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Kokua Line
Question: Which type of papaya is genetically altered? I heard that it is rainbow. How about Kahuku, solo, sunrise or mainland? If the papaya is genetically altered, are the nutrients the same as the ones that have not been altered? Are they just as good for the human body? Should we avoid genetically altered food? Can the human body process and absorb it the same way? Genetically altered
fruit resists diseaseAnswer: Transgenic (genetically engineered) papayas are the rainbow and sun-up, according to the state Department of Agriculture.
University of Hawaii horticulturist Richard Manshardt, who spent 10 years helping to develop the rainbow papaya, explained that the rainbow is a hybrid, resulting from "a conventional cross-pollination of sun-up, which is a genetically engineered papaya, and Kapoho, a standard export yellow flesh variety of papaya."
Manshardt said your concerns are valid, "because it's been in the news." But he assures you "there is nothing in anybody's research that indicates (genetically engineered papayas) are different from any other papayas except that they are resistant to a disease."
The rainbow has a gene that makes it resistant to the papaya ringspot virus, which threatened to destroy the papaya industry on Oahu and the Big Island.
"But everything else about the papaya is the same -- the nutrients, the vitamin A and vitamin C, in particular, are very comparable to other yellow flesh papayas," Manshardt said.
"We think it is a very good papaya and there is nothing hazardous about it at all for people's consumption," he said.
The rainbow was the first genetically engineered orchard fruit approved for commercial production in the United States (in 1998).
Meanwhile, the debate over foods genetically altered to resist bugs and disease and improve yields continues. Critics argue that genetic engineering will result in a greater dependence on chemicals and potentially cause unwanted plant traits to spread.
Some people just don't want any tampering with nature. However, Manshardt insists, "They don't understand that when you walk into a grocery store, that's not nature. That's the result of 10,000 years of breeding, which is genetic modification."
He also says there is nothing new about altering genes in our foods. What is new, and in many people's minds, "very scary," is the method that is being used, he acknowledged.
Techniques now available "allow particular pieces of biological/genetic information to be taken out of one organism and put into another entirely different one," he said. "So in that sense, it is a lot more precise and specific" than simply making a cross of two individual organisms with "all the genes sort(ing) themselves out in various combinations."
This "different" and "very powerful" technique "makes the human element of choice more powerful ... You can use it for good ways or bad ways."
The question in many people's minds is whether people can be trusted with this kind of power, especially since much of the technology is under patent by large multinational corporations.
That all said, you should do your own research and decide for yourself which side of the fence to sit on.
Mahalo
To Laurie (spelling?), who lifted me from the sidewalk on Mokulele Street in Kalihi when I fell recently. She was already late for work, but she put me in her car and drove me home. I really appreciate her kindness. -- L.S.
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