GMOs spark power struggle between state and counties

If officials from the World Health Organization parachuted into Hawaii to survey our feelings about food, they would be stunned at our ability to march through our contradictions.

Who gives an annual parade for SPAM? Who thinks lunch isn’t lunch unless two scoops of rice rest beside at least one dollop of macaroni salad? Who has raised Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts to such a cult status that it is the expected Maui export?

That would be us.

The same folks who regularly ignore decades of pleas from the American Dental Association to add cavity-preventing fluoride to Hawaii’s drinking water, and are now engaged in a white-hot debate over whether we should label the genetically modified food we eat.

The GMO debate has now joined the Hawaii culture wars to the extent that the veteran Speaker of the House Joe Souki calls it "the next battle, a real tension."

The Hawaii island and the Kauai county councils have passed ordinances to regulate GMO crops and restrict the use of large-scale pesticide spraying. Next week, Hawaii island Mayor Billy Kenoi will decide if he will sign the Hawaii County bill.

For state lawmakers, the concern is that the counties, which have power because they were created in the state Constitution, would be taking on roles and responsibilities usually taken by state and federal government.

"This is going to be the next battle," said Souki.

Already he sees his 51-member House divided on the issues.

On one hand, Souki sees the worrying about pesticides and GMO labeling as a state task.

"This is not a county function. They don’t have the resources, and we have the resources with the University of Hawaii and Health Department," Souki said in an interview last week. "Certainly the counties would be infringing on the role of the state in this."

The Legislature has a choice to make next year. The big agricultural firms are threatening to sue Kauai County to stop enforcement of a pesticide and GMO regulation law they view as unfair.

The Legislature can either move into the area of stronger regulation or wait for guidance from the court cases.

"Certainly it is not the role of the counties. They don’t have the facilities or the resources. They don’t have the laboratories to examine whether it is going to hurt the community. I don’t believe they should be doing it," said Souki, who represents the Maui districts of Waihee, Kahului and Wailuku.

The entire issue, however, has something of a generational split to it.

"Within this body, there is going to be a clash," Souki said. "There are the more seasoned legislators and moderate legislators who really don’t want to see it (GMO labeling); they are not following the counties and they don’t appreciate what the counties are doing — so there is this tension between the younger more progressive, and the more senior and more moderate ones."

Some have been waiting for Gov. Neil Abercrombie to clearly tell the counties that the state’s own powers preempt the counties’, but so far his statements have been more delphic than definitive.

"Any decisions to impose additional regulations above and beyond those already established by federal regulatory agencies should be based on proven science," Abercrombie said through a spokeswoman.

Meanwhile, Souki is massaging the tension in his House, noting that "labeling is not that too bad a thing," but questioning whether "we want to write legislation to supersede the counties."

In other words, if you are having SPAM and rice, eat a salad, too.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.