During the planning stage, C. The latter, who were working with the PAC, were helpful in advising us on how to obtain the list of commercial papaya farmers through the process provided by the Freedom of Information Act FOIA 7. The abovementioned core group provided essential information and help concerning the farmers, farming practices, and cultural considerations, for a broader understanding of the Hawaii papaya industry.
Visits were made to all of the farming locations in Puna so that a survey questionnaire could be written, decisions on sampling methods could be made, and a pre-test of the survey could be done. Many of the farms had been abandoned after they were overcome by the virus, and the farmers most of whom lease rather than own farmlands were no longer actively farming. Other farms were in isolated or difficult-to-reach areas.
HASS and other industry personnel estimated that there were only about active farmers in the state of Hawaii. After discussing this problem with the manager of the PAC, he suggested that a reapplication be made through FOIA for the list of farmers who had registered to use transgenic seeds when they became available.
In his estimation, this list would include all currently active papaya farmers. Thus, the names and addresses of farmers, of whom resided on the island of Hawaii with of these farming in Puna, was subsequently received. Note: At the time of the interview, one of the Puna-based farmers had re-located his papaya farm to the Hamakua Coast in an effort to escape the virus.
Diligent efforts were made to contact all of the farmers in Puna, first by telephone and if there was no response or if no telephone number was available, by letter. Many of the farmers could not be located either by telephone or by letter, and it was not known whether or not they still lived in the area. Of the farmers who were contacted, only a few turned down the opportunity to be interviewed.
All of the interviews were done by C. Gonsalves with questions asked in a consistent manner. Generally, a day of telephone calling, setting up interviews and obtaining directions to homes or other locations alternated with a full day of interviews.
Sometimes the first interview started at a. Times and locations of interviews were at the discretion of the farmer. When evening interviews were scheduled along isolated, unlit roads, a reconnaissance trip was taken during the day, to assure success in locating the house at night. Some of the attempts at finding a home were challenging and amusing. The interviewer drove in the general vicinity for some time, scanning the landscape for a house with five tall pine trees, and was chagrined to find that the homeowner had five small evergreen plants in the yard.
Another farmer insisted he could be found sitting under a mango tree in the middle of a "camp" of houses, but on the day of the interview it was raining and not a soul was sitting under the tree. All data were collected during three extended visits to Hawaii from June to September, Farmers were characterized as having adopted the use of the transgenic variety if they had planted seeds of the variety Rainbow between May 1, when they became available and the end of the survey period. Of the 93 respondents, 92 had prepared to receive the free seeds by attending a mandatory education session or watching a video about transgenic papayas and by signing a sublicensing form.
Results that may be of interest to this readership appear below. These results are drawn from Gonsalves 2 and Gonsalves, Lee, and Gonsalves 3 , which report further details. For example, in the first distribution, top priority farmers received two allotments of two ounces of seeds, for a total of four ounces 6. Each two-ounce packet contained about 4, seeds, or enough to plant a half acre parcel.
Of these:. Farms in the Kapoho area of Puna were most severely damaged by Papaya ringspot viru s. At the time of the interviews farmers were actively transforming the landscape from one with fields of infected trees background, yellow trees , to one where the virus-susceptible Kapoho solo were being cut down and replaced by the virus-resistant Rainbow foreground , and finally to lush fields of Rainbow that were bearing fruit background, green trees.
The most frequent responses centered on the lack of farmer preparation multiple responses allowed :. Some of the farmers were concerned over market approval of transgenic papaya by Japan and Canada, whether local packing houses would buy their papaya, and whether the transgenic papaya would perform well for other farmers.
However, none of the farmers were personally against the use of genetically-modified plants. Due perhaps to the special value of the Rainbow seeds, farmers experimented in establishing Rainbow seedlings in pots or trays prior to transplanting them out to the field; this was in contrast to the traditional practice of sowing about 15 seeds directly into the planting hole to ensure survival of direct seeded plants from destruction by mice, birds, slugs, pathogens, water damage, and other pests.
A preliminary study and discussions with industry-related personnel and some of the farmers suggested that for many farmers there would be a sensitivity to answering questions on farming costs and production, and that many of them would not be able to provide specific cost and production data. Thus, although specific questions were asked in the survey, we followed the suggestion of one of the farmers who said that while many farmers probably could not answer all the specific questions about production costs, they would be able to provide their total cost of production "from the time they clear the land, until the time they begin to harvest.
