Diary

Monsanto Ed

by Debbie Millikan | Jan 25, 2012

A panel discussion held Jan. 18th at the UH Department of Hawaiian Studies raised ethical questions regarding Monsanto’s support of College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR), including the $500,000 contribution that created the Monsanto Research Fellows Fund. In question were Monsanto’s intentions, business practices, controversial GMO seed production and testing of GMO crops in Hawaii.

Panel participants included Trisha Kehaulani Watson of Honua Consulting, long-time Molokai activist Walter Ritte, and Kamuela Enos of MA’O Organic Farms, with Professor Jon Osorio as moderator. Watson spoke of her experiences in handling the recent taro patenting controversy and offered a UH perspective from her tenure as a senior staff member in the office of Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education.

Ritte provided a historical overview, beginning with Hawaiian Research, now the largest employer on Molokai, which was established in 1988 and purchased by Monsanto in 2000. The people of Molokai, Ritte said, had a good relationship with Hawaiian Research scientists who came to the island every year. The Monsanto purchase went unknown for several years; the old signs only recently changed. “How did that happen? They are sneaks,” Ritte said. While it’s clear, he went on, that Monsanto’s industrial agricultural practices, including mono-cropping and production of non-edible seed, are not environmentall sound, it’s not easy to rid the island of the largest provider of jobs. Instead, what Ritte envisions is a scenario in which a local and sustainable agricultural system gets ready to take Monsanto’s place.

Along those lines, Kamuela Enos, currently director of social enterprise at MAO Organic Farms, said he takes a positive approach to the problem of the ever-increasing presence of Monsanto in the Islands. Enos believes that because Monsanto operates under the false assumption that oil will continue to be cheap, they will leave when oil prices rise too much to make seed growing and GMO testing in Hawaii viable. So organic farmers need to be ready, Enos said, noting that MAO currently has 40 students working the farm and going to college.

Advocates for a GMO-free Hawaii were urged to monitor the current search for Dean of CTAHR and attend public talks to question candidates on this issue. –

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