U.S. Court Overturns Law Limiting Biotech Crops on Hawaiian island
Source: Reuters/Scientific American
A group of global biotech crop companies won a court victory on Monday that blocks enactment of a law passed last year limiting the planting of biotech crops and use of pesticides on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Kurren of the U.S. District Court in Hawaii ruled that the law passed in November by local leaders on the island was invalid because it was pre-empted by Hawaii state law.
The Kauai law required large agricultural companies to disclose pesticide use and genetically modified (GMO) crop plantings while establishing buffer zones around schools, homes and hospitals to protect people from exposure to pesticides used on the crops.
The measure had broad support on the island and the U.S. mainland from organizations and individuals who say heavy pesticide use by the agrochemical companies is poisoning people and the environment.
Read more: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-court-overturns-law-limiting-biotech-crops-on-hawaiian-island/
valerief
(53,235 posts)Nihil
(13,508 posts)Expect it to apply in more & more places as time goes on.
pnwmom
(109,009 posts)Everybody knows that, ever since the Bush administration FDA said so, in 1992.
villager
(26,001 posts)From the bottoms of their bushy bushy hearts
enough
(13,264 posts)Downwinder
(12,869 posts)GMO are invasive species as they cannot be controlled by normal herbicides.
rocktivity
(44,580 posts)that had traveled there as seeds and could not be allowed to multiply on Hawaiian land. This ruling sounds absolutely terrible!
rocktivity
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)msongs
(67,462 posts)PatSeg
(47,649 posts)but what the people want takes 2nd place to corporate America. Its so overwhelming sometimes.
The let shit fly, for bigger profit, until paradise is dead.
KauaiK
(544 posts)REMINDER: ALL the law said was (1) they have to disclose WHAT they are spraying; (2) give notice WHEN they spray; and (3) cannot spray near people, residences, businesses, schools, etc.
They are using Kauai as ground zero. That they do NOT want to disclose what they are spraying is damning. They are destroying the land, the coral and poisoning the people.
Cha
(297,809 posts)tragic! I wonder if there's anyway we can get that ruling overturned?
"REMINDER: ALL the law said was (1) they have to disclose WHAT they are spraying; (2) give notice WHEN they spray; and (3) cannot spray near people, residences, businesses, schools, etc."
I wonder if this will have any effect on the Kauai Mayoral race?
ReRe
(10,597 posts)... Democracy anymore. We're a Corporatocracy. Get it? If they are fucking up Hawaii with their poisonous products, they would do it in heaven. I hope there's something that can be done, an appeal, or another suit...I don't know. Something!
glinda
(14,807 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Hillary Clinton Cheers Biotechers, Backing GMOs and Federal Help
http://timesofsandiego.com/politics/2014/06/25/hillary-clinton-cheers-biotechers-backs-gmos-and-federal-help/
proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)U.S. Judge Overturns GMO Crop Curbs in Hawaii
By JACOB BUNGE CONNECT
Updated Aug. 25, 2014 8:37 p.m. ET
<>
"This issue is far from over," said Gary Hooser, a Kauai council member who co-introduced the bill. "One opinion from one federal magistrate does not settle the issue."
Mr. Hooser said he supported appealing the ruling, although the full Kauai county council must make such a decision. The bill passed in November after council members overrode a veto by the island's mayor.
"By denying Kauai's law, the judge undermined efforts to create more transparency and more protections for farmers, workers and families from hazardous pesticides," said Paul Towers, spokesman for the Pesticide Action Network, which supported Kauai County in the case. Mr. Towers said the group still was reviewing the order and would "explore all available options" to defend Kauai.
<>
Cha
(297,809 posts)the first time I've heard that our law that was passed by our People has been overturned by an Judge for the GMO co.
KauaiK "REMINDER: ALL the law said was (1) they have to disclose WHAT they are spraying; (2) give notice WHEN they spray; and (3) cannot spray near people, residences, businesses, schools, etc."
"This issue is far from over," said Gary Hooser, a Kauai council member who co-introduced the bill. "One opinion from one federal magistrate does not settle the issue."
Mr. Hooser said he supported appealing the ruling, although the full Kauai county council must make such a decision. The bill passed in November after council members overrode a veto by the island's mayor.
"By denying Kauai's law, the judge undermined efforts to create more transparency and more protections for farmers, workers and families from hazardous pesticides," said Paul Towers, spokesman for the Pesticide Action Network, which supported Kauai County in the case. Mr. Towers said the group still was reviewing the order and would "explore all available options" to defend Kauai.
Natural Citizen
(7 posts)...at this point. I'd expect a so called agricultural test ban treaty now that it has evolved to a geo-political level. Would be practical for those who feel strongly about it to pay attention to what is happening with Russia's agricultural ban. Non-GMO BRICS nations (who compete with western GMO industry) are aligning with them. As well, economic infrastructure that we see evolving with these nations as they move from the dollar and establish independent international finance clearing models would be indicative of the phenomenon.
Not that I agree with what is happening there in Hawaii. I don't. But best to pay attention to the debate on the geo-political front at the moment. Think of it as a developing, broader solution.
harun
(11,348 posts)I wonder what the state law it pre-empted is?
Judi Lynn
(160,649 posts)Siding with GMO Giants, Federal Judge Rejects Kauai Anti-GMO Law
Published on Tuesday, August 26, 2014
by Common Dreams
County ordinance meant to protect people and land from 'one of the most toxic chemical environments in all of American agriculture'
by Lauren McCauley, staff writer
Siding with a coalition of GMO giants, a federal judge in Hawaii on Monday rejected a local effort to protect the health and environment of the island by blocking heavy pesticide use near homes and schools.
The Kauai County ordinance known as Bill 2491, which was passed in October, aimed to shield residents from the intensive pesticide spraying that had transformed parts of the island "into one of the most toxic chemical environments in all of American agriculture," as Grist writer Paul Koberstein recently reported.
Despite strong public support behind the measure, Magistrate Judge Barry Kurren ruled that Bill 2491 is "pre-empted" by a state law which Kurren said is meant to broadly regulate all state pesticide matters. The suit was brought against the county by four multinational agriculture companiesDuPont, Syngenta, Agrigenetics Inc. (owned by Dow Chemical), and BASF Plant Scienceswhich for decades have been dousing their GMO test crops on the island with some of the most toxic pesticides available at a rate higher than most farms in the nation, according to Koberstein's analysis of government pesticide databases.
The bill required that growers disclose the type of pesticides being sprayed on their fields and established "buffer zones" around sensitive areas, including schools, medical facilities, homes, parks, public roadways, shorelines and waterways. The legislation was designed to protect citizens "after state agencies failed to provide any meaningful assistance," according to the Center for Food safety which, along with environmental law group Earthjustice, represented the ordinance in legal filings.
Following the ruling, residents of Kauai and anti-GMO advocates slammed the ruling as a "blatancy of injustice."
More:
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/08/26/siding-gmo-giants-federal-judge-rejects-kauai-anti-gmo-law