Hawaii GM tests draw more suits

Environmental groups are suing the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to halt open-air field tests of biopharmaceutical crops in Hawaii until officials assess the environmental and public health risks the plants may pose. Such legal action represents mounting activism in Hawaii, the world leader for agricultural biotechnology trials. “We want these tests stopped until proper analyses of their impacts are done,” Paul Achitoff, managing attorney of law firm Earthjustice's Hawaii office, which is representing a coalition of environmental groups, told The Scientist. More than 4000 field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops have been conducted in Hawaii, including more than two dozen tests of biopharmaceutical crops. The state's balmy weather allows researchers to grow crops in open-air field tests year-round. Biotech giants, such as Dow, Monsanto, and DuPont, and academic institutions conduct experiments there on plants including corn, tobacco, and soy. “The papaya industry in Hawaii is one of the great success stories of biotechnology. The technology provided a solution to a plant virus problem that was about to wipe out a $17 million industry,” Biotechnology Industry Organization spokeswoman Lisa Dry said. “Scientists on the island are now looking to this same technology to improve the pineapple, the state's largest agricultural crop and one that is losing market share to other countries. They hope that through biotechnology, they can replicate the success of papaya and save an industry that is vital to the state's economy.” The coalition contends biopharmaceutical crops testing in Hawaii carries greater risks than testing anywhere else. Hawaii has more than 300 endangered species, more per square mile than anywhere else on Earth, and about 97% of native Hawaiian species are found nowhere else. “Open-air testing of genetically engineered plants in vulnerable ecosystems presents unacceptable risks to Hawaii's fragile biodiversity,” said Cha Smith, executive director of KAHEA, one of the four groups Earthjustice represents in the lawsuit. Moreover, the environmentalists say accidental contamination from GM crops could damage Hawaii's seed corn industry, valued at $35 million, which ships globally. The lawsuit notes that in 2002, the Environmental Protection Agency fined Dow AgroSciences of Indiana and Pioneer Hi-Bred International of Iowa for failing to comply with regulations in their Hawaii plantings on segregating GM corn from other corn. Both settled with the government without admitting wrongdoing. In July, Earthjustice sued the Hawaii Department of Agriculture on behalf of the Center for Food Safety, a watchdog group in Washington, D.C., for public access to state agricultural records concerning field tests of GM crops. No decision has yet been reached on that case. The latest suit contends that USDA is violating a number of federal environmental and agriculture acts by not fully considering the risks of open-air tests of biopharmaceutical crops. Earthjustice filed suit against USDA on November 12, asking the federal district court of Hawaii to order the department to immediately terminate all open-air field tests of biopharmaceutical crops until it consults with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to determine whether field tests may affect endangered species in Hawaii and elsewhere; prepares an Environmental Impact Statement in which the department analyzes all the environmental impacts of the field tests, as well as alternatives to open-air trials; and “issues new regulations that would adequately protect public health and the environment from the adverse effects of field tests,” Achitoff said. USDA declined to comment on pending litigation. Dry said the lawsuit was unnecessary. “The US Department of Agriculture has strong guidelines in place for the regulation of plant-made pharmaceuticals. The effect these plants may have on the environment and public health are carefully considered by both the US Department of Agriculture and the individual state's agriculture department before a permit for field trials is granted,” she said. “This lawsuit can only serve to impede the potential medical benefits of the technology.”

Hawaii GM tests draw more suits

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