"As was expected, Big Biotech’s legal juggernaut has rolled into action in Hawai’i. On Friday afternoon, three big agrochemical companies — Pioneer-DuPont, Syngenta, and Agrigenetics Inc (a subsidiary of Dow Chemical) — filed a suit in a federal court in Honolulu seeking to block Kauai County’s new GMO regulatory law."
"Two other big agribusiness concerns on the island that will be affected by the law — Kauai Coffee and BASF — haven’t joined the suit.
The law, Ordinance 960 (formerly known as Bill 2491), was passed in November after surviving a veto by Kauai Mayor Barnard Carvalho. (Read my report on the rather torturous process here). It requires agricultural companies and large farms to disclose the type and volume of pesticides they are spraying and the location of their genetically modified crop fields. It also requires the companies to set up buffer zones between fields growing GM crops and public places like schools, hospitals, and parks. The law is scheduled to go into effect August 16."
Maureen Nandini Mitra reports for Earth Island Journal January 13, 2014.
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