STAND. COM. REP. NO. 74

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 327

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Agriculture and Water and Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 327 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish and codify in the Hawaii State Planning Act a state policy to buy local produce and support local agriculture.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture, Office of Planning, and the Land Use Research Foundation.

     Your Committees find that a policy commitment regarding the consumption of locally grown products is critical to improving food security and self-sufficiency in Hawaii.  Supporting locally grown food will improve residents' health and increase revenues for struggling local farmers.

     By recommendation of the Office of Planning, your Committees have amended this measure by broadening the goal of increasing locally grown food purchases to include increasing purchases by businesses to ensure that the policy commitment to increase locally grown food purchases is targeted to the broadest spectrum of consumers.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Agriculture and Water and Land that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 327, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 327, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Agriculture and Water and Land,

____________________________ MALAMA SOLOMON, Chair

____________________________ CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair