STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1125

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 573

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Agriculture, to which was referred H.B. No. 573 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HAWAII GOOD AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to develop and support good agricultural practices by establishing a permanent Hawaii Good Agricultural Practices Program, within the Department of Agriculture, for farms growing agricultural food products.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture, University of Hawaii System, Environmental Council, Ulupono Initiative, Hawaii Farm Bureau, Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii, Syngenta Hawaii, Hawaii Farmers Union United, and five individuals.

     Your Committee finds that a Hawaii Good Agricultural Practices Program helps to fulfill the mandate of the Hawaii State Constitution to preserve and protect agricultural resources and will assist small farms to develop science- and risk-based good agricultural practices to reasonably reduce the potential for on-farm food-borne illnesses by providing education and compliance certification programs.

     Your Committee further finds that the Program will aid farmers with compliance under the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011, which authorizes the Food and Drug Administration to set minimum criteria for preventing food-borne illnesses, once Hawaii farmers come under the authority of the Act.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by inserting an effective date of January 1, 2112, to encourage further discussion.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Agriculture that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 573, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 573, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

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

________________________________

RUSSELL E. RUDERMAN, Chair