A bill that would ban the testing and growing of genetically modified taro in Hawai'i for five years advanced out of the House Agriculture Committee yesterday.

A similar measure calling for a 10-year moratorium is moving through the Senate.

Supporters of a moratorium consist primarily of Native Hawaiian taro farmers who say the development of genetically modified taro, or kalo in Hawaiian, is unnecessary and an affront to Hawaiian culture and tradition.

Officials from the state Department of Agriculture and the University of Hawai'i's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources say the ban would set back research being done to protect taro from the invasion of destructive insects and diseases.

The House bill initially also called for a 10-year ban, but House Agriculture Chairman Clift Tsuji offered a five-year moratorium as a compromise between the two sides.

"Taro is just not another plant, it is our first-born, it is our ancestor, it is our family," Moloka'i activist Walter Ritte Jr. said in a reference to the kumulipo, the sacred Hawaiian genealogical chant that speaks to taro's close relationship as elder brother to people. "We don't want our ancestors' genes to be fooled around with in the laboratories, and we don't want possible contamination in our fields."

Jerry Konanui, a fifth-generation taro farmer from Puna, said there is nothing wrong with Hawaiian varieties of taro. "It offends me to think that people are going to 'save' our taro," he said.

THREATS TO TARO

State Agriculture Board Chairwoman Sandra Lee Kunimoto, in written testimony, warned that lethal insects and diseases have wreaked havoc on taro plants elsewhere in the Pacific. Taro beetles have spread from New Guinea and the Solomon Islands to Fiji, Kiribati and New Caledonia.

"Given that there are these very real threats to taro that could come to Hawai'i from the Pacific islands, we caution limiting the tools available to combat these threats," Kunimoto wrote.

CTAHR Dean Andrew Hashimoto said while researchers there have no plans to genetically engineer Hawaiian taro, they are investigating a Chinese variety. He said he would not oppose the bill if it were amended impose the moratorium on Hawaiian taro only.

"A 10-year moratorium on all aspects of research relating to genetically engineered taro would mean that, if taro production were threatened in the future by the arrival of new invasive pests or diseases, no genetic engineering-related research (including laboratory work) could be done to address the issue," Hashimoto said.

CONTAMINATION FEARS

Kaua'i farmer Chris Kobayashi said farmers have never asked for help from the scientists and that they feel the money can be better spent by helping them researching other issues, such as organic growing or diversifying varieties.

"There's all this talk about disease," Kobayashi said. "The disease can take care of itself, we don't need genetic modification." Meanwhile, she said, there is a genuine worry that genetically modified taro will cross-pollinate and contaminate the taro that she and others grow.

After mounting pressure, UH officials last year dropped its patents on three varieties of taro it had developed.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.