In today's Star-Bulletin, looks like another taro
demonstration....

http://starbulletin.com/2007/03/31/news/story02.html

Here's a little in the back of the article that the
taro affected is the commercial Chinese taro-- not even
native to Hawaii? IIRC there was more in an op-ed piece
written by a Taro researcher last year.

'The genetically modified species of taro are Chinese,
not Hawaiian, and they have only been tested in
laboratories so far, he said.

'"There is a significant disease moving in the south of
Pacific that has already wiped out taro production in
some of the islands," said Stephanie Whalen, president
and director of the Hawaii Agriculture Research Center.

'"Research has to be looking at down the road, how can
we sustain this," she added. "Research has to be
forward-looking."

Here's an older link with more detail, specically which varieties are
being hacked:

http://starbulletin.com/2007/02/18/editorial/commentary.html

And here's a link to more tech info about diseases and pests of the
taro:

http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/ac450e/ac450e06.htm

I wonder what the 60 protestors in the 3/31 SB article offer in lieu
of genetic mods to increase the viral resistance of taro?

Change and Hawaii are synonymous; volcanic islands (hello?), populated
by plants, animals and people from other places, my goodness, nothing
is or has been static on these islands since day one

Jonnie Santos wrote:

[...]

On Tue, 3 Apr 2007, Maren Purves wrote: