Ka`u News Briefs Monday, August 19, 2013

SEABURY HALL from Maui is the second off-island school in the state to sign up to play Ka`u High school in eight-man football and will come to Pahala for the game. The Trojans, with six games scheduled, are leading the effort to establish eight-man football on this island. It is a faster, higher scoring game than traditional 11-man football. Maui and Moloka`i already play eight-man football, and Ka`u is scheduled to play the Moloka`i Farmers on Oct. 5.

      The Trojans were out raising money this weekend for the travel to Moloka`i and set up a table and spoke at the Ka`u High School annual reunion luncheon at Pahala Community Center. The team took in $400 in donations from alumni. The team is also raising money through food booths at a series of softball games at Na`alehu Park this evening, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings as well as Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Kahua Ranch donated beef for the fundraiser. 
 

      The six games scheduled for Trojan eight-man football this fall include play against Kamehameha, Kealakehe, Seabury and Moloka`i. Next year, other Hawai`i Island teams are expected to join and could include Pahoa, Kohala and some of the smaller private schools.
      To donate to the Trojan team, call athletic director Kalei Namohala at 928-2012.
      To comment on or “Like” this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

KA`U’S COUNTY COUNCIL MEMBER BRENDA FORD has drafted a bill prohibiting genetically modified organisms on the Big Island. Unlike a bill introduced by Kohala Council member Margaret Wille and recently withdrawn, Ford’s bill has no exemption for Rainbow papaya, which was genetically modified in the 1990s to ward off ringspot virus. Ford’s bill calls for any cultivation, development or use of GMOs to end no later than 30 months after it goes into effect, with fines of up to $1,000 per day.

      Sophie Cocke, of Civil Beat, reports that some local farmers and other supporters of GMO crops are already protesting the bill. Hamakua Springs Country Farms owner Richard Ha told her the bill would drive up food costs and undermine Hawai`i’s goal of increasing local food production. “In general, they have no long-term plan, and neither one of them have talked to the farmers,” Ha said. “So they really don’t know what they don’t know.”
      Ha expressed concern for farmers: “What are the folks that have loans and stuff – what are they going to do? It’s really scary.”
      Dennis Gonsalves, who led the team of scientists who worked to genetically modify the papaya, told Cocke that he was saddened by the bill and the impact it would have on local farmers. “They don’t care who they harm and what they harm,” he said.
      Ford’s bill says its purpose is to:
“Protect human, animal, and plant life, and the land, water, and air on or under, in or over the Island of Hawai`i, including the ocean with its marine life that surrounds the Island of Hawai`i, from the adverse effects of biotechnical modification of any organism’s genome;
Maintain the Island of Hawai`i as a heritage seed bank and gene bank to preserve the biodiversity of plants, animals, and other organisms in case reserves of such organisms are destroyed elsewhere, and
Safeguard honeybees, which pollinate at least thirty percent of our food crops, from pesticides placed in some organisms through the use of genetic modification thereby threatening that portion of our food supply pollinated by honeybees.”

      The only exemption in Ford’s bill is for GMO research, but it requires that any research be conducted in “biosafety level three contamination” facilities. According to Gonsalves, this would essentially shut down GMO research because no such facilities exist on the Big Island.
      When Wille withdrew her bill, she said she would introduce a newer version with exemptions for papaya and transgenic crops grown in enclosed structures.
      See more at civilbeat.com.
      To comment on or “Like” this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.