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Maui residents in late October protested Monsanto’s heavy pesticide use. (Photo: Babes Against Biotech/ Facebook)
Residents of Maui County in Hawaii, regularly referred to as ‘GMO Ground Zero,’ claimed a victory Tuesday evening when a measure to ban the planting of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) passed with 50.two %.
Agribusiness giants Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences, which for decades have run huge developing and testing operations on the island, spent practically $ 8 million dollars to defeat the ban, making it the most high-priced campaign in Hawaii’s history, according to Honolulu Civil Beat.
Identified as the Maui County Genetically Modified Organism Moratorium Initiative, the measure will ban all GMO growth, testing or cultivation in the county until an environmental and public well being study is conducted and finds the proposed cultivation practices to be protected and harmless.
“I believe that this is a really robust message to the complete agrochemical sector in the state of Hawaii that we are no longer going to sit idly by and watch them expand their operations with out the kinds of regulations that make certain the overall health and safety of people across Hawaii,” Ashley Lukens, who directs the Hawaii chapter of the Center for Meals Safety, told Civil Beat.
Hawaiians have grow to be increasingly concerned more than GMO crop production and how its connected heavy pesticide use impacts the overall health of both individuals and atmosphere. More than 80 diverse chemical compounds are sprayed on GMO fields, which ban proponents warn, creates billions of untested chemical combinations which then spread into “our neighborhoods, oceans, reefs, groundwater, drinking water, meals supply and bodies.”   
Final year, the Hawaiian Division of Health tested the surface water around the island and pesticides were identified in one hundred % of the samples. According to official election outcomes, the moratorium passed with just more than 1,000 votes. In comparison to the millions raised in industry dollars by ban opposition group Citizens Against the Maui County Farming Ban (CAMCFB), supporters of the initiative raised just under $ 65,000.