STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1309-00

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 2000

                                 RE: S.B. No. 3194
                                     S.D. 2
                                     H.D. 2




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2000
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which
was referred S.B. No. 3194, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE RIGHT TO FARM,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to enhance the Hawaii Right to
Farm Act.

     Testimony in support of this bill was provided by the Big
Island Farm Bureau, Garst Seed Company, the Hawaii Agriculture
Research Center, the Hawaii Egg Producers Cooperative, the Hawaii
Export Nursery Association, the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation,
the Maui County Farm Bureau, the Kula Community Association, the
Meat and Poultry Association of Hawaii, the Pineapple Growers
Association of Hawaii, the Protea Growers Association of Hawaii,
the Waialua Farmers Cooperative, and a concerned individual.
Hawai`i's Thousand Friends provided testimony in support of this
bill with a proposed amendment concerning buffer zones.

     Your Committee finds that operators who conduct their
agricultural enterprises in a responsible and reasonable manner
need to be protected from unreasonable nuisance suits.  Your
Committee further finds that what may be considered "generally
accepted agricultural and management practices" differ from time
to time and from one type of agricultural venture to another.

 
 
 
 
                                 STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1309-00
                                 Page 2

 

     Your Committee notes that a similar bill, H.B. No. 2999,
H.D. 2, passed the House earlier this session after hearings
before your Committees on Agriculture and Judiciary and Hawaiian
Affairs.  After careful consideration, your Committee has amended
this bill by conforming its substance to that of H.B. No. 2999,
H.D. 2, as follows:

     (1)  Retaining the enumerated safe-harbor conditions of
          section 165-4, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS), under
          which a farm operation will not be deemed a nuisance;
  
     (2)  Qualifying a safe-harbor condition by requiring the
          farm to be "substantially" in compliance with the law
          that is relevant to the nuisance complaint;

     (3)  Restoring the original language of section 165-4, HRS,
          which authorizes the Department of Agriculture and a
          court to declare a farming operation a nuisance under
          certain circumstances;

     (4)  Restoring the original language of section 165-5, HRS,
          regarding the assessing of attorneys' fees in a
          frivolous nuisance action; and

     (5)  Leaving the effective date of the Act unspecified.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to
this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and
purpose of S.B. No. 3194, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and
recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto
as S.B. No. 3194, S.D. 2, H.D. 2.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Judiciary &
                                   Hawaiian Affairs,



                                   ______________________________
                                   ERIC G. HAMAKAWA, Chair