It has been a particularly difficult few weeks for the agricultural biotech industry and its regulators nationwide. A decision by U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright in Honolulu relating to experiments of genetically engineered biopharmaceutical crops grown in Hawai'i, the "escape" of genetically engineered (GMO) grass from a field trial site in Oregon and an unapproved genetically engineered herbicide-tolerant rice found in long grain rice commercial stocks in the U.S. all have contributed to the stressful situation.

For the third time in the past two years, Hawai'i judges have ruled on biopharmaceutical (genetically engineered crops containing pharmaceutical drugs) experiments in the state. In February 2005, U.S. District Judge David Ezra ruled that the plaintiffs in an Earthjustice lawsuit filed in 2003 were entitled to know the precise location and genes being tested in experimental biopharmaceutical trials. Before this ruling, all 18 of the trials, the most in the U.S., had been confidential business information.

The following October, Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth Strance ruled that an environmental assessment would be required before Rincon and Mera Pharmaceuticals could proceed with their test and production of seven strains of genetically engineered biopharmaceutical algae to be grown on the oceanfront at the Natural Energy Lab in Kona. Now a federal judge has taken the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Animal Plant Health Inspection Services to task, saying that APHIS violated the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act by granting permits in Hawai'i for genetically engineered biopharmaceutical field trials of corn and sugar cane.

Clearly, the inherent dangers of such experiments have not been adequately assessed by USDA/APHIS before allowing the trials.

But it's not only about tightening inadequate regulations. Certainly, an environmental impact statement conducted before the grass trial in Oregon, the longgrain rice trial or the Hawai'i biopharmaceutical trials would have allowed regulators to "look before they leap."

This precautionary approach to consider the long-term consequences must be implemented. However, even with tighter regulations and a cautious approach, no agency can regulate or control either unintended consequences of live reproducing organisms or of nature, and to believe that somehow we could do so is shortsighted and foolhardy for the future of agriculture.

In the rush to patent and own the genetic materials of food and farming, this needed discussion has been shelved. Instead of pretending to regulate these crops, perhaps we should just jump ahead to the real discussion of what will be the consequences in the long term for Hawai'i's conventional and organic crops, soil microorganisms, and bacteria and viruses that will be receivers of genetically engineered genes.

It is not too late to contemplate the bigger picture. Should genetic material of unrelated species be mixed together and should "life" be patented and owned?

On Aug. 11, the journal Nature reported that Environmental Protection Agency scientists in Oregon had discovered that a strain of GMO herbicide-tolerant (to Roundup) bentgrass designed for golf courses by Scotts Co. had "escaped into the wild" and had been found 3.8 kilometers outside the experimental field trial.

Papers reported it was the "first known transgenic crop to escape into the wild." But this is not true. Herbicide-tolerant genes have been found in many weeds (superweeds), across the U.S. and Canada. Closer to home, wild papaya growing on the island of Hawai'i has been tested and found to contain the patented genes of the University of Hawai'i-Manoa's Rainbow and Sun-up papaya varieties. This "escape" happens as birds, animals, and humans inadvertently move unlabeled papaya seed in the environment. The GMO papaya on trees at UH's first field trial site in Puna in 1998 were hardly yellow on the tree when local residents began taking them from the test site and planting them out. "Escape" occurs in many ways.

In the most recent contamination incident, the USDA announced that genes from an unapproved herbicide-tolerant long grain rice, created by Bayer Cropscience, had been found in commercial supplies across the US. Immediately, Japan closed the door to all U.S. long grain rice imports and the European Union was considering a similar move.

It is unknown at this time how the contamination occurred, but it is possible that a field trial in a rice-growing region could be the source of contamination. Approving grass trials in the center of the "grass seed-growing region of Oregon" or rice trials in the rice-growing regions of the U.S. shows little foresight and recognition of nature's ability to "go forth and reproduce."

Once again, the courts of Hawai'i have given concerned citizens hope that environmental justice and common sense can prevail. We now know that this technology is not as safe and predictable, and regulation not as effective as the industry and federal and state regulators would have the public believe. Industry must stop putting the public and the environment at risk in pursuit of profits, and must soberly consider the consequences of live reproducing organisms on future generations.

Nancy Redfeather is a teacher/gardener from Kona where she and her husband, Gerry Herbert, have an experimental/educationalmini-farm.