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Big Island Rainbow papaya farmers may have to tear out their trees within 30 months, or face fines and jail time, if a bill making the rounds on the Big Island is enacted

The law, which is expected to be submitted to the Hawaii County Council by council member Brenda Ford, proposes fines of up to $1,000 per day and 30 days in jail for farmers or landowners who are growing genetically modified crops.

The bill — which bans genetically modified animals and feed, in addition to crops — is the latest volley in Hawaii’s heated debate and legal battles over GMOs. The prohibition of new GMO crops would take effect immediately.

Civil Beat received an advanced copy of the bill, which comes on the heels of a similar piece of legislation proposed by Council Member Margaret Wille earlier this year.

Wille withdrew her bill this month during what was expected to be a final vote by the county council — it is unclear why — but she has suggested that she would submit a revised version. At the time, Ford vowed to submit a different GMO bill.

Neither Ford or Wille could be reached for comment for this story.

The bill is already spurring protests from some local farmers and other supporters of GMO crops.

Big Island farmer Richard Ha said that the bill would drive up food costs and undermine Hawaii’s goal of increasing local food production. He criticized Wille and Ford for not meeting with local farmers and offering constructive solutions.

“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.”

Ford’s bill is multifaceted. It aims to protect the environment from genetically modified organisms, save honeybees from pesticides and preserve the island’s biodiversity. Nationally, GMO opponents worry that genetically modified crops will become dominant, decreasing natural diversity among plant species like corn or soy beans. As a result, they say whole crop species could be wiped out by a single disease. Ford’s bill suggests that the Big Island could become a GMO sanctuary.

The purpose is to “maintain the Island of Hawaii 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.”

But scientists argue that GMO crops are highly regulated and they criticize GMO opponents for not understanding the science. Meanwhile, local farmers say they are getting caught up in a much larger debate about the world’s big biotech companies, such as Syngenta and Monsanto, that have taken up root in Hawaii in recent years, although not on the Big Island.

Papaya farmers are particularly worried. Few GMO crops are grown on the Big Island, except when it comes to the Rainbow papaya, which was genetically modified by scientists in the 1990s so that it could ward off the ringspot virus that nearly wiped out Hawaii’s papayas. Nearly all of the papaya grown in the state are now genetically modified.

Big Island farmers have reported significant declines in sales of their papayas due to the bad publicity emanating from the debate. But this new bill would devastate the industry.

Not only would Rainbow papaya farmers not be allowed to grow their fruit, they would be required to cut down and dispose of their trees, at their own expense.

“What are the folks that have loans and stuff — what are they going to do?” asked Ha. “It’s really scary.”

Dennis Gonsalves, who led the team of scientists who saved the papaya in the 1990s, said 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.

The bill provides an exemption for GMO research, but requires that it be conducted in “biosafety level 3 contamination” facilities. Gonsalves said that this would essentially shut down GMO research because such facilities don’t exist on the Big Island.

He said that the science behind genetically engineered plants has advanced significantly and that the technology could be used to help other local crops. But he fears that years of research could come to naught given the debate’s tenor.

Hawaii’s fight over GMO crops is attracting national media attention and mainland advocacy groups opposed to GMOs have become increasingly involved in the local debate. Another measure on Kauai aims to halt the expansion of the large biotechnology companies until environmental tests are conducted to assess whether their field tests are harming the environment or human health.

The bill also requires disclosure of pesticide use and requires a 500-foot buffer zone between large pesticide users and public facilities such as schools and waterways. GMO companies say the bill could put them out of business.

Read the draft bill here:

DISCUSSION Do you think GMO crops should be banned on the Big Island? Would this law be fair to farmers? Customers?