In a scary story published by Pacific Business News on Friday, July 10, 2009 the size of Hawaii's GMO industry, and its growing importance to the Hawaii economy was detailed. Hawaii is being turned into a major exporter of GMO seed and has thus been placed in the insidious position of being a major facilitator of the huge GMO/biotechnology experiment. The GMO companies like Hawaii due to its isolation from the mainland which prevents GMO crop pollen from cross contaminating non GMO crops and they can get 4 crops of corn per year due to the favorable climate vs. one, possibly two crops per year on the mainland, which permits accelerated research and development.
Growing GMO seeds generates $13.8 million in tax revenue for the state (meaning increasing political clout), is made up of 45 companies including BASF Plant Science, Monsanto (the pioneer of the GMO movement), Dow AgroSciences, DuPont/Pioneer, and Syngenta, with facilities on Oahu, Kauai, Molokai and Maui. The companies mostly grow corn, as well as soybean and sunflower crops.
According to the article:
Their seed crops are worth $146 million, and the industry has grown in value at an average annual rate of 14.2 percent the past four decades.
The companies collectively employ 1,863 workers, and the number of full-time jobs in the sector has increased 268.5 percent in the last three years, according to the study.
Other highlights:
Hawaii’s seed crop companies spent $341 million on business expenditures in 2008.
The industry has seen job growth increase by 73 percent since 2006.
About 14 percent of seed industry jobs are classified “highly skilled” in the areas of science and research.
More than 6,000 farmland acres are devoted to seed crops.
The study was released Friday by the Hawaii Crop Improvement Association and used data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.