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Do You Care Whether You or Your Family Eats Genetically Engineered Foods?

  • By Hawaii Citizens for Food Choice
    February 26, 2008

If you’re like 85% of Hawaii residents, you want labeling for genetically engineered (GE) foods and you want to know whether farmers are growing these crops nearby. Two bills have been introduced in the Hawaii State Legislature that will do just that.
  • SB3232 would require labeling for all GE whole foods sold in Hawaii (fruits and vegetables in their raw or natural state)
  • SB3233 would compel companies to reveal the location of test plots and production of GE crops.
The genetic engineering of crops is a relatively new and rapidly developing technology for plant breeding that is raising public concern. It focuses on blocking, adding, or scrambling genetic material inside plant cells to remove undesired traits or add new ones. The result is often termed a genetically modified organism (GMO).

Many people and experts worldwide are very concerned about the disruptive effect genetic engineering may have on our environment and whether long-term human health issues have been thoroughly addressed. Mandatory labeling of foods with genetically modified ingredients will enable consumers to avoid products produced by means that may be contradictory to personal values, religious, spiritual, and/or ethical beliefs. You simply have the right to choose for yourself between genetically engineered and non-genetically engineered products. YOU CAN’T MAKE THAT CHOICE, UNLESS THE FOODS ARE LABELED.
  • Right now, consumers have no way of knowing whether they are eating GE foods or not.
  • Unlike GE food labeling proposals introduced elsewhere, this will not increase prices because it applies only to whole GE foods, not processed foods that contain ingredients from GE crops. The only GE whole foods on the market today are papaya, sweet corn and squash. The bill would only require an additional notice on an existing label identifying the whole food as GE.
  • The Federal District Court of Hawaii ruled (2006) that the unintended dispersal of GMOs pose risks to Hawaii’s environment, including its more than 300 threatened or endangered species.
  • Biotechnology companies have made Hawaii the top state in the country for field trials of experimental genetically engineered crops due to its year-round growing climate.
  • In 2006, rice farmers in the South lost an estimated $150 million when their rice crop was contaminated by an experimental (unapproved) variety of GE rice known as LibertyLink601.
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Hawaii Citizens for Food Choice ~ 25 Maluniu Avenue, Suite 102 #195 Kailua, HI 96734