HB1536.DOC

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that Hawaii is located approximately 2,506 miles from the continental United States. About eighty-five to ninety per cent of Hawaii's food is imported, which makes Hawaii particularly vulnerable to natural disasters and global events that disrupt shipping and other modes of transporting food. Furthermore, the economic impact of food import replacement is significant. Food expenditures of local consumers from 2004 to 2005 amounted to $3,700,000,000. Assuming that eighty-five per cent of the food consumed in the State is imported, this translates to $3,145,000,000 of food expenditures leaving the State each year. Growing food within the State enables the expenditures on food to remain in the local economy.

The office of planning, in cooperation with the department of agriculture, issued a report in October 2012, titled Increased Food Security and Food Self-Sufficiency Strategy: A State Strategic/Functional Plan Prepared in Accordance with HRS Chapter 226 Hawaii State Plan and the Hawaii Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy. The executive summary of the report states in pertinent part:

The purpose of the Increased Food Security and Food Self-Sufficiency Strategy (Strategy) is to increase the amount of locally grown food consumed by Hawaii residents. This will increase food self-sufficiency which is a component of food security. The Strategy is a living document intended as a first step toward continued dialog and implementation.

The three strategic objectives of the Increased Food Security and Food Self-Sufficiency Strategy are increasing demand for and access to locally grown foods, increasing production of locally grown foods, and providing policy and organizational support to meet food self-sufficiency needs.

The development of a whole system approach to agriculture in Hawaii that pays close attention to soil health, specifically increasing mineral availability and improving soil structure, water holding capacity, crop health, and food nutrition levels will lower water usage through deployment of green manure, compost, and cover crops; reduce crop loss from pest damage; and decrease weed pressure. This whole system approach to agriculture can improve food security and benefit the local economy through reducing production cost by promoting locally sourced inputs and the manufacturing thereof. Teaching a new generation of farmers to use this whole system approach will create an alternative method of farming that appeals to many young farmers across the State. Currently, there is a shortage of qualified teachers for these farm methods. On-farm mentoring aims to fulfill this need by bringing the students to the farm and providing qualified farm mentors with funding.

The purpose of this Act is to improve food security and self-sufficiency in the State by:

(1) Establishing state planning and policy objectives for the economy of increased demand for and access to locally grown foods and increased production of locally grown foods;

(2) Encouraging the development and implementation of a whole system approach to agriculture in Hawaii; and

(3) Making various appropriations accordingly.

SECTION 2. Chapter 141, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§141- Agricultural development and food security program; establishment. There is established within the department of agriculture an agricultural development and food security program that shall have the objectives described in section 226-6(a)."

SECTION 3. Section 226-6, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:

"(a) Planning for the State's economy in general shall be directed toward achievement of the following objectives:

(1) Increased and diversified employment opportunities to achieve full employment, increased income and job choice, and improved living standards for Hawaii's people, while at the same time stimulating the development and expansion of economic activities capitalizing on defense, dual-use, and science and technology assets, particularly on the neighbor islands where employment opportunities may be limited.

(2) A steadily growing and diversified economic base that is not overly dependent on a few industries, and includes the development and expansion of industries, such as the soil amendments industry, on the neighbor islands.

(3) Increased demand for and access to locally grown foods by:

(A) Expanding local marketing campaigns to promote the benefits of buying locally grown foods;

(B) Expanding and improving branding and labeling programs and providing consumer education programs to help consumers identify local products at the time of purchase;

(D) Addressing food safety issues by expanding the farm food safety coaching program and number of farm food safety certifiers.

(4) Increased production of locally grown foods, to supplant mainland- or foreign-grown products by:

(A) Building the agricultural workforce, including workforce development services for the agricultural, energy, natural resources, and related industries;

(B) Supporting the agricultural park program, which provides public lands at reasonable cost and long-term tenure to farmers and completing the transfer of agricultural lands from the department of land and natural resources to the department of agriculture;

(C) Supporting capital improvement project funding to repair and maintain state irrigation systems that provide water at low cost to farmers;

(D) Encouraging a variety of distribution systems to move goods to the marketplace;

(E) Supporting multi-functional food hub facilities or food incubator facilities to handle aggregation, processing, value adding, treatment, and distribution; and

(F) Improving agricultural infrastructure, including agricultural parks, irrigation systems, and distribution systems and facilities."

SECTION 4. (a) There is established in the college of tropical agriculture and human resources at the University of Hawaii at Manoa an on-farm mentoring program that shall provide statewide and island-specific mentoring to teach farmers about methods to improve soil health by using whole system practices that recycle locally available organic, diverse plant and animal agricultural nutrients, enhanced by fermentation and other ecological processes such as Korean natural farming as defined by the college of tropical agriculture and human resources.

(b) The dean of the college of tropical agriculture and human resources at the University of Hawaii at Manoa shall appoint an on-farm mentor for each island with a population greater than five thousand; provided that the dean of the college of tropical agriculture and human resources may appoint an on-farm mentor for an island with a population of five thousand or fewer upon request.

(c) The college of tropical agriculture and human resources shall establish curriculum for the on-farm mentoring program.

(1) The curriculum for the on-farm mentoring program shall include instruction on:

(A) Farming techniques that utilize locally sourced organic and other ecological and bio-diverse agricultural amendments and techniques relying on integrated farming practices using vegetative and animal waste products and diverse crops for soil amendments, seed, and other farm inputs;

(B) The culturing of indigenous microorganisms; and

(2) The curriculum for the on-farm mentoring program may include instruction on:

(A) Farm management, including whole system farming;

(B) Animal husbandry, including animal and crop production;

(D) Harvesting and storage for farmer cooperatives;

(E) Farm marketing with an emphasis on food cooperatives;

(F) Integrated pest management and multi-cropping; and

(G) The breeding and release of beneficial insects.

(d) The college of tropical agriculture and human resources at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, as part of the on-farm mentoring program, shall provide competitive grants of up to $50,000 each to individual farmers or farming organizations to develop on-farm mentoring or expand existing on-farm mentoring programs. In the grant application process, the college of tropical agriculture and human resources shall afford preference to existing farms that use a minimum of seventy five per cent of locally generated agricultural inputs or are certified to teach Korean natural farming techniques.

SECTION 5. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $ or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2014-2015 for the department of agriculture to establish an agricultural development and food security program pursuant to this Act.