[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
[SANET-MG] bad news for Haweaii
loha Fellow Advocates of Native Algae.
Yesterday, the Board of the Hawaii Department of
Agriculture approved a permit (6 to 2) for Mera and
Rincon Pharmaceuticals to begin importing immediately
7 strains of genetically engineered biopharmaceutical
algae into Kona on the island of Hawaii to be grown in
an outdoor phytobioreactor system at Keahole Point at
the state's aquaculture park NELHA. These strains of
Chlamydomonas reinhardtii were engineered with 7
different monoclonal human antibodies, hormones, and
interleukins. This type of "field trial" of a
biopharmaceutical algae has never been attempted
before in the United States. All government agencies,
FDA, USDA/APHIS, and the EPA had waived oversight of
the trial.
Native Algal systems have not been well documented,
and basic knowledge of algal systems and their
relationship to the eco-foundations of life were not
well understood by the public or the board. Mera and
Rincon's last minute attempt to conduct basic
environmental experiments of survivability was well
received by the Board of Agriculture. No peer
reviewed studies or studies of any kind proving their
claims of "no harm to the environment or human health"
were included in the proposal to HDOA.
Written and oral testimony by the public was
overwhelming opposed to the project, but after 3 1/2
hours the board decided to approve the project
ignoring written testimony and reports by a number of
local and mainland scientists and algae experts
including R. Malcolm Brown Jr. Ph.D the Johnson and
Johnson Centennial Chair in Plant Cell Biology at the
University of Texas at Austin, Professor Joe Cummins
and Mae-Won Ho, Doug Sherman Ph.D Senior Scientist
Center For Food Safety, Marti Crouch Ph.D, and local
algae experts from UH Manoa Dr. Alison Sherwood and
Dr. Celia Smith, and the State Biologist of DLNR Dr.
Bill Walsh, and Dr. Lorrin Pang Maui County District
Health Officer. Issac Moriwake Earthjustice Honolulu,
County Councilman Bob Jacobson and Henry Curtis and
Kat Brady Directors of Life of the Land were at the
hearing to lend support.
Imaginative projections of future revenues and the
promise of a few medium paying jobs, was enough to
convince the Board to "weigh" the risks of
contamination of the algal environment and the
"perceived future benefits" to the economy. Dr.
Brown's message to the board that "Hawaii is still the
supreme ecosystem on earth to understand the dynamics
of evolution and natural selection. Let's not forever
lose this opportunity because a few commercial
operations thoughtlessly tried to construct mass
scaleup of genetically modified organisms in Hawaii,"
fell on deaf ears. It was indeed a sad day for the
native algae of Hawaii island.
Aloha,
Nancy Redfeather
Director - Hawaii GEAN
********************************************************
To unsubscribe from SANET-MG:
1- Visit http://lists.sare.org/archives/sanet-mg.html to unsubscribe or;
2- Send a message to <listserv@sare.org> from the address subscribed to the list. Type "unsubscribe sanet-mg" in the body of the message.
Visit the SANET-MG archives at: http://lists.sare.org/archives/sanet-mg.html
For more information on grants and other resources available through the SARE program, please visit http://www.sare.org.