A number of items were considered to be "free" by many farmers. These included the cost of nontransgenic Kapoho solo seeds produced on-farm, labor contributed by family or friends, and operating a tractor or truck that they owned. Further specific information follows:. Eighty-five of the growers farmed on leased land. The remaining eight growers farmed on their own land. Not all farmers needed to purchase soil because they had enough topsoil on their farm. However, on many of the lava lands, the rocky planting holes must first be filled with topsoil before papaya seeds or seedlings can be put into the ground.
Comparative first year costs of growing transgenic versus nontransgenic papaya could be obtained only from early adopters, since the survey ended 16 months after the May seed distribution. Overall, the early adopters felt that there was no difference in the cost of growing nontransgenic or transgenic papayas. The only major change in farming practice was the trend toward using transplanted seedlings for planting the transgenics.
This new practice was a learning experience for farmers since the old custom was to sow seeds directly into the planting holes. Since the earliest adopters were in their first four months of harvest, no annual harvest data were collected. Thus, the year corresponding to the reported historical acres occurred between when Papaya ringspot virus first entered the Puna area, and on through , by which time all respondents had observed Papaya ringspot virus in their fields. Overall, farms were as small as a one-acre plot of land, and as large as acres.
Most of the farmers had either Medium or Medium-small farms that ranged from 21 to The basis for this high adoption rate is not known; however, we can speculate that they wanted to grow transgenic papayas to make up for the losses caused by Papaya ringspot virus.
Table 2. Farmer attitudes toward buying transgenic seeds and trying new transgenic varieties. The primary qualification by respondents was that the price of the seed should be "reasonable. The tenor of farmer responses although no data was taken was that they had a superior product and they wanted consumers to know it.
Farmers who were not in favor of labeling thought that labeling was not necessary and that papaya should be marketed according to the quality of the fruit. Interesting comments from two of the eleven farmers who were not in favor of labeling were that mislabeled fruit could cause a problem in the marketplace. An example would be the problem caused when a fruit is expected to be yellow-fleshed such as the transgenic Rainbow but is found to be red-fleshed, like the nontransgenic Sunrise variety.
Ten of the eleven farmers who were not sure about the idea of labeling had no comment, and one felt that labeling is too much work for the farmer. Farmers endured the scourge of Papaya ringspot virus a full six years, from to , before Rainbow and SunUp were offered as a solution to their problem.
The promise of a papaya that could remain healthy via engineered virus resistance was a hope that in truth became a reality for farmers who adopted these high tech varieties 4,5.
As a result, Hawaii has lost a large part of its papaya growers and consumers are left on their own to learn which types of papaya are GMO-free and which ones are not. GMO papayas account for approximately 75 percent of the 30 million pounds produced in the United States via Hawaii.
The good news is, finding a GMO-free papaya is simply knowing what types are not produced with genetically modified seeds and which ones are. Wikipedia Commons. Aside from buying organic, which ensures the product is GMO-free, the best way to choose a GMO-free papaya is to buy the original type of papaya that is native to the island, which is the Kapoho also called Kapoho Solo variety.
This papaya has a yellowish flesh, not a pink flesh like most hybrid and commercial GMO papaya crops. Other varieties that are not genetically modified include: The Mexican Red red flesh , Caribbean Red, Maradol, Royal Star papayas red flesh and often sold at Whole Foods , The Singapore Pink bright orange flesh , and the Higgins variety a bright yellow flesh.
Most papayas from Mexico and from Belize such as these types, are not genetically modified like those from Hawaii. Otherwise, use these tips and use papaya this summer to brighten your skin, make your tummy happy, and increase your immunity, all with just 55 calories per cup, plenty of water, and easy-to-digest soluble fiber.
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You must be logged in to post a comment. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Non-genetically altered papayas and the new papayas were planted. Within a year, the non-GM papayas were infected with the virus, but the GM papayas were virus-free!
However, even if the GM papaya has saved the industry and its farmers, there were still critics of the use of GM on crop production. Again, with GMOs in general, worries about the environment and for our health are the main points of concern.
Specifically, in Hawaii, the concerns ranged from possible contamination of other seeds to possible health risks for those who eat GM papaya. It was met with a lot of backlash, especially from farmers that were left, once again, with no papayas they could plant that would be safe from PRSV.
Others felt that the scientific consensus was ignored. Those who wanted to save papaya production from PRSV protested, and in consideration of their voices, the new law only bans new genetically modified crops and exempts the papaya.
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