STAND. COM. REP. NO. 298

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1132

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 1132 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds for the Department of Agriculture to identify a central area on Maui, then plan, design, and construct a hemp decorticator facility for the use of interested parties in the area.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture, Hawai‘i Hemp Farmers Association, Hawai‘i Farm Bureau, and two individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from one individual.

Your Committee finds that hemp is among the fastest growing plants on earth and can be refined into a variety of useful items such as paper, rope, textiles, clothing, biodegradable plastics, paint, building insulation, biofuel, and animal feed. Hemp-derived products are so wide-ranging that the creation of a decorticator processing facility and its consequent production and sales of hemp-derived materials have the potential to significantly strengthen and reinforce Hawaii's hemp industry, thus boosting economic growth and creating jobs in the State. This measure appropriates funds for the Department of Agriculture to identify a central area on Maui, then plan, design, and construct a hemp decorticator facility for the use of interested parties on the island.

Because the timing involved does not allow for the design phase, much less the construction phase, to begin, your Committee has amended this measure by inserting recommended language from the Department of Agriculture to reflect planning funding only.

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. 1132, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1132, 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,

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MIKE GABBARD, Chair