LIHU‘E — Several residents representing a handful of organizations showed up at the Kaua‘i County Council meeting Wednesday morning, asking for support on a bill against biotech companies that grow genetically modified organisms. “Our current structure of law enables corporations
LIHU‘E — Several residents representing a handful of organizations showed up at the Kaua‘i County Council meeting Wednesday morning, asking for support on a bill against biotech companies that grow genetically modified organisms.
“Our current structure of law enables corporations to come into our communities (and) pollute at will,” said Prajna Marcus, of Kaua‘i Rising, adding that the people have no rights to stop them.
“That’s why we are here today — the Kaua‘i Food Bill of Rights represents a change in the law, elevating the citizens’ rights above corporations that are doing genetically engineering testing and experimentations on the island,” she said.
Kaua‘i Rising, a community organization that supports nature’s and people’s rights, has received the support of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which crafted the model for the Kaua‘i’s version of the Food Bill of Rights, according to Marcus.
“They are offering free legal support now and if we are challenged in the future,” she said of the nonprofit public interest law firm.
Marcus said the bill gives authority to ban all GMO testing from the island, and recognizes nature’s right to exist and flourish. It changes the property to a rights-bearing entity and gives anyone in the community the legal authority to stand in the court of law to defend the legal rights of nature, she said.
“We stand with 150 other communities across the nation that have enacted these types of laws,” Marcus said.
Kaua‘i’s version of the bill is in its fifth draft, but Michael Shooltz of Kaua‘i Rising said he would not give it to the media yet, though he said council members received a copy of it.
Scott McFarland, Hawai‘i Farm Bureau Federation vice president, said the model bill in its full form has never passed any municipality. But he also hasn’t seen Kaua‘i’s version.
What will be important for the county attorney to discern, he said, is which elements of this ordinance the council would be able to pass, and how the local enforcement mechanism would work.
“I’m all for local production,” McFarland said. “But it’s going to take a variety of production methods and protocols to get to the goals that we all want to get to.”
Sunshine Law
Despite nothing in the agenda addressing GMOs at Wednesday’s meeting, Council Chair Jay Furfaro allowed the residents to speak, raising legal questions on whether the council breached the state Sunshine Law, which mandates that agendas for government meetings be posted six days in advance — with the exception of the state Legislature.
Without a specific agenda item about GMOs, Furfaro asked public speakers to “at least tie their speech to some item on the agenda,” and gave them 18 minutes combined as an “open mic,” amid two warnings from County Attorney Al Castillo that it could mean a violation of the Sunshine Law.
“I just want to remind the council that the purpose of the Sunshine Law is to give adequate notice for the public to decide whether or not they want to testify on a particular matter,” said Castillo, adding that in fairness to the “other side” an agenda item regarding GMO should have been posted.
Councilman Tim Bynum said the agenda included items about legislative process and county budget, and he believed the discussion should be allowed. He said the Office of Information Practices has strict rules for council members, but when it comes to public speech, they give more latitude.
“We need to follow the law, and we are” Bynum said. “Within the parameters of that law, we need to liberally interpret it to give as much voice to the public as possible, not use the Sunshine Law to keep open dialogue from happening.”
Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura had concerns with those who may have wanted to speak on posted agenda items, but would now be squeezed out of the process.
During recess, after testimony was heard, Kaua‘i Farm Bureau President Jerry Ornellas said the Sunshine Law was violated and he would file a complaint with the OIP.
McFarland said “this obviously wasn’t an item on the agenda,” and has the attention of the county attorney and “certainly” with the council.
No GMO
While a dozen people beat drums and chanted outside on the lawn fronting the Historic County Building Wednesday morning, about 50 people inside the building wanted support from the council to boot biotech companies off the island.
Shooltz, on behalf of Kaua‘i Rising, said he was at the meeting also on behalf of at least 1,770 people who signed a petition in favor of the Kaua‘i Food Bill of Rights.
“We find what the chemical companies are doing on our island is quite harmful,” Shooltz said. “It’s toxic to the island and to the (county) budget.”
He said large landowners are leasing their lands to chemical companies, and using an agriculture dedication to “dramatically” drop their property taxes, causing the administration to miss out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax collections.
By law, rather than paying full taxes on ag lands, farmers who actually use their lands to grow crops can apply for an agriculture dedication and pay a minimal amount related to the value of the crops.
Additionally, the state is missing out on General Excise taxes, Shooltz said, because the biotech companies ship seeds to be grown on the Mainland, without actually selling them.
But the biggest threat to the island’s budget, according to Shooltz, is losing tourists’ dollars due to the island’s image being tied to GMO industry.
Josephine Bonaparte, “homeowner, taxpayer, mother, grandmother,” said that as an organic farmer, she is concerned that “toxic poisoning” of the land is affecting the population on a negative way.
Joan Porter said it’s important to pay attention to the island’s environment. Spraying pesticides on Kaua‘i’s Westside is hurting people and the environment, and from her perspective, the best thing to do is to “shut down the spraying,” which can be done by changing the County Charter, she said.
“It’s a very big step for our island but it’s happening in other municipalities across the nation,” Porter said.
Princeville resident Laura Lynn said the people of this island “are making it very clear” they want GMO companies to stop using the island as a test site.
“We as Americans have lost our rights, we have been given over to the corporations,” said Lynn, adding that she and others came before the council to say “it’s not OK any longer.”
Marcus said Kaua‘i is an “amazingly diverse” community, and despite all differences, she thinks it’s clear that all want basically the same thing.
“We are here today speaking on behalf of many voices, and though we may be different on the outside, we all breath the same air, our feet are all touching the earth, and the mana that runs through this island runs through all our hearts, so we are together, we are united and we are sharing our message,” she said.
