STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2562

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2332

       S.D. 2

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2332, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to encourage beekeeping operations in the State by exempting honey producers from being required to process the product in a certified honey house or food-processing establishment; provided that certain requirements are met.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation and one individual.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Health.

     Your Committee finds that exempting honey producers without access to municipal water from having to process honey in a Department of Health-certified food processing establishment, provided that certain conditions are met, has significant negative fiscal implications.  The cost of reviewing and testing the non-municipal water and related equipment would cost the Department of Health and small-scale honey producers thousands of dollars, and this prohibitive cost is contrary to the intent of this measure.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Deleting section 2, which exempts honey producers without access to municipal water from having to process honey in a food processing establishment certified by the Department of Health, provided that certain conditions are met;

     (2)  Amending the conditions under which a home-based agricultural producer of honey may be exempt from processing honey in a certified honey house and obtaining a permit by:

          (A)  Adopting standardized warning language provided by the Department of Health to be used on the honey container's label; and

          (B)  Requiring home-based agricultural producers of honey to attend a Department of Health-approved food safety workshop, pass the food safety certification examination, maintain records of honey production volume and distribution for at least two years, and make the records available to the Department of Health upon request; and

     (3)  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 Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2332, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2332, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, M.D., Chair