STAND. COM. REP. NO. 6

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 350

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 350 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO NUTRIENT CYCLING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to make an appropriation for a nutrient cycling center pilot project on Maui and require reporting on the efficacy of the pilot project.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture; Hawaii Center for Food Safety; Farm Lovers Farmers Markets; We Are One, Inc.; and twenty individuals.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General and Hawai‘i Farm Bureau.

     Your Committee finds that nutrient cycling fosters agricultural production by preventing nutrients from flowing from farmland into aquifers and shorelines.  Nutrient cycling puts end products back into the land-based food chain instead of generating waste or causing pollution, as with food waste, and lowers agricultural production costs.  Your Committee also finds that a regional nutrient cycling center in Hawaii, particularly on Maui, would promote environmental, economic, and social benefits for the State along with food and energy security, while minimizing the interisland transfer of waste streams and reducing the likelihood of transporting invasive species.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Adding language to explicitly establish the regional nutrient cycling pilot program on Maui;

     (2)  Clarifying that the Board of Agriculture shall establish an advisory panel for the pilot program; and

     (3)  Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Agriculture and Environment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 350, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 350, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

________________________________

MIKE GABBARD, Chair