Transgenic Virus-Resistant Papaya: The Hawaiian 'Rainbow' was Rapidly Adopted by Farmers and is of Major Importance in Hawaii Today

Introduction Rainbow is the premier example of a genetically engineered horticultural crop that made it to market. It is a dream come true for scientists who wished to provide a virus-resistant papaya cultivar for the people of Hawaii. But it is also a dream come true for farmers who had lost so much papaya production to Papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) that they were "almost broke already!" Farmers had waited patiently, kept abreast of the latest news from the scientists, and went to observe the ongoing field tests. One of the farmers mused, "Rainbow, the only hope." Gonsalves et al. wrote about that hope in 1998, "Transgenic Virus-Resistant Papaya: New Hope for Controlling Papaya ringspot virus in Hawaii, then again in 2004, "Transgenic VirusResistant Papaya: From Hope to Reality for Controlling of Papaya ringspot virus in Hawaii" (4,5). Gonsalves, a professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at Cornell University at the time he helped develop, test, and commercialize the genetically engineered Rainbow and SunUp PRSV-resistant papaya varieties, and his wife Carol Gonsalves, who worked in his laboratory as a volunteer, decided it was imperative to go beyond the scope of plant pathology in order to measure whether farmers in their home state of Hawaii would adopt the transgenic varieties. In this article, we report on the extremely high initial rate of farmer adoption of Rainbow papaya, based on our survey of essentially all of the registered commercial papaya farmers in the Puna area of Hawaii, the Big Island, where up to 96% of the state’s crop (fresh and processed) was grown. Fig. 1. July 2004: Papaya vendors routinely sell Rainbow and other papaya varieties at farmers markets, small grocery stores and supermarkets in Hawaii. Seen here, a showcase at the popular Hilo bay farmers market on the island of Hawaii.