HB704 HD1

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	704
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2007		H.D. 1
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that genetic engineering is a new science that has not yet received any long-term evaluation of its effects on the health of human bodies, other living creatures, and the environment. Japan, the European Union, and the majority of other nations in the world are limiting, if not barring, the importation of genetically engineered foods into their respective countries and questioning the safety of genetic engineering technology upon human health and the environment.

The legislature also finds that the drift of pollen from genetically engineered crops has been scientifically documented to extend two or more miles away from those plantings, and therefore poses potential risks to the organic farm industry and other farms not using genetically engineered crops. Genetic engineering also could have unforeseen effects on Hawaii's precious native ecosystems and the biodiversity of our sensitive island environments.

Nevertheless, growth in genetically engineered agricultural production has been swift and pervasive throughout the nation. However, because of the practice of exchanging genetic material between genetically modified crops and conventional crops, wild plants, and organisms is known to occur, genetically modified material and any adverse characteristics it confers or promotes could be irreversibly dispersed into the wider environment.

In Hawaii, the taro-growing industry is widely known around the world and deeply imbedded in our culture. The legislature finds that commercially experimenting with the genetic engineering of this crop without examining and evaluating the adverse effects of this process is careless and may have far-reaching, irreversible, and unintended consequences.

The purpose of this Act is to create a ten-year moratorium on testing, propagating, cultivating, raising, and growing of genetically modified taro in the State of Hawaii.

SECTION 2. Chapter 321, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§321‑ Genetically modified taro; moratorium. (a) No genetically modified taro shall be tested, propagated, cultivated, raised, or grown in the State.

(b) As used in this section:

"Genetically modified" means alterations to a life form or its living progeny at the nucleic acid level, using the techniques collectively referred to as recombinant DNA technology.

"Recombinant DNA technology" means the transfer of genes, regulatory sequences, or nucleic acid between hosts by the use of vectors or laboratory manipulations and includes the insertion, excision, duplication, inactivation, or relocation of specific genes, regulatory sequences, or sections of nucleic acid. This term does not apply to a material or an organism developed exclusively through traditional methods of breeding, hybridization, or nondirected mutagenesis.

SECTION 3. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2007.