Kaua'i Councilmember (and former Hawai'i state Environmental Quality Chair) Gary Hooser traveled to Switzerland to speak at the Syngenta shareholders meeting.
He said:
I'm from the island of Kaua'i in the middle of the Pacific ocean...I'm here today to add information that perhaps is not contained within your annual report and I appreciate your patience with me allowing me to share the message from my community in Kaua'i.
I'm also here today to present a petition a petition from thousands of residents of our small island. There's only 60-65 thousand people live where I live and we are very, very concerned about our community and the impacts that Syngenta has in our small community.
And that petition is very simple. It asks Syngenta to honor the laws of our community. Withdraw your lawsuit from the courts of Hawai'i. And to give us the same respect as the same protection as you give the people of Switzerland.
Right now Syngenta sprays enormous amounts of Atrazine in the fields around homes, schools and hospitals where we live. Atrazine is not allowed to be sprayed in your country.
Syngenta sprays enormous amounts of Paraquat which is banned here and in 36 countries around the world. And you do it daily in our community. There are four additional highly restricted that are sprayed daily around schools, hospitals and homes where I live.
Imagine if you had to drive and live in a community surrounded by GE test fields. And every day, every day you know that they are spraying toxic chemicals in the areas around where you live.
Imagine if the schools in your community had children getting sick like they do in my community and going to the hospital in ambulances and throwing up while Syngenta is spraying fields right next door.
Imagine if the doctors in your community like the doctors in my community are concerned about birth defects and believe that there are 10 times the national rate of birth defects in the small hospital where I live.
At this point the recording is cut off as the videographer is forcibly removed from the room. Hooser ended with a plea that Syngenta drop its lawsuit against Kaua'i county, disclose what they are spraying and observe buffer zones around homes, schools and hospitals.
The trip to Switzerland was at the invitation of the Swiss nonprofit MultiWatch and was supported by the Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action. MultiWatch presented the head of the Basel government and Syngenta executives with a petition signed by 6,000 people on Kauai island’s behalf.
In 2013 the Kaua'i county council passed an ordinance which required commercial agricultural entities to disclose the pesticides applied and establish buffer zones around sensitive areas like nursing homes, schools and hospitals.
Shame on you, Syngenta, suing Kaua'i county for the right to spray poisons next to our schools, homes & hospitals.
Syngenta sued to overturn the ordinance giving rise to numerous banners with the mocking message, "Shame on you, Syngenta, suing Kaua'i county for the right to spray poisons next to our schools, homes & hospitals."
After Syngenta, DuPont Pioneer, BASF and Dow AgroSciences, challenged the ordinance, U.S. District Court Judge Barry Kurren invalidated it saying that state laws pre-empted the need for a county law. That ruling is being appealed in the 9th Circuit Court.
According to Kauai's Garden Isle Newpaper, Hooser said "People were flabbergasted" in Switzerland when they heard what Syngenta was doing. Syngenta tried to justify their actions but Hooser called their defense "baloney" and said that 66,000 pounds of Atrazine in Hawai'i last year.
Hooser is not particularly hopeful that the giant chemical company will stop experimentation on Kaua'i. Syngenta itself said, " “The island offers unrivaled climatic and agronomic conditions for crop research, which has benefited millions of growers around the world."
Seems like Hawaii's beautiful climate is a double edged sword.
2:51 PM PT: In Switzerland, the Kauaʻi delegation met with local and national Swiss lawmakers resulting in the Social Democratic Party, the largest political party in Basel, issuing a Statement of Support, asking Syngenta to “honor the democratic process and protect the people of Kauaʻi.”