STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2529

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1590

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 1590 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Direct the Department of Agriculture to assess steps necessary:

(A) For the State to supplement federal authority to perform meat inspections with state inspectors; and

(B) To fully transfer meat inspection authority from federal authority to the State; and

(2) Appropriate an unspecified amount of funds for the establishment of three full-time equivalent (3.0 FTE) inspector positions within the Department of Agriculture to perform meat inspections.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture; Hawaiʻi Farm Bureau; and Hawaii Cattlemen's Council, Inc.

Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Animal Welfare Institute.

Your Committee finds that the inspection of livestock prior to slaughter is a critical step to ensuring the quality and safety of the State's locally produced meat supply. Your Committee further finds that the State's meat inspection program was discontinued in the mid-1990s and since then, the State has been wholly relying on the United States Department of Agriculture Food Safety Inspection Service to perform meat inspection services statewide. Your Committee believes that steps must be taken to restore the State's ability to inspect local poultry and livestock. According to testimony received by your Committee, a state food safety and inspection service could help increase processing capacity, diversify processing options and reduce processing bottleneck, allow producers to process livestock in remote and rural locations, reduce transportation time and costs, and support producers' ability to donate locally produced meat to food banks and other community feeding programs. This measure promotes the continued growth of the State's poultry and livestock industries, while maintaining food safety standards.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; 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 and Environment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1590, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1590, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Ways and Means and Commerce and Consumer Protection.

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

________________________________

MIKE GABBARD, Chair