Musings: Power of Economics

It seems that some folks have unrealistic ideas about the pesticide/GMO bill, like its passage will inflict a body blow on biotech as Kauai leads the world to an new-old era of small, sustainable, pesticide-eschewing farms.

In the places that actually grow much of the world's food, however, the reality looks very different, and quite a bit more grim.

About 90 percent of the corn currently planted in the U.S. is genetically modified, as is 90 percent of the cotton and 93 percent of the soybeans, according to the latest USDA agricultural statistics. The U.S. is the world's top producer of GMO soy, followed by Brazil.

China, which now imports about 70 percent of Brazil's GMO soy, has just cleared three new soy varieties for import, a move that is expected to increase GMO crop acreage by 14% in Brazil.

Dow launched Powercore — the first-ever five-trait corn — in Argentina last year, and Canada approved Enlist E3, the company's herbicide-tolerant soybean last month. In short, these companies are not reeling from protests, they're expanding their product line and footprint. They've also begun working together to improve their bottom line by sharing licensing agreements.

In America's corn belt, meanwhile, the failure of biotech has led not to an embrace of organic practices, but increased insecticide use as farmers battle rootworm that has developed resistance to one type of GE corn. As NPR reports:

It appears that farmers have gotten part of the message: Biotechnology alone will not solve their rootworm problems. But instead of shifting away from those corn hybrids, or from corn altogether, many are doubling down on insect-fighting technology, deploying more chemical pesticides than before. Companies like Syngenta or AMVAC Chemical that sell soil insecticides for use in corn fields are reporting huge increases in sales: 50 or even 100 percent over the past two years.

This is a return to the old days, before biotech seeds came along, when farmers relied heavily on pesticides. University of Nebraska entomologist Lance Meinke tells farmers that if they plant just corn, year after year, rootworms are likely to overwhelm any weapon someday.

The problem, Meinke says, is that farmers are thinking about the money they can make today. "I think economics are driving everything," he says. "Corn prices have been so high the last three years, everybody is trying to protect every kernel. People are just really going for it right now, to be as profitable as they can."

Ah, yes, the power of economics.  It's the same force that led Kauai Beach Villas timeshare developer Lynn McCrory to challenge the constitutionality of the Charter amendment that voters approved limiting the number of new transient accommodation units (TAU).

U.S. District Court Judge Leslie Kobayashi recently ruled in McCrory's favor, finding that both the amendment and subsequent ordinance violate an earlier Kaiser Hawaii Kai "no zoning by initiative" decision.

In plain terms, Hawaii residents are not allowed to directly address land use issues at the ballot box. According to the ruling:

Further, Zoning by initiative is inconsistent with the goal of long range comprehensive planning, and "[i]t seems unlikely that the Legislature intended the possible frustration of comprehensive zoning through the initiative process."

Now as I hear it, a former county attorney felt the initiative was illegal, but let it go on the ballot, anyway, thinking it would never pass. Instead, it passed overwhelmingly, and the county spent a lot of time and money developing the implementing ordinance 912 and defending the measure in court.

So now what? As Carl Imparato, who has been closely involved in the issue since its inception, notes:

What Ordinance 912 did do was to ensure that the next wave of tourist accommodation projects would be paced. So it was still very important legislation. The void that would be left by doing nothing in the wake of the federal court ruling would mean a return to the old "business as usual", with new waves of tourist development projects assaulting Kauai in the future and being routinely approved by the mayor’s Planning Commissioners. So doing nothing is not an option.

He suggests the county could pursue an appeal to a higher court. An executive session is set for Wednesday's Council Meeting to discuss this (and $225,000 more to defend the county against Councilman Tim Bynum's lawsuit).

“Perhaps more importantly,” Carl continues, “the people of Kauai need to strongly encourage the County Council to pass Ordinance 912 once again ("Son of 912"). Ordinance 912 basically stood on its own: other than some non-operative language in the "whereas" clauses, there was only one sentence in the entire ordinance that linked the rate-of-growth mechanisms in Ordinance 912 to the Charter amendment. So Ordinance 912 could easily be rewritten to completely decouple the ordinance from the Charter amendment by changing just one sentence. Note that the court did not express any opinion that an ordinance like Ordinance 912, or an rate-of-growth limit, would be unconstitutional.

"So it is clearly within the scope of the Council’s authorities and duties to amend the CZO to enact another ordinance that would be virtually identical to Ordinance 912. And it is clear (64%-36%) that the citizenry wants tourist development’s impacts to be properly managed.

"Therefore, the Council should simply "do the right thing" and act promptly to fill the void created by the court’s ruling. There is no need for hand-wringing, or for extensive research and debate about what to do next (the types of study-it-to-death delaying tactics that stalled TVR ordinances from being enacted for almost a decade, during which the problem mushroomed out of control). The Council could very simply and very quickly pass once again the ordinance (as "Son of 912") that 5 of the current Councilmembers (Nakamura, Rapozo, Furfaro, Yukimura and Bynum) already voted for less than two years ago.

The public needs to speak out."