STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1313-24

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2024

RE: S.B. No. 2159

S.D. 2

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Agriculture & Food Systems and Water & Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 2159, S.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FOOD SUSTAINABILITY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Require the Department of Agriculture, in coordination with the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development, to prepare and periodically update the State Agriculture Functional Plan to include other agricultural economic updates, including aquaculture, that expand the State's priority on food by including freshwater and saltwater aquatic organisms as a viable food source; and

(2) Require the Governor to submit the updated plan to the Legislature prior to the Regular Session of 2026.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs; Office of Planning and Sustainable Development; Maui Phoenix Farms LLC dba Maui Trout Company; Hawaii Aquaculture and Aquaponics Association; Hawaiʻi Farm Bureau; Hawaiʻi Farmers Union United; The Nature Conservancy, Hawaiʻi and Palmyra; Chamber of Commerce Hawaii; and one individual. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Agriculture.

Your Committees find that since the last update to the State's Agricultural Functional Plan in 1991, Hawaii's agriculture industry has undergone immense diversification and expanded beyond a predominantly plantation-based agricultural sector. An emerging segment within Hawaii's agriculture industry is aquaculture, which involves the use of aquatic systems to harvest fish and other animal products. This measure ensures that updates to the State's Agricultural Functional Plan will provide guidance on the development of the aquaculture industry and the ways in which it can support food and nutrition security within the State.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Requiring the Department of Agriculture, in coordination with the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development, to produce a report on freshwater and saltwater aquatic organisms prior to updating the State Agriculture Functional Plan and applying the proposed elements of the updated State Agriculture Functional Plan to the report instead;

(2) Adding as an element of the report research and monitoring, performed in collaboration with Native Hawaiian organizations of the impacts that expanding aquacultural markets may have on Hawaii's traditional and customary fishing practices and the State's ocean ecosystems;

(3) Requiring the Department of Agriculture, rather than the Governor, to submit the first report, rather than the updated State Agriculture Functional Plan, to the Legislature prior to the Regular Session of 2026;

(4) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

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

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Agriculture & Food Systems and Water & Land that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2159, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2159, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Agriculture & Food Systems and Water & Land,

____________________________ LINDA ICHIYAMA, Chair

____________________________ CEDRIC ASUEGA GATES, Chair