STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2878

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 502

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Agriculture, to which was referred H.B. No. 502, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FOOD SELF-SUFFICIENCY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Appropriate funds to the Department of Agriculture to create positions within the Department to monitor local food production; and

     (2)  Direct the Department of Agriculture to issue a request for proposals to contract for a report with findings on the establishment of state food sufficiency baseline.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Ulupono Initiative; Hawaii Cattlemen's Council, Inc.; Hawaii Farmers Union United; and one individual.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Agriculture, State Procurement Office, and Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii.

     Your Committee finds that eighty-five to ninety percent of Hawaii's food is imported, making food security a significant concern.  Not only is it safer for Hawaii to achieve food sustainability, but replacing just ten percent of food imports would create a total of 2,300 local jobs and keep hundreds of millions of dollars within the State's economy.  If food security is going to be a priority for the State, the State must fund staff positions to monitor local food production and develop a food sufficiency baseline to measure progress.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying that the Department of Agriculture may, rather than shall, issue a request for proposals to contract for a report with findings on the establishment of a food sufficiency baseline; and

     (2)  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 Agriculture that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 502, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 502, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

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

____________________________

CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair