I have been a farmer for more than 30 years.

It disturbs me to see that our farmers, who are in the field every day trying to make a living and trying to move the bar on food sustainability in Hawaii, are under attack by members of their own community for using a tool — biotechnology — that is proven to be safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Farmers are faced with so many challenges going forward: costly food safety regulations, finding enough and affordable water and land to farm, labor issues, transportation issues, and, like everyone else, insurance and taxes.

Taking away biotechnology, a tool that can help farmers become viable and possibly make our islands sustainable, without understanding the industry, just doesn’t make sense.

It doesn’t make sense to insinuate that these farmers, who are your neighbors and friends, are growing things to hurt you and to hurt your community. GMO (genetically modified organism) products are vetted for over 10 years for health risk and allergens before they are approved for open-field growing.

Farming is one of the most difficult careers at which to succeed, to earn a profitable living. Hawaii County Bill 113 and Kauai County Bill 2491 would make it even tougher, and may even close some farm operations. If these bills pass, and in the future the counties of Hawaii and Kauai change their minds about the technology, it may be difficult to find farmers who are willing and able to bear the costs to restart or start up a farming operation. Our local dairy and poultry industries are examples of difficulties in regenerating diminished industries.

Recently, farmers have left their farms to speak out at hearings and to recommend biotechnology as a tool to survive the challenges of agriculture.

Bills 109 and 113 would force farmers to use more pesticides than farmers in other jurisdictions. They would discourage farmers from seeking science and innovation to expand and grow new products. Foregoing biotech solutions would result in higher food costs, increasing financial pressures of the most vulnerable among us — the kupuna, the single moms, the working homeless.

I understand that people want more organic products grown locally, and we totally agree with that premise. All farmers would benefit by increasing our local organic production. But it is not easily done. We need all forms of agricultural production — organic, conventional and biotechnology — to work together to make Hawaii more sustainable.

One benefit of increasing organic agriculture is to limit imports of organics that bring in many invasive species. Invasive species come in on all our imports. If we are to protect our food supply, we need to embrace all agriculture and limit our imports by producing more food, period.

I think the question our elected officials have to answer is: Do we want to have a sustainable community of food production, or do we want open lands with no food production and to import all of our food from the mainland?

And by the way, the imported mainland food would be using all this technology to be able to grow more for you.

Policymakers should have a comprehensive discussion on the merits and detriments of restricting one form of agriculture from our communities. People need to come with open minds and open hearts — no one is trying to harm anyone.

We all need to have a better understanding of what each form of agriculture delivers in growing our communities.