There is a passion building on Kauai that neither the imprecision of science nor the promises of politicians will cool.
Crowd estimates for last week’s march in Lihue run between 3,500 and 4,000. They were on the street in support of a Kauai County Council bill.
Members Gary Hooser and Tim Bynum introduced Bill 2491, which would require Kauai’s largest agricultural companies to disclose pesticide use and genetically modified organisms and also create 500-foot buffer zones around public areas and waterways.
The anti-GMO movement is growing, and government and scientific assurances that genetically modified crops are safely consumed by billions of people are ignored by critics.
Pesticides, however, are meant to kill, so there is a fear of misuse.
The march and the firestorm of debate on Kauai caused Gov. Neil Abercrombie to tacitly acknowledge he hears them, but it is questionable whether the message was really delivered.
Abercrombie and the Kauai members of the Legislature are proposing that through discussion with the pesticide users, the farmers voluntarily say how much bug and weed killer they use and also make unspecified buffer zones around schools and hospitals.
"Farmers will comply on a voluntary basis with temporary standard until such time as department heads and stakeholders can develop necessary rules or legislation for next session," Abercrombie said in a written statement.
"For the governor to ask for voluntary compliance and say that somehow the Legislature is now going to work on it, I think is ridiculous," said Hooser.
"I haven’t seen a proposal; I saw a press release," he added.
Hooser is a former state senator, was Abercrombie’s former director of the state environmental quality control office and was one of the principals in the move to repeal the wildly unpopular Public Land Development Corp. law last year.
In the Legislature, he was one of its most effective environmental lobbyists, responsible for pushing through the state law requiring solar heating on new residential construction.
Today’s Kauai issue is made for Hooser, with the support much more widespread than what opponents of the PLDC enjoyed last year.
"This is about local residents, living in the community, saying it. This is not a bunch of Superferry radicals out there on the pier; these are business owners, doctors, this is not a fringe movement," said Hooser.
To emphasize the worries, Kauai legislators had asked for a study on the cancer rates on Kauai, and a study released by the state Health department last week said Kauai shows nothing abnormal.
"We conclude that there is no evidence of higher incidence of cancer on the island of Kauai overall or for specific geographic regions of the island, as compared to the state of Hawaii," the report said.
Hooser supporters like long-time Democratic Party activist Bart Dame see Abercrombie’s sidestep of Bill 2491 as a escape route for local politicians not wanting to chase the agricultural business off the island or ignore worried and upset voters.
"I think there is some resentment from his colleagues that Gary’s strong stand on this is forcing them into a very uncomfortable position and the governor’s position rescued them from that discomfort," said Dame.
Indeed, Hooser said that "the mayor has been pretty silent on it, until the press release. The Kauai delegation has been pretty silent on it."
Kauai has always played its politics a little closer to the heart, a bit more deeply felt than other counties, but to discount the growing sense of mistrust and desire for action on Kauai would be a statewide political mistake.
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Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.
