STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2521

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2935

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism and Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 2935 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO COMPOSTING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate moneys to the Agribusiness Development Corporation for the creation of a composting program.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Agribusiness Development Corporation, Hawaiʻi Farm Bureau, Hawaiʻi Food+ Policy, Climate Protectors Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi Reef and Ocean Coalition, and two individuals.

Your Committees find that the establishment of a composting program would provide a range of environmental benefits that include strengthening sustainable, local food production by using locally generated food waste and other organic materials to create compost, reducing trash in landfills, supporting water conservation, and promoting soil health by increasing the nutrient content and biodiversity of microbes in the soil. This measures establishes a composting program to strengthen the agricultural sector in the State and reduce the cost of production for local farmers.

Your Committees have amended this measure by inserting an effective date of January 1, 2060, to encourage further discussion.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism and Agriculture and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2935, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2935, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism and Agriculture and Environment,

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

________________________________ LYNN DECOITE, Chair