Transcript
The Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action is one of several plaintiffs who had called for a mandatory environmental review of Syngenta's pesticide operation on Kauai.
The company, Syngenta runs its operations on leased public land, but many locals are concerned about the company's high use of restricted use chemicals on their genetically modified crops, and the detrimental impacts on coastal communities and environment on Kauai.
Alliance board president, Gary Hooser, says there's anecdotal evidence the company's pesticide use is harmful and the lack of oversight on land use and indiscriminate application of pesticides is not ok.
"They don't want government regulation, they don't want small government's like ours telling them what to do. They operate in secrecy and many times they are sued by the people and by the governments for environment degradation and health concerns and so they just try to hide what they do. The state of Hawaii, the state government, treats them like they do a regular farmer which is a mistake. So they basically say "well these are just farmers and they shouldn't have to do an environmental impact statement". And we are saying that they are not just farmers, they're at best industrial agriculture and at worst they are doing research and both of them deserve to have the environmental impacts looked at closely."
Mr Hooser says while they are disappointed at the ruling in favour of the company and the state Board of Land and Natural Resources, they will continue on the appeals court.
"The judge said they weren't doing anything new but just doing what they have already been doing so therefore shouldn't have to do this environmental review. But we argued that if there are cumulative long term impacts or if the action is happening in a very sensitive area then that should be of overriding concern, but the judge did not agree with us on that. So we are appealing."
Local resident, Gordon Labedz is a retired medical GP who lives next to the GMO fields where the pesticides are used.
He believes these multinational companies are experimenting and spraying the crops with poison to make the plants more resistant and reliant on their pesticide products.
"No one has done any research on it. There are some doctors on the west side sort of keeping track of the birth defects and some doctors are concerned about more autism and more birth defects but there is no solid research as there is no financial interest in doing that research, the companies they don't want to do research that would prove what the company is doing is dangerous.' "
He says the impact on the environment and ecosystem is also an ongoing concern as some of the sites these companies use is right on the coastal beach.
"There is a type of whale that lives offshore and when testing the blubber of these whales they found all sorts of pesticides...and these whales eat tuna, the same kind that humans like to eat. And we are guessing that the whales, even though they don't come in close to shore, eat the tuna and the tuna eat the smaller fish that the whales eat and these whales are right close to extinction."
The Department of Land and Natural Resources declined to comment, citing the matter was a legal issue and Syngenta did not respond to emails.
