A critical point is being reached in our Legislature, relating to the controversy over genetically modified organism (GMO) agriculture and pesticide use that has riven our state for over four years.

The most significant point in this process was the ruling of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals late last year that Hawaii counties do not have authority to independently regulate GMOs and pesticide use. The court upheld decisions by two different U.S. District Court judges, covering county ordinances and initiatives in Hawaii, Maui and Kauai counties — that pesticide and GMOs were fields for which the state had reserved to itself all regulatory power and that counties could not go their own ways with local restrictions.

But both the House and Senate are considering at least three bills whose titles suggest some other purpose, but whose stealth intention is to create such individual county authority over pesticide use and sanction legally whatever counties may decide to do — no questions asked, no scientific validity required.

The push for county authority over pesticides delivered its biggest performance on Kauai, where the infamous Bill 2491 to punish GMO seed companies indirectly by imposing overbearing county pesticide regulation took root. It passed narrowly, over a mayoral veto, then was overturned by the federal court. To its credit, a couple of weeks ago, the Kauai County Council repealed the law, agreeing that doing otherwise was foolish and the slate needs to be wiped clean to begin anew the process of repairing damage to Kauai’s community fabric done by the GMO/pesticide controversy.

Among the bills that would reopen the wound are House Bills 790, 282 and 1571, all of which have cleared House committees. All three lament the inadequate job by the Hawaii Department of Agriculture in doing its duty to adequately regulate pesticide use. HDOA’s past failures in this context are inarguable. Fortunately, HDOA has in recent months credibly stepped up its pesticide enforcement activities.

Which leaves the question of why letting counties do their own thing in pesticide regulation would be a bad idea. Here’s why:

>> The bills don’t define any standard by which counties would, or could, regulate pesticides, other than political whim. As written, they could permit a County Council to ban a pesticide because Council members don’t like the color of the label, baseless rumors about its effects or any other invented pretext.

>> Hawaii’s counties have no expertise or experience in pesticide regulation and, in the case of Hawaii, Kauai and Maui counties, at least, they lack even the rudimentary infrastructure to undertake a pesticide regulation function. They completely lack the financial resources to do so.

>> Having four different pesticide regulatory schemes in the state would create hopeless chaos for Hawaii agriculture. Farmers on Kauai might be prohibited from using a specific pesticide while farmers on Hawaii island would not. Maui County might mandate certain spraying standards while Kauai might impose conflicting rules, with no reason required for either.

>> No county would be required to provide scientific justification for its pesticide regulations. And these pesticide regulations could even conflict with applicable federal rules and laws over pesticide use and labeling.

>> By creating a crazy quilt of regulation, especially by imposing conflicting requirements for buffer zones — for which absolutely no scientific standards have been validated — farmland that now yields real crops could be forced out of production for no reason to comply with vindictive, ill-conceived county regulations.

This is nuts.

While they still have a chance to do so, the House and Senate should think clearly and amend out of these and any other bills that tinker with state pesticide authority any provisions giving counties a power they are not equipped to wield and that would lead to political and agricultural chaos. We have been down this road of political division in Hawaii already. Let’s not go there again.

Allan Parachini, longtime former journalist and public relations executive, lives and makes furniture on Kauai.