Legislators on the island of Kauai in Hawaii have approved a bill that would restrict the use of pesticides by companies developing genetically modified crops there.
The 6-to-1 vote by the Kauai County Council came just after 3:30 a.m. local time on Wednesday, at the end of an emotion-filled hearing that had started at 9 a.m. the day before.
Because its warm weather allows for three corn harvests a year, Hawaii has become a hub for the breeding of new varieties of corn and other genetically modified crops, and for the production of seeds that are shipped to the mainland. DuPont Pioneer, Syngenta, Dow and BASF grow corn on Kauai on land abandoned by sugar growers.
But the operations have aroused opposition from critics of genetically modified crops and from residents who say they have been bothered by dust and dangerous pesticides.
The ordinance requires the seed companies to disclose which pesticides they use and establishes no-spray zones around schools, medical facilities, homes, public roads and waterways.
The original bill would also have limited the planting of genetically modified crops, but those provisions were removed during deliberations.
The companies had said the original bill might have forced them off the island, and they had threatened to challenge it in court.
It is not clear how disruptive the bill as passed will be. There were signs the companies, under pressure, were moving toward voluntarily disclosure and buffer zones anyway.
Pioneer said Wednesday that it was disappointed and that the industry was already regulated by the state and federal governments.
"The bill focuses on a few seed companies, while overlooking the vast number of other business on the island that use the same products for pest management," it said in a statement, adding, "We believe that the bill is not legally defensible and we continue to evaluate all of our business and legal options."
Gary Hooser, one of the council members who introduced the bill, called it "a piece of precedent-setting county legislation, certainly in our state." He said he did not think the companies would sue, though they might try to override the county through state legislation.
"For some of the largest chemical companies in the world to sue a tropical paradise for the right to spray pesticides next to schools will not play well in the court of public opinion," he said.
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