To: Hawaii County Council
Hawaii County: Let Farmers & Ranchers choose their tools!
We, the undersigned Farmers, Ranchers and Community of Hawaii Island, strongly oppose Bill 79 because it would take away a tool that can help us with problems such as disease resistance, need for better yields and drought tolerance. Let farmers and ranchers choose their own tools, business plan and crops. The use of modern technology has saved agricultural crops on Hawaii Island. Further Bill 79 categorizes farmers and ranchers using this USDA, FDA and EPA approved tool as a threat to public health and safety by requiring the same physical containment as of others at the highest bio-safety levels. Farmers and ranchers in Hawaii are already struggling with heavy costs, regulatory issues, exports and adding addition burdens will only force more of them out of business. We need them to feed our community. Please do not support Bill 79. Mahalo
Why is this important?
Act 79 is at its second hearing before the Hawaii County Council threaten agriculture on Hawaii Island and their right to choose. One rancher requested the bill be killed, saying it threatens the “well-being” of farmers and ranchers. “Frankly, I’m sick and tired of having to defend my life’s work,” he said. He is not alone....Let farmers and ranchers choose!
If farmers & ranchers are going to survive, we need access to the most modern techniques and technologies. This Act would cut off our ability to use modified crops that are resistant to disease, if needed. It would mean foregoing potential help, like the Genetic modification that saved the papaya industry in Hawai‘i; without the Rainbow papaya, we would no longer have a papaya industry at all.
This feeling is increasingly being discussed at dinner tables in the farming community. They are asking themselves, “Is it worth it" to continue farming? What will happen when our farmers get out of the business? They grow the food you eat....
If farmers & ranchers are going to survive, we need access to the most modern techniques and technologies. This Act would cut off our ability to use modified crops that are resistant to disease, if needed. It would mean foregoing potential help, like the Genetic modification that saved the papaya industry in Hawai‘i; without the Rainbow papaya, we would no longer have a papaya industry at all.
This feeling is increasingly being discussed at dinner tables in the farming community. They are asking themselves, “Is it worth it" to continue farming? What will happen when our farmers get out of the business? They grow the food you eat....