LIHUE — Kauai’s biotech seed industry is asking a judge to nullify the county’s pesticide and genetically modified crop ordinance without going to trial.
Plaintiffs Syngenta, Pioneer Hi-Bred, Agrigenetics and BASF jointly filed a pair of motions last week seeking summary judgment in their legal challenge of Ordinance 960 (formerly Bill 2491).
“We are asking the Court to invalidate the law and enjoin the County from enforcing it before it takes effect on Aug. 16,” Syngenta spokesman Mark Phillipson wrote in a statement. “We believe the law arbitrarily targets our industry with burdensome and baseless restrictions on farming operations by attempting to regulate activities over which counties in Hawaii have no jurisdiction.”
The motions were filed April 14, the same day U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Barry Kurren ruled to allow the Center for Food Safety, Earthjustice and other nonprofit groups to intervene as defendants in the case.
One motion seeks summary judgment on grounds that Ordinance 960 is pre-empted by both state and federal law, and that the county didn’t have authority to enact Bill 2491, which requires the affected companies to disclose their use of pesticides and the presence of GMOs.
“No legitimate objective will be realized by the forced public disclosures under the ordinance, only the illegitimate targeting of GMO crops by vandals and eco-terrorists,” Syngenta attorney Paul Alston and others wrote in their motion.
The industry says the lawsuit arose out of an “unprecedented attempt” by the county to thrust itself into a “robust regulatory framework.”
In their second motion, plaintiffs argue that the Kauai County Council violated open meeting laws in passing the ordinance. And even if it was properly adopted, the bill violates the Kauai County Charter, they say.
“Bill 2491 is simply hodge-podge legislation, linked only by the fevered imagination of self-proclaimed environmental activists,” the plaintiff attorneys wrote.
To succeed in its motions for summary judgment, the plaintiffs must prove that there are no disputed material issues of fact. If the motion is granted, a trial wouldn’t take place and all or part of Ordinance 960 would be declared invalid.
The four companies filed suit in January. Their legal team includes Alston, who has been named Hawaii Lawyer of the Year four times, and Margery Bronster, the former state attorney general.
The county has hired McCorriston Miller Mukai MacKinnon LLP to defend the law, while CFS and Earthjustice will represent a coalition of Kauai residents and public interest groups.
Paul Achitoff, of Earthjustice, said Monday his legal team also plans to file its own motions at a later date arguing in support of the county ordinance.
As far as being called “eco-terrorists,” Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety, said the language used in the motions was typical of the industry.
A hearing on the industry’s motions has been scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday, July 23 in U.S. District Court in Honolulu.
• Chris D’Angelo, environmental reporter, can be reached at 245-0441 or cdangelo@thegardenisland.com.
