The coming GMO battle: Kauai Charter Amendment Article XXXIII

As the ongoing legal wrangling over Kauai's Ordinance 960 continues, the next wave of political action is rolling out as a county charter amendment (full text) from Kauai Rising who has begun collecting signatures to put the charter amendment on the November ballot.

ARTICLE XXXIII - BILL OF RIGHTS 

TO PROTECT FROM HAZARDS OF GMO AGRICULTURE, TOXINS AND TESTING, ESTABLISH AN ADMINISTRATOR OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH, AND PROVIDE FOR ENFORCEMENT

GMO issues are complex and I won't attempt a position here. Without attempting a legal analysis either here are some first observations.

The amendment establishes a County Administrator of Environmental Health and a "panel of experts" that would report findings to the county council to approve any GMO activities on the island, with a provision allowing the council's decision to be overturned subject to petition by the public. Additionally there would be a monitoring effort, a containment requirement to prevent impact on neighboring property. All costs and overhead would be funded through what would have to be very expensive application fees and there would be significant civil as well as criminal penalties for violations.

The amendment begins with a detailed enumeration of rights: safe food, clean environment, protect communities, saving seed. The assertion of rights seems intended to address the legal challenge of local government typically being trumped by state and federal as I have written about previously.

The full amendment is 18 pages long - Kauai Rising provides a very brief summary. On the face of it the amendment appears to be a much stronger version of Ordinance 960 (which only required annual reporting of GMO activities and was largely about pesticide use and buffer zones) that squarely tackles GMO operations. Under the amendment, GMO operations would be required to demonstrate "beyond a reasonable doubt," that none of the rights are harmed.

The length of the charter amendment I find quite curious: this is about 25% the size of the entire county charter (72 pages). County departments like police, fire, water, and so forth each take up about two pages in the county charter. Is it really wise to embody so much detail in the charter itself rather than in ordinances and rules as the county generally operates? There does not seem to be a way to bundle a charter amendment with legislation accompanying it which is why I imagine the authors have piled all the details in, the alternative being a separate law-making effort that would become yet another battle.

Kauai Rising seems to be the authors of the amendment as I can find it nowhere else on the web. Who actually wrote the amendment and with what legal help is unclear. There is not much press on this yet. Kauai Eclectic is dismissive of the effort.

Throughout the battle over "The bill" (Bill 2491 which became Ordinance 960) there were vague claims that its passage would result in loss of jobs that I thought exaggerated. The amendment, on the other hand, seems a clear threat to the currently operating chemical companies and its passage (surely to be challenged in the courts) would very much be an existential threat to operations here. The stakes are much higher indeed if this manages to get on the ballot. Charter amendments require signatures of 5% of registered voters to get on the ballot.