STAND. COM. REP. NO. 15

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 693

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 693 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE FOOD HUB PILOT PROGRAM,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds for the continued implementation of the Food Hub Pilot Program.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture, Hawaiʻi Farmers Union United, Hawaiʻi Farm Bureau, Hawaʻii Primary Care Association, Hawaiʻi Alliance for Progressive Action, Climate Protectors Hawaii, Green Party of Hawaiʻi, Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management, Pono Pacific Land Management, and twenty-seven individuals.

Your Committee recognizes that food hubs can play an important role in the State's efforts to improve food security and self-sufficiency. Additional financial assistance to the temporary Food Hub Pilot Program established pursuant to Act 313, Session Laws of Hawaii 2022, will continue efforts to encourage the production of more locally grown food, strengthen local supply chains, promote environmental stability, and grow the agricultural economy.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting a blank appropriation amount;

(2) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

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

Your Committee notes that this measure, as amended, contains an unspecified appropriation amount. Should your Committee on Ways and Means choose to deliberate on this measure, your Committee respectfully requests that it consider inserting an appropriation amount of $1,500,000 for the continued implementation of the Food Hub Pilot Program.

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. 693, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 693, 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