
Kauai's county council approved a proposed law Wednesday that mandates farms to disclose pesticide use and the presence of genetically modified crops.
The bill now goes to the mayor, who has 10 days to sign it into law.
The measure applies to farms that use more than five pounds or 15 gallons of restricted-use pesticides annually. The bill also requires a 500-foot buffer zone near medical facilities, schools and homes—among other locations. The island hosts 15,000 acres of crop lands that are used by biotech companies and chemical manufacturers to test their products.
The bill also mandates:
- Disclosure of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
- Notification of the public before spraying.
- County assessment of the effects of the sprayed chemicals.
- Disclosure of what pesticides/herbicides are being sprayed, location and quantity.
Supporters of the measure say passage of the bill is a victory for the Kauai community's right to know.
"The days of the GMO chemical companies poisoning us in silence are over. For the first time on Hawaii, a legislative body has passed a strong law to protect the locals and visitors from toxic agriculture chemicals that are known cancer-causing agents and hormone disruptors," the Hawaii Justice GMO Coalition said in a press release. The organization led the citizen effort to pass the bill.
Officials say some residents lined up around 3 p.m. Tuesday to participate in the council discussion.
"All this time, I've never seen such passion and such interest from the Kauai community on any issue," Councilman Gary Hooser told Hawaii News Now. The councilman helped author and introduce the original bill.
Opponents say the bill's intention was not to educate people about pesticide use, but simply an attempt to rid the island of GMO seed companies.
"We're disappointed. We recognize that the most onerous, anti-GMO provisions were removed from the bill, but we still maintain that the county really lacks the resources and the expertise for enforcement and administration of pesticide laws," said Alicia Maluafiti, executive director of the Hawaii Crop Improvement Association.
The council rejected a request by Mayor Bernard Carvalho, Jr. to defer the measure one month, to give him time to gather key stakeholders, like the state Department of Health and the state Department of Agriculture, to sort through the bill.
"Veto is not a consideration. I would like to look at the bill and see how we can really work it out, but my final decision will only be after I look at the final draft and I get the county attorney's opinion," Carvalho said.
If the mayor does sign it, the bill will take effect in nine months.
Violators could face up to one year in jail or up to $25,000 a day in fines per offense.
The Big Island of Hawaii County Council is expected to consider a bill this week that would prohibit all open-air growing of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) except papayas and other GMO crops now being cultivated.
The bill also would prohibit biotech companies from operating on the Big Island.
- Redwoods are the world's tallest trees.
- Now scientists have discovered they are even bigger than we thought.
- Using laser technology they map the 80-meter giants.
- Trees are a key plank in the fight against climate change.
They are among the largest trees in the world, descendants of forests where dinosaurs roamed.
Pixabay / Simi Luft
<p><span>Until recently, measuring these trees meant scaling their 80 meter high trunks with a tape measure. Now, a team of scientists from University College London and the University of Maryland uses advanced laser scanning, to create 3D maps and calculate the total mass.</span></p><p>The results are striking: suggesting the trees <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73733-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">may be as much as 30% larger than earlier measurements suggested.</a> Part of that could be due to the additional trunks the Redwoods can grow as they age, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73733-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a process known as reiteration</a>.</p>New 3D measurements of large redwood trees for biomass and structure. Nature / UCL
<p>Measuring the trees more accurately is important because carbon capture will probably play a key role in the battle against climate change. Forest <a href="https://www.wri.org/blog/2020/09/carbon-sequestration-natural-forest-regrowth" target="_blank">growth could absorb billions of tons</a> of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year.</p><p>"The importance of big trees is widely-recognised in terms of carbon storage, demographics and impact on their surrounding ecosystems," the authors wrote<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73733-6" target="_blank"> in the journal Nature</a>. "Unfortunately the importance of big trees is in direct proportion to the difficulty of measuring them."</p><p>Redwoods are so long lived because of their ability to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73733-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cope with climate change, resist disease and even survive fire damage</a>, the scientists say. Almost a fifth of their volume may be bark, which helps protect them.</p>Carbon Capture Champions
<p><span>Earlier research by scientists at Humboldt University and the University of Washington found that </span><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112716302584" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Redwood forests store almost 2,600 tonnes of carbon per hectare</a><span>, their bark alone containing more carbon than any other neighboring species.</span></p><p>While the importance of trees in fighting climate change is widely accepted, not all species enjoy the same protection as California's coastal Redwoods. In 2019 the world lost the equivalent of <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/deforestation-and-forest-degradation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">30 soccer fields of forest cover every minute</a>, due to agricultural expansion, logging and fires, according to The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF).</p>Pixabay
<p>Although <a href="https://c402277.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/publications/1420/files/original/Deforestation_fronts_-_drivers_and_responses_in_a_changing_world_-_full_report_%281%29.pdf?1610810475" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the rate of loss is reported to have slowed in recent years</a>, reforesting the world to help stem climate change is a massive task.</p><p><span>That's why the World Economic Forum launched the Trillion Trees Challenge (</span><a href="https://www.1t.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">1t.org</a><span>) and is engaging organizations and individuals across the globe through its </span><a href="https://uplink.weforum.org/uplink/s/uplink-issue/a002o00000vOf09AAC/trillion-trees" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Uplink innovation crowdsourcing platform</a><span> to support the project.</span></p><p>That's backed up by research led by ETH Zurich/Crowther Lab showing there's potential to restore tree coverage across 2.2 billion acres of degraded land.</p><p>"Forests are critical to the health of the planet," according to <a href="https://www.1t.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">1t.org</a>. "They sequester carbon, regulate global temperatures and freshwater flows, recharge groundwater, anchor fertile soil and act as flood barriers."</p><p><em data-redactor-tag="em" data-verified="redactor">Reposted with permission from the </em><span><em data-redactor-tag="em" data-verified="redactor"><a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/03/redwoods-store-more-co2-and-are-more-enormous-than-we-thought/" target="_blank">World Economic Forum</a>.</em></span></p>EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
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