The Hawaiian transgenic papaya story: “And the beat goes on”

This is a talk on the Hawaii transgenic story that is told in the form of the verses of the song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” written by E.Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen.
It briefly describes the development and impact of the Hawaii transgenic papaya ‘Rainbow’ and ‘SunUp’ in Hawaii, the efforts we made to successfully deregulate the transgenic papaya in Japan, and the recently started effort to deregulate the transgenic papaya in China.
Additionally, it briefly describes the successful development of a PRSV resistant transgenic Thailand papaya but the failure of the transgenic papaya to be deregulated and released to villagers and farmers in Northeast Thailand.
And finally, it ends with the saying that we need to emphasize and keep the “Human” side of biotechnology where we focus on helping people.

XXIX International Horticultural Congress on Horticulture: Sustaining Lives, Livelihoods and Landscapes (IHC2014): IV International Symposium on Papaya, VIII International Pineapple Symposium, and International Symposium on Mango

D. Gonsalves

GMO, Hawaii, Papaya ringspot virus, deregulation, ‘Rainbow’, ‘SunUp’, ‘Kapoho’

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2016.1111.3