County Ban on GMO Crops Struck Down.

In the fall of 2014, Maui County adopted an ordinance that banned the cultivation of genetically modified engineered organisms (GMOs).  In an earlier action,  the court entered an injunction preventing enforcement of the ordinance until the court decided the merits of a challenge to the ordinance.  In this case, the court invalidated the ordinance as unenforceable as being preempted by the Plant Protection Act and the regulations thereunder.  The ordinance, the court held, also exceeded the authority that the state had delegated to the county and that the fines specified in the ordinance were excessive.  Robert Ito Farm, Inc., et al. v. County of Maui, et al., No. 14-00511, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 84709 (D. Haw. Jun. 30, 2015).