Protecting Hawaii from GE Crop Field Trials
Center for Food Safety challenged secrecy around GE crop field tests in Hawaiʻi, and helped defend Hawaiʻi County protections limiting new GE crop cultivation and open-air testing from chemical industry attacks.
Center for Food Safety in Hawaii
Hawai‘i is home to untold biodiversity and some of the most beautiful landscapes on Earth. It is also ground zero for experimentation with genetically engineered (GE) crops designed to resist ever more deadly synthetic chemicals. With GE crops and their accompanying pesticides, the land beloved by residents and visitors alike is slowly being poisoned by a handful of chemical corporations.
In 2014, chemical companies conducted GE field tests on over 1,381 sites in the state. Herbicide resistance has been the most frequently tested trait over the past five years. This means GE crops tested in Hawai’i, by and large, are designed to withstand ever greater applications of herbicides, posing a direct threat to human and environmental health.
Through legal, policy, research, education and community organizing initiatives, the CFS Hawaii Program works to protect human health and the environment from the harmful impacts of industrial agriculture on the Islands, and promote a vibrant local food system by supporting sustainable farming, soil restoration and seed saving projects. As a partner of Hawai‘i-based organizations for over a decade, CFS has leveraged our national resources to support the growing movement of community members fighting for a safe and biodiverse food system.
Since 2004, CFS has worked with a coalition of grassroots groups, farmers, and environmental and community advocates to educate the public about public health and environmental risks of industrial agriculture. We continue to work closely with national, state and local partners to foster progress on these issues. Our legal, policy and scientific expertise, combined with our strong partnerships with local grassroots organizations and leaders positions CFS as a leader in the movement to advance the vision of a vibrant, safe and healthy future for Hawaii’s food system and people.
Case Overview and Significance
In 2003, CFS sued the State of Hawaiʻi after the Department of Agriculture refused to disclose records about open-air field tests of genetically engineered, pharmaceutical-producing crops. In 2o14, we later helped defend Hawaiʻi County’s Ordinance 13-121, which restricted the expansion of new genetically engineered crops and open-air GE crop testing on the Big Island.
These cases centered on public access to information, local authority, and the right of Hawaiʻi communities to protect their farms, ecosystems, and public health from the risks of genetically engineered crop experimentation and resulting pesticide use.
Our concerns centered around pesticide-intensive GE crop testing and its impacts to local communities, genetic contamination, the lack of public transparency around what substances were being grown, where tests were occurring, and how state and federal agencies were overseeing them.
Although courts later limited Hawaiʻi County’s ordinance, the litigation helped spotlight the need for stronger oversight of GE crop testing and greater public accountability in Hawaiʻi.
Key Issues in the Case
Hawaiʻi’s refusal to release records related to open-air field tests of genetically engineered pharmaceutical-producing crops raised concerns about plants engineered to produce drugs or industrial chemicals being grown outdoors, including potential risks to people, food crops, and the environment. These concerns prompted our initial lawsuit.
GE crop testing and production can increase pesticide use and threaten organic and conventional crops through genetic contamination.
Pesticide drift is also a primary concern for communities living alongside GE operations. Pesticides used in the state pose a threat to public health, especially the risk to pregnant women and young children. Pesticide exposure in utero and early life has been linked to childhood cancers, neurobehavioral and cognitive deficits, adverse birth outcomes, and asthma.
Our work to defend Hawaiʻi County’s effort to restrict new genetically engineered crop cultivation and open-air testing was to protect local agriculture, ecosystems, and communities.
