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Federal judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals are in town this week and will hear oral arguments Wednesday for three lawsuits challenging county regulations on genetically modified farming.

Kauai County, Hawaii County and Maui County all approved ordinances governing genetically engineered crops, but global seed companies such as and successfully sued to prevent the measures from taking effect.

Advocacy groups, including the , and , are hoping to convince the appeals court to overturn the lower court decisions, which generally concluded that Hawaii counties don’t have the right to regulate agriculture.

The hearings will take place Wednesday in Courtroom 250L at the Honolulu Bankruptcy Courthouse. But if you can’t attend the hearings in person, you can watch them live on

The appeals court will be live-streaming the arguments, and we plan to publish their stream on our page. If you “like” Civil Beat on Facebook, you’ll get a notification when the video starts.

Chief Judge Syndey Thomas, Circuit Judge Consuelo Callahan and Circuit Judge Mary Murguia are starting at 9 a.m. Each side will get 15 minutes to present its case.

The first case is unrelated to agriculture. The second involves a Kauai County ordinance that required Syngenta and other large agricultural companies to disclose what kinds of pesticides they apply and where, among other requirements.

The third case involves Hawaii County’s partial ban on genetically engineered farming. The fourth involves a lawsuit brought by the Center for Food Safety and Earthjustice challenging a federal judge’s decision to deny their effort to intervene to defend Maui County’s moratorium on the cultivation of genetically modified crops.

The fifth case is an appeal brought by Maui County residents who are defending that moratorium.

A previous version of this story mixed up the order of the last two cases on Wednesday’s schedule.

Click here to read more background on the cases or