From a Private Garden Into the Ripe GMO Debate
About 25 years ago, a gardening friend of ours gave us a 鈥榳atermelon papaya鈥. I planted the seeds of this massive member of the papaya family, and we grew it for a few years, enjoying the impressive size and luscious flesh. One of these fruits was large enough to serve a family of four. Later, I became too busy to keep up with all of my gardening duties, and one day realized that I no longer had the seeds, and neither did our friend.
I began to search the local supermarkets and natural food stores, and one day found another 鈥榳atermelon鈥. Alas, it tasted more like a vegetable, than a fruit, and was more yellow in color. I continued my quest, and was finally rewarded by finding one of the best tasting watermelon papayas ever 鈥 nestled in the bin of papayas in our town鈥檚 tiny natural foods store! This time I vowed to save the seed for perpetuity.
I used to fuss over the precious, spiny little black seeds, going to all sorts of trouble cleaning, and drying them. Now, I just throw the whole mess of seeds on a spot of the garden where I can easily observe it, and let nature take it鈥檚 course. Then I select the strongest, healthiest seedlings and plant them in a sunny location.
It seems to take forever for the seed to grow to a tree, and then for the tree to bear fruit, especially when your mouth is watering in anticipation. It takes less than twelve months actually, then the tree happily bears fruit all year long, finally becoming too tall to pick anymore. I have fourteen vegetable beds that I tend, and have found that a papaya tree planted in the middle of the bed provides shade that keeps the surrounding plants from wilting during the hottest hours of the day. Lately, the sun has seemed even stronger than usual, frying my back at 10 a.m. Vegetables that once thrived here in full sun now benefit from shade, especially peppers and tomatoes.
I like to send seeds of uncommon varieties to an ethnobotanical seed company in exchange for credit, and had my package all sealed up, addressed and ready to go, when in my daily online research I came upon HawaiiSeed.org. I zoomed into the heading 鈥楲ocal Resources,鈥 went to 鈥楶apaya,鈥 and finally to 鈥楪MO contamination.鈥
There I learned that an independent lab had found 50 percent of Hawaii Island papaya seed contaminated by GMOs, and my heart sank. I felt that it wasn鈥檛 proper to send off my papaya seeds to my favorite ethnobotanical seed company if they might possibly be contaminated with GMOs. It then occurred to me to call the local co-operative extension service, where 20-some years ago I completed their Master Gardener Course, to see if they offered any GMO seed contamination testing services to assuage the concerns of backyard gardeners. I called the Hilo office, and spoke to Brian Bush who told me in detail about the test they use to see if seed has been GMO contaminated.
They can test the seeds and the leaves. The plant engineers designed the gene to light up in the presence of an enzyme, a clever feature. When I told Brian that I had a watermelon papaya, he said it was a Thai cultivar. Having grown out many foreign cultivars from many continents in the past, and none having ever approached the sheer deliciousness of 鈥榤y鈥 papaya, I am wondering if this Thai was flirting with something else, somewhere in the backyards of Puna.
Concerned about cultivars of Thai papayas now, I discover that the Thai scientists have been . Now I feel truly desolated, fearing the worst. I recruit our son to drive the seeds into Hilo for testing while I learn more about the microprojectile bombardment of papaya genes in Thailand. I am beginning to feel ill, thinking of the helpless papaya genes under this assault.
Ignorance is bliss, no doubt it about now. At this point I am on to horizontal gene transfer and the threat it poses to . It seems that many of the antibiotic resistant genes used in agricultural biotechnology have the potential to move to pathogenic microbes in the environment. Thai researchers were using katamycin resistant genes 鈥 鈥.鈥 If my watermelon papaya is a descendant of these tinkered-with fruits, I am doomed as far trading seeds goes.
Yes, it is much better to be lulled by the dulcet tones of the biotech PR mavens. Agricultural biotech will save and feed the world. I will mesmerize myself into believing in Monsanto almighty, and forget the problems that previous products such as Agent Orange, Roundup and DDT have created.
One of my relatives is a GMO scientist for Monsanto, and another is a farmer with hundreds of acres of soybeans, now a Monsanto serf for the rest of his working life, apparently. To say that these ag/biotech corporations have fomented another Civil War in the US is no understatement. Once again, brothers fight against brothers, farmers against farmers, and now, mammals against microbes, humans against nature. Where it will all end is a mystery at this point.
Tomorrow, August 6th, our Hawaii County Council votes on the GMO ban. Will they be persuaded by the big guns of conventional agriculture, or listen to the pleas of the 鈥榣ittle people鈥? Meanwhile, I await the results of my watermelon papaya seed test.
About the author: Vicki Vierra is an artist, soap-maker, and gardener in Keaau, Hawaii. Her work is in collections around the world, including the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, Art in Public Places collection.
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