This entry is submitted by Gloria Gamat, via Creative Reporter.Dennis Gonsalves, professor emeritus of plant pathology at Cornell --now director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center in Hilo, Hawaii-- reviewed how the transgenic papaya was successfully developed, deregulated and commercialized in Hawaii when he spoke at the annual meeting of the American Association of the Advancement of Science today on 19th February.

The papaya industry in the Puna district of Hawaii (where 95 percent of the state's papaya is grown) would not be in existence today, without the genetically engineered PRSV (papaya ring spot virus)-resistant papaya. However, despite the efforts to produce and implement PRSV-resistant papaya in developing countries like Venezuela, Thailand, Brazil, Jamaica and Bangladesh, deploying the crop in these countries has been impossible.

"The technology works beyond a doubt," said Gonsalves. "It is safe, but it has not been transferred to a point where it's available to the people. Our challenge now is figuring out why and to determine how we get it to the end user in a timely manner."

Gonsalves said that studying Hawaii's experience in saving its papaya industry with genetically engineered PRSV-resistant papaya hopefully will shed light on why developing countries aren't following suit.

Read more at CheckBiotech.Org.

About Gloria Gamat: Gloria is a Chemist and a single mom. Gloria also blogs about motherhood at EMothersOnline and about life and travel in the Philippines at The Philippine Culture Blog and at Pinoy Travel Blog respectively.