Kalo Patent

Context:

Activism has taken place in protection of our sacred staple food: Kalo. In the 1990’s, Samoan taro farmers were experiencing tragedy as their crops were taking a beating from a leaf bight: a fatal disease for the plants. University faculty member, professor Eduardo E. Trujillo, recognized the issue and took action by producing different variations of the Samoan taro infused with the Hawaiian taro. Emerging from this situation were three different strands of taro that showed resistance to the disease. Shortly thereafter, there were patents granted to the University of Hawaii on these three strands of taro, creating a system where “farmers using the patented taro varieties were required to pay licensing fees to the university if they were running a business” (University of Hawaii Agrees to Give Up Controversial Patents on Taro Plant).

Patents → No Patents

• The ownership (of the patents) was split by the professor and UHM’s Office of Technology Transfer (Ing, Ka Leo).

• On June 5th, 2006, UH Mānoa gave up the three patents on the crossbred taro plants because of the issue at hand: taro is a sacred plant in the native Hawaiian culture and therefore is owned by the Native Hawaiians. Students contributed to the university’s decision. On Thursday, March 2, 2006, over “600 people gathered in front of Bachman Hall on Thursday to confront interim President David McClain in protest of patents of hybridized Hawaiian taro by the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources” (Ing, Matthew K.). The protest was for all to be share the right to access taro equally because Hawaiian kalo is considered an ancestor, Haloa, to the Hawaiian people. By modifying and patenting Haloa, one is patenting an entire people and culture. It reserves the right to buy, sell, and own the mana and ancestral ties with Haloa. As a university that sits on illegally occupied Hawaiian land, they and no one else owns the land they are using and selling.

• The HB 1663 HD1 bill was issued in 2009.

• The purpose of the HB 1663 HD1 bill of 2009 is to prohibit the development, testing, propagation, release, importation, planting, and growing of genetically modified Hawaiian taro in the State of Hawaii. In addition, this bill restricts the genetic modification of non-Hawaiian taro only to enclosed laboratories where access is denied to the general public and prohibits outdoor field testing or release of genetically modified taro within the State of Hawaii (HB 1663 HD1).

Aftermath

As of June 16, 2006, “neither the university nor anyone else "owns" an interest in the three taro varieties” (UH Files Terminal Disclaimer on Taro Patents).

Works Cited

“A BILL FOR AN ACT.” SB2571, 2009,

www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2010/bills/HB1663_HD1_.HTM.

Ing, Matthew K. “Hawaiian Groups Voice Opposition on Taro Patents.” Scholarspace, Ka Leo O Hawaii,

2006, scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/18643/060306.pdf?sequence=1.

“UH Files Terminal Disclaimer on Taro Patents.” Edited by Gary K. Ostrander, Weird Science: Salt Is

Essential to Life | Manoa.hawaii.edu/ExploringOurFluidEarth, Kaunana, 20 June 2006,

manoa.hawaii.edu/news/article.php?aId=1468.

“University of Hawaii Agrees to Give Up Controversial Patents on Taro Plant.” Organic Consumers

Association | Campaigning for Health, Justice, Sustainability, Peace, and Democracy, 6 June

2006,

www.organicconsumers.org/news/university-hawaii-agrees-give-controversial-patents-taro-plant