A day after Tuesday’s stunning election victory of a Maui County moratorium on genetically engineered crops, the new law appeared destined to share the fate of similar measures in Kauai and Hawaii counties — being decided in the courts.

Monsanto, the agricultural giant that operates two farms in Maui County, said Wednesday that the company and "allied parties" will ask the court to declare the initiative legally flawed and unenforceable.

"We believe this referendum is invalid and contrary to long established state and federal laws that support both the safety and lawful testing and planting of GMO plants," said John Purcell, Monsanto Hawaii vice president for business and technology, in a statement Wednesday.

The measure outlaws the cultivation, growth and testing of genetically modified crops while companies conduct environmental and public health studies to prove their practices are safe.

Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences, a part of Dow Chemical, spent $8 million in advertising in an attempt to block the county’s first-ever ballot initiative in what is believed to be the most expensive campaign in Hawaii history.

But the effort, which outspent supporters of the initiative 300 to 1, failed by more than 1,000 votes. About 50.2 percent of voters, or 23,082, cast votes in favor of the measure while 47.9 percent, or 22,005, voted against it.

"At the end of the day, the community demonstrated a capacity to demand regulation in the face of government inaction," declared Ashley Lukens, program director for the Hawaii Center for Food Safety. "This was not just a win for public health and the environment, it was a win for the democratic process."

Opponents of the measure warned of potential dire consequences.

"It is a sad day for Maui County and local agriculture," said Bennette Misalucha, executive director of the Hawaii Crop Improvement Association, a trade organization representing the agricultural seed industry.

Misalucha said local communities may now end up being "severely crippled" as hundreds of workers stand to lose their jobs and the county faces a loss of $85 million in economic activity. What’s more, she said, the state’s role and progress toward agricultural innovation and economic diversification will be hampered.

The moratorium, some warned, could reverberate across the nation and the world. Monsanto and Dow develop new varieties on Maui and Molokai and conduct research in Hawaii because of the year-round warm weather in the islands, which allows them to grow more generations of crops and accelerate their development of new seed varieties.

Economist Paul Brewbaker said the ban hurts because Hawaii seed operations are pivotal to global productivity growth in commercial maize agriculture.

"There isn’t a commercially grown corn (maize) on the planet that doesn’t have genetic links to Hawaii," said Brewbaker, who was hired by the Maui Chamber of Commerce to examine the economic impacts of the initiative.

But not only is the seed industry in danger of pulling out of Maui County, Brewbaker said, but all other agriculture in the county is threatened by the loss of an option to adopt modern varieties and engage in associated research.

Although Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa was quoted during the campaign describing the initiative as impractical and flawed, he is now tasked with implementing the measure.

On Wednesday his lieutenants said they were ready to move the law forward.

"We want to assure people that we’re taking this initiative very seriously," said Keith Regan, the county’s managing director. "The people have spoken, and the county is obligated to carry out their will. Hopefully now we can move forward and our community can heal from this divisive issue."

Rod Antone, Maui County communication director, said the administration has held internal meetings for months regarding the enforcement of the initiative and is now finalizing how much manpower, resources and equipment will be needed to carry out the task. Once that is completed, he said, the Maui County Council will be asked to approve a budget amendment.

But it’s likely the initiative will end up in court first just like it did in Kauai and Hawaii counties. Kauai’s Ordinance 960 remains on appeal after it was struck down by a federal judge who ruled that it was pre-empted by state laws regulating pesticides and GMOs. The same judge is expected to rule on Hawaii island’s Bill 113, which bans cultivation of any new genetically altered crops, including GMO papayas, unless registered with the county. 

Paul Achitoff, managing attorney with Earthjustice, said he remains confident the Kauai ordinance will be reversed on appeal and that the Hawaii island and Maui skirmishes will ultimately go in favor of the counties. The GMO fight in Hawaii, he said, still has a long way to go.

Achitoff said the reason Monsanto and the GMO community spent so much in Maui is because "they want to be able to do what they want to do when they want to do it."

They also wanted to send a message to any other counties considering doing the same thing, he said. 

"So they were going to throw all the resources they could," he said. "They have a lot of resources."

But this time the GMO corporations ran into a buzz saw of hard work by the Shaka Movement and the Coalition for a Safer and Healthier Maui.

Lukens said victory was achieved through a grassroots campaign with countless community meetings, door-to-door campaigning, phone banking, texting trees and marches.

"I never worked so hard in my life," she said. "For three months there were 18-hour days. How do you fight $8 million?"

Hawaii isn’t the only place where the GMO companies spent loads of campaign cash.

In Colorado, Proposition 105, a labeling bill, was defeated by a roughly 2-1 margin Tuesday, while Oregon voters narrowly beat a similar measure. According to the Associated Press, Monsanto and other GMO companies spent $18 million in Oregon and $17 million in Colorado.