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Editor’s note: The writer is a Democratic candidate for the Hawaii House of Representatives, District 49.

If the state Legislature were willing to lead on important pesticide and genetically engineered (GE) crop issues, counties could obtain the protections they seek for their citizens and for their land without having to devote time and resources to defending thoughtful and useful local ordinances against procedural attacks from the well-heeled agribusiness industry.

Last week, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals convened in Honolulu to hear oral arguments in three cases related to county level efforts to regulate potentially dangerous agricultural GE crop cultivation and testing and pesticide use in the counties of Kauai, Hawaii and Maui. The issue in each of theses cases was whether or not counties may regulate such activities. Agribusiness giants Monsanto, Dow, DuPont Pioneer and Syngenta contend that only the state may regulate such agricultural activities due to the doctrine of preemption, and county ordinances endeavoring to limit these activities are not enforceable.

Advancing this issue to the 9th Circuit was undoubtedly a painstaking and expensive process, involving grassroots organizing, passage of ordinances, litigation through trial and at least one appeal. But so much of this was unnecessary. If the House and Senate had passed legislation akin to the regulation set forth in the county ordinances at issue before the 9th Circuit, the seed and pesticide industry would be without their primary argument in these matters. The preemption argument would be far less forceful if a state law were at issue.

The appeals are not about whether or not the agricultural practices of the seed and pesticide companies are actually dangerous or harmful. These corporate players did not offer oral arguments that they are doing good work, which benefits Hawaii (though they may make such claims elsewhere). They only argued that counties should not have any say — only the state and federal governments may regulate them.

It’s time for our state Legislature to remove these issues from the costly and messy process of the current litigation focusing on preemption and pass statewide laws that respect the concerns which gave rise to the Kauai, Maui and Hawaii Island ordinances. It’s time to force the seed and chemical companies to address the substance of their activities and defend the safety of their practices. It’s time to stop allowing these companies to leverage our Constitution in their collective efforts to continue questionable practices on the basis that local governments lack authority to regulate them.

It’s time for the state to lead.