This year, he and Senate Agriculture Chair Clarence Nishihara dismissed all GMO labeling bills without a single hearing.

?I don't want to create an impression in the public's mind that just because we label something, there's a negative to it,? said Nishihara.

?I'd like to see the industry police themselves,? said Tsuji.

?Putting a big fat GMO label on that really serves no purpose,? said the Hawaii Crop Improvement Association's Alicia Maluafiti.

She says 80 percent of the food we eat, right now, already includes GMOs.

?The entire cost associated with putting one little label on 80 percent of the food that we consume in the supermarket is economically not feasible, and it really serves no purpose,? she said.

Fred Perlak, head of operations for Monsanto Hawaii, said federal agencies already police the biotech industry, and already require genetically modified foods with known allergens and toxins be labeled.

?It's going to be costly for the state to set up agencies to monitor this, costly for producers, costly for manufacturers, costly for grocers,? he said.

More than a dozen countries ban or partially ban GMOs, but nearly 20 allow them.

In 2012, Japan lifted its 10-year ban on GMO papayas from Hawaii, but ordered all to be labeled "GMO."