STAND. COM. REP. NO. 46

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 375

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2019

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 375 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURE,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Department of Agriculture, in cooperation with the Office of the Governor, to develop a strategic plan to achieve the Governor's goal of doubling food production and increasing food exports by 2020.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture; University of Hawaii at Mānoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources; North Shore Economic Vitality Partnership; Bee Kind Apiary, LLC; We Are One, Inc.; Oahu County Committee on Legislative Priorities of the Democratic Party of Hawaii; Hawaii Organic Farming Association; Hawaii Farm Bureau; Organizing for Action; and fourteen individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from one member of the Hawaii County Council.

 

     Your Committee finds that Hawaii imports upwards of eighty-five percent of the food it consumes.  Your Committee also finds that replacing just ten percent of the food Hawaii currently imports would retain approximately $313,000,000 in the State and generate more than two thousand three hundred jobs.

 

     Your Committee further finds that the Governor's deadline of doubling local food production by 2020 is quickly approaching.  However, details on how to achieve this objective have yet to be identified.  Issues such as preserving agricultural land, identifying food crops for local production, improving irrigation and agricultural infrastructure, and complying with the federal Food Safety and Modernization Act, need to be addressed in order to double local food production.

 

     Your Committee heard testimony in opposition to this measure that highlights 2020 as too soon a deadline by which to double local food production.  Your Committee agrees and, hence, finds that a deadline of 2030 for the purposes of this measure is more achievable.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Inserting an appropriation amount of $500,000 for fiscal year 2019-2020;

 

     (2)  Changing the deadline for the goal of doubling local food production from 2020 to 2030;

 

     (3)  Updating the purpose Section accordingly; and

 

     (4)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Agriculture and Environment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 375, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 375, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.


 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Agriculture and Environment,

 

 

 

________________________________

MIKE GABBARD, Chair