Proposed GMO Bill Would Be Moot

It turns out that the proposed amendment to the Hawaii State Association of Counties package floated by Tom Berg wouldn’t exactly reinstate the GMO bill removed by members in committee but would instead insert a different GMO bill.

The original proposal, which was approved by the three neighbor island county councils, would have required labeling on genetically-modified foods. The bill floated by Berg would require grocery stores to post signage alerting shoppers to the presence of GMOs on the shelves.

They sound substantially similar, but because of the way the HSAC package works, only bills approved verbatim by all four counties count. So Berg’s bill is dead on arrival, even if adopted by his colleagues today. The original bill is dead, too, unless citizens convince members to reinsert the previously removed bill.

That seems like a long shot, but a number of anti-GMO testifiers are going to try anyway.