be it.

I want a cup of GMO coffee! The GMO cofee that can take gallons of Herbicide and still grow! The GMO cofee that can kill any insect in the world that eats it's leaves! Yum! Yum! I want it served at all the food joints in town! I want the patent on all the GMO cofee so you have to pay me residuals for life even while I sleep! If I find that your stupid organic crop is pollinated by my GMO crop, you now pay me for growing my patent! More money! More money! I can't wait!

We have to ask ourselves if we are going to make decisions based on the unsupported fears of a small segment of the population, or on science and facts. The anti-GMO crowd thinks it is enough to roll out their "parade of horribles." Markets destroyed! Businesses ruined! Yet they cannot tell us how a test field on Oahu will contaminate their commercial fields on the Big Island, assuming that saying "It might happen" is enough.

If we give in to the fear mongers now, how will we ever make the kind of scientific and social progress we will need to keep our state going?

Look at what happened on Molokai. The anti-development activists pushed so hard that they forced Molokai Ranch to close. Good for them, maybe, but very bad for the families that will lose their only source of income, and for the economy of the island as a whole.

Reasonable decisions about GMO, based on science and facts, will help us make progress. Research moratoriums based on fear will get us nowhere.

Undocumented fears? Read this book.

Genetic Roulette
The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods
by Jeffrey M. Smith

Scientific research?
Follow the money. Google University of Hawaii....Monsanto...Pioneer. Chemical companies who want GMO products have given piles of money to UH. Objective science? Possibly.

I want to see more science....not less. Just look up "Black Sigatoka" disease on the internet. You'll realize that the Cavendish Banana (Williams and dwarf Chinese banana) will be facing extinction if nothing is done. Most of what you eat is genetically modified related and no one in the world has died or gotten ill from GMO foods. Stop this mumbo-jumbo.

The power of lobbyist. Just research the negative effects of Splenda, Nutrasweet and Equal, when the temperature increases above 86 degrees F.
Yet these company's continue to sell these items under the approval of the FDA while Stevia which is safer is not approved by the FDA.
Greater health danger than a GMO coffee bean or taro.
Anything that has Aspartame (diet coke) or sucralose is trouble. IMO.

It is THIEVERY when one small company coaxes legislators into believing that they would act "anti science" if they don't give carte blanche to any GMO experience. Tokuda & Kokubun's job is straight and simple: Protect the reputation of their States most famous crop: Kona coffee. A reputation generation of farmers worked for and spend their savings in promoting it. It is not what GMO actually is - it is how people PERCEIVE it, and that is simply negative. Given a choice, people won't buy it. It only is able to be sold in the USA because Monsanto was able to not get it written on the packaging, as it is mandatory in Europe and Japan. Integrated Coffee Technology are a bunch of fly by night scientists & investors who cannot be held liable for any 'accidents' or economic failure of us local farmers. Monsanto can do with GMO wheat whatever they want to here in HAwaii - we don't plant wheat. But COFFEE? Why aren't the governments first and only words NO WAY! After the article about GMO coffee was published in USA TODAY 2 weeks ago we Kona coffee farmers had right away inquiries by customers about it. How many did not bother to call? How many will switch quietly to Jamaican Blue Mountain or Yauco Select in the next year? What will happen to the Kona coffee lands when the industry which is booming right now, would go down? Mr. Stiles surely would like to see his new coffee beans on the ABC store shelves right next to Royal Kona and Mountain Thunder and Kona Joes Kona coffees. Proudly claiming "100% Kona - DeCaf - Methyl Bromide Free". Yet the Japanese tourguide will explicitly say: KONA COFFEE = GMO. Can not be brought into Japan. " There goes the omiyage industry.

Don't forget that a customer pay for the product characteristics plus for its image, if you delete its image the price go down and so the farmer revenue

Hawaii has more experimental field trials of genetic engineering than any other state in the nation. Just a few of the many examples of permits granted for field trials include:

Corn engineered with human genes (Dow)
Sugarcane engineered with human genes (Hawai‘i Agriculture Research Center)
Corn engineered with jellyfish genes (Stanford University)
Tobacco engineered with lettuce genes (University of Hawai‘i)
Rice engineered with human genes (Applied Phytologics)
Corn engineered with hepatitis virus genes (Prodigene)1

What gene is going to be injected into cofee? Inquiring minds want to know.

Just thought I would try and bring some clarity to this topic. The really wonderful thing about this technology is that you are essentially inserting a copy of a gene the coffee already has. You are just putting it in such that it is an exact compliment to the the gene and will bind to it like a piece of tape. Now the gene is double stranded, kind of like a gene sandwich. But plants have evolved to recognize double stranded sequences as sources of trouble - namely because viruses that enter the cell and try to replicate also make double stranded sequences. So the cell uses its policing mechanism to start chopping up these double stranded sequences. For the coffee plant this means it no longer has the necessary genes in the pathway to make caffeine. So the plant may begin to make caffeine, but when it does, the complimentary piece jumps in and sticks to it targeting it for degradation. This is great technology. Arguably one of the best things to happen for science. I suggest looking up RNAi on Nova. They have a great video that I am planning to show to my students that explains how this works.