STAND. COM. REP. NO. 310

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 666

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 Higher Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 666 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require and appropriate funds for the University of Hawaii at Manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience (CTAHR) to convert two temporary Farm to School Extension Agent positions into two full-time equivalent permanent Farm to School Extension Agent positions to support agriculture education in the State; and

(2) Appropriate funds for the establishment of one full-time equivalent Agriculture Education Coordinator position within CTAHR.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the University of Hawaiʻi system, Hawaiʻi Public Health Institute, Hawaiʻi Farm Bureau, Hawaiʻi Farmers Union United, University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, Ka Ohana O Na Pua, and two individuals.

Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General.

Your Committee finds that to achieve the State's aspirations for food security and self-sufficiency, the number of local farms and farmers, and the amount of food produced for local markets, must increase significantly. However, the State is experiencing a shortage of new farmers as the average farmer in the State is sixty years of age, leaving the State without a farming workforce large enough to expand cultivated agricultural lands and food production. Your Committee further finds that the primary cause of the State's shortage of new farmers is a lack of access to agriculture education, including reduced training for agricultural educators. Consequently, the State's youth have no interest in pursuing a career in agriculture or natural resource management. Your Committee also finds that implementing a coordinated framework of support for preschool through post-secondary agriculture education would increase the State's educated agricultural workforce, thereby increasing food security and self‑sufficiency, sustainability, and resiliency in the State. Your Committee recognizes that CTAHR's cooperative extension is an invaluable resource that connects research and innovation to food sovereignty, food security, food production, and environmental and human resilience. Accordingly, this measure invests in agriculture educators, including extension agents of cooperative extension programs, to promote a coordinated framework of support for agriculture education in the State.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the name of the University of Hawaii at Manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources to the University of Hawaii at Manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience to reflect its name change;

(2) Inserting language clarifying that this measure is a law of statewide concern pursuant to article X, section 6, of the Hawaii State Constitution;

(3) Inserting an effective date of July 31, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

(4) 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 Higher Education that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 666, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 666, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Higher Education,

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DONNA MERCADO KIM, Chair