Posted on: Monday, December 16, 2002

EDITORIAL
Biotech firms cannot afford technical flaws

From all appearances, the violations by two local biotech firms that led to fines being levied by the Environmental Protection Agency were highly technical in nature.

Still, the two firms — Dow AgroSciences and Pioneer Hi-Bred — did not do themselves or the future of Hawai'i's biotech industry any favors by creating conditions for the fines.

In effect, this gives further ammunition to opponents of genetically engineered food and crops. There are many who oppose all genetic engineering of food and will use these incidents as reason to try to halt this industry in the Islands.

And that would be a shame, because biotechnology is already a booming business in Hawai'i and has the promise of contributing even more to our economy.

Today, the bulk of the business is in producing genetically altered corn seeds that produce plants with particular resistance to disease or pests or tolerance for particular growing techniques. These seeds are produced in Hawai'i then sold to growers on the Mainland.

Hawai'i is a popular location for this industry both because of our year-round growing climate and because our isolation protects these experimental crops from cross-pollination.

And this last concern, cross-pollination, is where the firms came to the attention of the EPA. The permits issued by the agency had very specific and technical requirements designed to keep the experimental crops from drifting into other crops on Kaua'i and Moloka'i.

While the growers take great care to keep their experiments in isolation, they apparently did not meet the letter of the EPA permits.

That has to change. This is far too valuable an industry to lose on the basis of technical slip-ups. Genetically engineered crops hold great potential, but it is crucial that the industry do everything in its power to gain, and then hold, the confidence of consumers.