Groups win list
of test-crop locations

Citizen groups that want the public to know where in Hawaii companies are growing bioengineered test crops claimed a partial legal victory last week.

But an agriculture industry attorney disagreed that test plot locations will soon become common knowledge.

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture "handed over to Earthjustice attorneys information on the precise locations of open-air field tests of biopharmaceutical crops genetically engineered to produce industrial chemicals and drugs," said a release from Earthjustice, the environmental law firm representing the Center for Food Safety, Friends of the Earth, Pesticide Action Network North America, and KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance in state and federal lawsuits.

"This marks the first time the federal government has been forced to disclose the location of field tests of genetically engineered crops since it began systematically hiding these locations from the public," Earthjustice said yesterday.

Meanwhile, attorney Margery Bronster, who is representing the Biotechnology Industry Organization, said "the disclosure the judge ordered was extremely limited, only for this litigation and only to very few people to keep it confidential."

Bronster said public disclosure of test plots would be disastrous for her clients, because the plots could be vandalized, as has happened in some locations on the mainland and in Europe.

The environmental groups want "to compel the government to do long-overdue studies of the environmental impact of these activities" and identify test sites, said Earthjustice attorney Issac Moriwake.

"Frankly, it's shameful that our government is fighting to keep the public in the dark about these activities, and we hope that this ruling will help bring the policy of compulsive secrecy to an end," he said.

U.S. District Judge David Ezra hasn't yet ruled on the matter of releasing the test plot information to the general public.

A state lawsuit on accessing the information under Hawaii's open records law is pending for 2006.