GMOs
GMOs
New evidence
shows DNA remains
The cavalier attitude of Professor Bruce Chassy quoted in your GMO article is disturbing. He says, “We can eat grams and grams of Bt (insecticide) protein without any effect.” No individual researcher can validate the safety of eating GMOs at a time when research on this topic is turning up new evidence.
According to Professor Jahreis of Friedrich-Schiller University in Germany, pieces of DNA from GMO Bt corn have been detected in chicken tissues, muscle, liver, kidney and spleen.
Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Milan, Italy, animal feeding studies have demonstrated that fragmented dietary DNA resists the digestive process.
Professor Walter Doerfler at the University of Cologne, has repetitively demonstrated that large enough pieces of DNA survives digestion.
On the other hand, there is no evidence proving that GMO foods engineered with insecticides, foreign DNA, bacteria and viruses are safe to eat, and without GMO food labeling there is no way to track health safety.
Another point made in your article is that GMO crop field trials in the state are restricted to prevent contamination, but why is it that commercial papaya farmers balk at the idea of buffers or restrictions in the proposed county Bill 79 to contain their GMO pollen.
Don’t farmers who plant non-GMO or organic papaya who have learned to control the ring-spot virus and others wanting to enter this more lucrative, higher-premium price market count in the balance of fairness?
Merle Inouye
Hilo
Scuba Spearfishing
Our reefs deserve
our protection
Shame on you, shame on us. That is the emotion I feel when I think of when we, as residents and visitors to this wonderful Big Island, fail in our duty. We have a duty as stewards of our natural resources, to protect and preserve. Our fragile reefs deserve our utmost respect and protection to the best of our abilities. Our reefs are a reflection of how we, as a society, decide how we will protect them. The Hawaiian reef community is rare in the Pacific, and should demand our respect and care.
I beseech Gov. Neil Abercrombie, and those he appoints, to do the right thing by our natural resources; most importantly our ocean reefs. The burden of proof should be on those who would wantonly pillage our reefs. Can you, as scuba spearfishermen, prove you do no harm?
Bob Trubell
Holualoa