Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Water, Land, and Agriculture, to which was referred S.B. No. 50 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to provide Waianae Organic Agriculture Center with half of its operational expenses.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Department of Agriculture, the Leeward Community College, the University of Hawaii's Office of Sustainability Hawaii Energy House, a Maui County Council member, Hawaiian Alliance for Responsible Technology & Science, Hawaii Farm Bureau, Respiratory & Environmental Disabilities Association of Hawaii, and seventeen individuals.

Your Committee finds that the Waianae region of Oahu suffers from poor food security in Hawaii, making the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods limited or uncertain. Thus, this measure will promote and support the improvement of the Waianae community's food security by linking higher education, applied research, and organic food production together for a more secure future.

Your Committee has amended this measure to:

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water, Land, and Agriculture that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 50, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 50, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.