Farmers wishing to purchase huli, or breeding stock, must sign a licensing agreement with UH. The licensing agreement states that "UH owns the taro cultivar..." It prohibits farmers from selling or breeding the patented plants, and requires payment of a royalty to the University. Taro is known as "kalo" to native Hawaiians.

"Kalo was not invented by the University of Hawaii, and they have no right to 'own' or 'license' it," said Walter Ritte. "If any one owns the kalo, we do 'collectively' as Hawaiians, and as Hawaiians, we demand that UH give up its taro patents and return these varieties to the public domain."

Ritte was instrumental in obtaining a provisional agreement with UH to halt genetic manipulation experiments on Hawaiian taro this past May, although UH reserved the right to continue genetic experimentation on non-Hawaiian taros.

"UH needs to show more respect for native Hawaiian culture," added Ritte. "Hawaiians would never dream of patenting or genetically manipulating kalo. Kalo is a gift handed down to us by our ancestors. Hawaiians believe kalo is the first born (named Haloa), and is our elder brother. We have a Kuleana or responsibility to honor, respect and protect Haloa, so he in turn will sustain us."

Center for Food Safety consultant Bill Freese added, "We strongly support the right of Hawaiians to reclaim control of their sacred taro."

One parent of the three patented lines - named Pa'lehua, Pa'akala and Pauakea - is the widely-grown Maui Lehua variety, which belongs to the Group Lehua of Hawaiian-Polynesian taros. There were once over 300 kinds of Hawaiian taro, descended from a few types first brought to the Islands from Polynesia in the 4th to 5th century AD. Hawaiians bred these different varieties of taro to grow better in different environments, for higher yield to feed a growing population, for special qualities of color and taste, and for medicinal and ceremonial uses.

"As a farmer, I strongly object to patents on taro or any other crop," said Hanalei taro farmer Chris Kobayashi. "Why should farmers have to pay for huli? Our taxes have helped to fund UH. Some of us have been cooperators with UH on different taro research programs including breeding, cultivation and diseases. More importantly, how can anyone claim ownership of plants that have evolved and been selected or bred by farmers for specific environmental conditions and desirable properties over generations?"

In its patent applications, the University made several claims based merely on "preliminary observations" that had not been confirmed by controlled experiments. Some farmers were quite disappointed with the performance of Pa'lehua, one of the patented varieties.

"Pa'lehua does not keep well as poi, and does not taste good to many of us farmers and families," said Kobayashi. "I think that UH did not do enough testing on Pa'lehua; it was and is a failure."

"We hope UH does the right thing and gives up these taro patents," said Ritte, "otherwise we'll have no recourse but to take legal action at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to have them revoked."

Source: The Center for Food Safety