Why Keep Kona Coffee GM-Free

By Christine Sheppard, President, Kona Coffee Council

There are no genetically modified coffee plants growing in Kona. In fact none exist in the field anywhere in the State of Hawaii. So why have Kona coffee farmers been pushing the Department of Agriculture for new rules on field testing of GM coffee in Kona?

Because the current rules give Kona coffee farmers no input into the permitting process for field tests. Because we will not know GM crops are in the field until it is too late to prevent it. Because GM coffee in Kona would cross-pollinate with our heritage stock and ruin its marketability.

Scientists at CTAR (University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources), HARC (Hawaii Agricultural Research Center), and ICT (a private company Integrated Coffee Technologies, Inc.) all have labs on Oahu where they are researching genetically engineered coffee plants. They have lofty ideals of making coffee plants that are nematode-resistant, that are naturally decaffeinated, that will ripen all their beans at the same time....

When Kona coffee farmers tell them we don't want their genetically modified plants here's what they tell us. "The Kona coffee industry may need to use this technology in the future to address a pressing problem" - Dean Andrew Hashimoto, CTAHR. "I hope Kona coffee will never need to be saved by a GM coffee like the papaya industry in east Hawaii was" - Dr. Skip Bittenbender, UH. "GM techniques offer many opportunities for development of specialty coffee including altered caffeine content, unique flavor, and disease and pest resistance; this latter leads to reduced pesticide use" - Stephanie Whalen, President of HARC.

What these scientists seem unable to grasp is that, right now, our biggest problem is them!

We have the healthiest coffee trees in the world, the most disease and pest free, we do not use any pesticides on coffee in Kona. Nematodes are being dealt with by traditional methods. Our taste profile is considered one of the worlds finest and is already a unique flavor. Kona coffee sells at the highest niche in the specialty gourmet coffee market. If some terrible disaster should wipe out our heritage crop, GM-coffee could not help us because it would not sell at that high niche price. Even if they made a coffee tree that bore 40 lbs of cherry, needed no fertilizer or water, and had beans that jumped off the tree into the picking basket, it would not be Kona coffee with its 175 year heritage and world-renowned flavor.

We all know the economics of coffee farming in Kona. It is mostly hand labor on small farms. We are the only non-third-world country producing coffee. The only place with fair wages, U.S. land prices and operating costs. We cannot survive on a lower price for our coffee. Coffee farms on Maui and Oahu stand abandoned because those island coffees could not command Kona's price. It was uneconomic for them to continue.

If we introduce GM coffee into Kona we will be in the same position. The Specialty Coffee Association of America's Sustainability Committee says that a GM coffee does not meet the definition of quality needed to be a specialty coffee. Many foreign markets (Japan, Europe) will be highly resistant or even closed to GM coffee imports. Kona coffee sells for three times most other coffees. Our buyers are discriminating and savvy about their purchases. Many will reject GM coffee.

Even a field-test site poses a real danger of cross-pollination. Once you let the genie out of the bottle there is no cramming it back, as the corn farmers on the mainland found out to their disadvantage.

There is good news too.... CTAHR, HARC, and ICT have given undertakings not to field-test in Kona while the coffee industry is in opposition. We are grateful for their assurances. But who else is doing research that we do not know about?

The REAL gate-keeper in this issue is the Hawaii Department of Agriculture. Permits for field-testing of GM crops are issued by APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the USDA). APHIS allow the State DoA to veto a permit application. Requests from the Kona Coffee Council, the Kona Farmers Alliance, and efforts on our behalf from Hawaii Pride (papayas), asked that the Kona coffee industry be included in a review of permit applications. The only response has been a letter from James Nakatani, Chairperson, Board of Agriculture, which restated the current ineffective policy, "the State has the opportunity to address local concerns, when needed".

Fortunately our County Council is more foresighted. They saw the need to protect Kona coffee's unique niche. They recognized that introduction of GM coffee into Kona would cause unacceptable risk to the industry. On September 25th the HCC voted in a Resolution supporting the development of a regional protocol prior to any release or planting of genetically modified coffee in North and South Kona. Such protocol to be established in collaboration with appropriate government agencies, the scientific community, and the Kona coffee industry stakeholders.

The unity among the Kona community was solid. Testifying for the resolution were the Kona Coffee Council, the Kona Farmer Alliance, the Kona Pacific Farmers Cooperative, the Kona County Farm Bureau, the Hawaii Organic Farmers Association, and more than a dozen individual coffee farmers.

What's the next step?

With the support of our County Council Resolution, we are taking our case back to James Nakatani at the Department of Agriculture. We request that we are included in the loop, that we have the opportunity to be a part of the organization that can veto field-test applications within our growing area. It is the only way we can safeguard against a cross-pollination spill that would take our livelihood away.

Those who develop genetically modified plants make profit when they get those plants into farmers' hands. The farmer only makes profit when he sells his crop, and if the world doesn't want to buy it, why grow it?

According to its web-site the Hawaii Department of Agriculture's Plant Quarantine Program began over a hundred years ago when, in 1888, King David Kalakaua decreed that in order to protect the coffee industry in Hawaii, new coffee plants would not be allowed into the islands. This protection has resulted in Hawaii having the only 100-plus year old trees still producing coffee.

Scientists, please continue to keep invasive pests and diseases out of our islands. Don't introduce varieties that put us at risk. Let's keep Kona Kona, pure and simple.