During a rally outside the Historic County Building Wednesday, a handful of residents urged visiting state legislators to halt genetically modified organism laboratory testing of taro by the University of Hawai‘i.

“We want to make our intentions known to Kaua‘i that we don’t want GMO crops, especially GMO taro, on our island,” said Jeri Di Pietro, accompanied by eight supporters. “If taro goes into field tests, we will be giving pollution a life of its own.”

The group attempted to get their message across to 13 members of the state House of Representatives who were on Kaua’i yesterday for a two-day visit to tour agricultural and economic development projects. The group was loosely tied to GMO Free Kaua‘i, which strives to keep genetically modified crops off the island.

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(Source: Lester Chang, Kauai Garden Island News)