Quote:
Originally Posted by Kat2
Not everyone on the islands likes the GMO papayas. Search for "GMO papayas Hawaii destroyed" and see that not all residents are pleased with the program.
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Trust me I am more than aware of it, living in the main papaya producing area in the state. There are lots of anti-science kooks out there, and that's who most of the displeased are. The organic growers have a small complaint in that about 1% of organic papaya gets cross contaminated, but it impacts the seeds and is not in the fruit itself, but these growers should get seed from controlled sources anyway because the seeds from any papaya aren't necessarily true to type. They recently put forth legislation that would imprison anyone who grew these transgenic papaya. It only got 1 vote from the nut who introduced it. Oh, and Roseanne Barr is against it too in case you're wondering, lol. There's an interesting read on it here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/us...bout-gmos.html
It's now the law here that even if TR4 Panama Disease gets here one would face heavy fines for growing a GM banana even if it simply had genes from another naturally resistant banana. Anti-science lunacy at its worst. 2 lawsuits have been filed against our County to overturn the law.
The papaya contains parts of the ringspot virus rendering it immune to the virus itself, much like a vaccine. Anyone consuming non-GMO papaya is also consuming ringspot virus, but the whole virus, not just the bits incorporated into the papaya's genome. Even anti-GMO Michael Pollan has conceded there is nothing wrong with it during a recent debate at UC Berkeley. There is a very large paranoid conspiracy theorist contingent in this part of the state. They conflate the GMO papaya with Monsanto and other companies, even though none of those companies have or have ever expressed any interest in setting up so much as an office on the Big Island.