Kaua'i gets sued
Kaua'i passed an ordinance requiring the chemical companies to disclose the pesticides they were spraying and keep spraying a certain distance from schools, hospitals and homes.
Billion dollar chemical companies, Syngenta, DuPont Pioneer, Agrigenetics (doing business as Dow AgroSciences), and BASF retaliated by suing the small island county and initiating a $50,000 lobbying operation to over-ride the ordinance in the state legislature.
Big Island gets sued
In Hawai'i county (Big Island) citizens passed an initiative to ban all GMOs except papayas and disclose the location of GMOs. Attorneys from Washington, D.C.-based Arent Fox LLP and an attorney representing the Biotechnology Industry Organization among others are suing Hawai'i county to overturn the ordinance. (GMO Papayas have already contaminated most of the Big Island papayas and Hawai'i is trying to prevent other GMO crops from ruining their organic and conventional crops.)
PACs target local politicians
Councilmember Margaret Wille who introduced the Big Island bill is under attack by a large PAC who is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to unseat local county councilmembers who support restraints on pesticides and GMOs.
Maui gets sued
And now a group headed by a Dow manager is trying to prevent the Maui County citizens' initiative for a GMO Moratorium from appearing on the November ballot due to a technicality.
ALEC sponsoring pro-chemical company legislation
According to PR Watch:
Big Ag Political Funders Have Ties to ALEC
Of the "Big 6" chemical and seed companies and their trade associations lobbying and/or contributing to political candidates in Hawai'i, Bayer, Dow, CropLife America (a pesticide and agricultural chemical trade association), and the American Chemistry Council have ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
ALEC approved a "model" bill in 2013 for states to override the ability of counties and cities to democratically determine how they will regulate GMOs at the local and regional level, as CMD has reported.
Disinformation Campaign
The chemical corporations have gone all out in a media disinformation campaign. They've relabeled the GMO Moratorium (which affects 1% of Maui County farms) as a "Farming Ban" and are running TV commercials every night during the local news. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in taking down local politicians supportive of disclosing or labeling pesticides and GMOs, they've sent out misleading flyers - again labeling the bill as a "farming ban."
This group, "Citizens Against the Maui Farming Ban" is headed by Dow subsidieary manager, Adolph Helm. Curiously their report shows no money coming in nor going out despite spending at least $80,000 in TV ads
Corporations against communities
If there were ever a textbook case for big money corporations thwarting local democracies, this is it. Maui County residents are asking for help combating the misleading PR of the billion dollar chemical corporations turning the islands into pesticide/GMO experiments.
Donate to combat corporate PR and lawsuits at ShakaMovement.org
I hesitated to post this article since the pro-GMO people tend to swarm and get off topic. If I could ask people to stay on the subject which is corporations trying to derail citizens initiatives and local democracy, plus pour money into local elections to get corporate-friendly candidates elected, that would be much appreciated.
1:29 PM PT: The neighbor islands are concerned because they are ground zero for GMO and pesticide experimentation (GMOs are produced by the world's largest pesticide corporations)
There are 138 experimental GE permit requests on file so far just this year for Hawai'i.
Check "location" box and enter Hawaii.
http://www.isb.vt.edu/...
Tue Sep 16, 2014 at 3:46 PM PT: Sept 16, 2014: Judge lifts injunction. Hawaii elections office can print the GMO Moratorium on the November ballot. Read more