ASA recently joined Citizens Against Maui County Farming Ban, a committee opposing the proposed November ballot initiative that would ban certain types of farming, including use of genetically modified crops in Maui, Molokai and Lanai.

According to the committee, the initiative is billed as a “temporary moratorium,” but would permanently criminalize farming genetically engineered crops, leading to the complete shutdown of many farms that have operated in Maui County for decades, without any scientific justification.

“It could eliminate nearly 600 well-paying jobs and the incomes that many families depend on,” the group states on its member form. “This would send a devastating ripple effect through the local economy, harming not just the workers themselves, but the businesses that support them.”

On the Citizens Against Maui County Farming Ban website, the group states farmers on Maui, Molokai and Lanai want to be able to take advantage of future advances in agricultural technologies that can protect their crops from pests and disease, or promote conservation, but this initiative could impose criminal and civil penalties for doing so.

Maui County is home to extensive soybean, corn and other crop breeding and seed multiplication activities important to U.S. soybean growers. ASA stands with the Maui County Farm Bureau, the Molokai Farm Bureau, local farm employees and their families and other citizens of Maui, Molokai and Lanai who oppose this harmful initiative.