Hawaii’s genetically modified seed industry and about 1,000 jobs that go with it were big winners in a 30-page ruling handed down Friday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco.
In the ruling, the appellate court found that Hawaii’s pesticide laws are sufficiently comprehensive and preclude counties from regulating either pesticides or genetically modified crops.
Companies such as Monsanto and Syngenta have long made Hawaii a center for their seed production. After anti-GMO activists turned to local ballot measures to kill the industry, the industry turned to the courts for protection.
The ordinances were first overturned by the U.S. District Court for Hawaii, and they have now been upheld by appellate decision, so they will not go into effect.
Erased from the books are a Kauai ordinance that would have required disclosures on pesticide use from big companies, a Big Island ordinance banning new GMO crops, and a Maui measure for a moratorium on GMO farming.
The 9th Circuit ruling was hailed as good news for Hawaii’s entire agriculture industry by Bennette Misalucha, who heads a trade group for the seed companies.
“The Hawaii Crop Improvement Association welcomes the protection that this decision provides Hawaii’s hard-working farmers and growers for standing up for science and for supporting continued innovation in agriculture,” she said.
The industry’s 1,000 jobs are mostly on Maui, Molokai and Oahu.
Hawaii Department of Agriculture Director Scott Enright said that statewide voluntarily pesticide reporting is planned. He said he expects to make an announcement on that program by the end of this year and that changes were inspired by a recent pesticide study on Kauai.
GMO-free areas that have been set up by counties in Oregon, Washington and California are permitted under the high court’s ruling. However, federal law was found to preempt state and local laws when it comes to field trials or experimental GMO crops.
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