Report Title:

Agriculture.

Description:

Provides a 10-year moratorium on developing, testing, propagating, cultivating, growing, and raising genetically engineered taro.

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	1664
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2007
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

Relating to Agriculture.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

     SECTION 1.  Growth in genetically engineered agricultural production has been swift and pervasive throughout the nation.  The quick acceptance of the new technology, however, may pose serious consequences for the health and safety of our citizens.  Further, because of an exchange of 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 developing, 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 developed, 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 and shall be repealed on June 30, 2017.

INTRODUCED BY:

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