STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2381

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2159

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 Agriculture and Environment and Water and Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 2159 entitled:

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

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent 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 Agricultural Functional Plan to include other agricultural updates that expand the State's priority on food by including wild seafood 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 Agribusiness Development Corporation, Office of Planning and Sustainable Development, Agriculture and Food Security Committee of the Environmental Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi Farm Bureau, and three individuals.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Agriculture, Hawaii Food Industry Association, and one individual.

Your Committees find that since the State Agriculture Functional Plan was last updated in 1991, Hawaii's agricultural industry has significantly grown and diversified to include flowers and nursery products, vegetables, fruits, forest products, cacao, coffee, and aquaculture. Your Committees further find that Hawaii's aquaculture industry continues to be one of the fastest-growing segments of Hawaii agriculture and has become an important source of food and other products for local sale and export. Your Committees also find that updating the State Agricultural Functional Plan would provide guidance on developing the aquaculture industry and support food sustainability in the State. This measure will therefore support food and nutrition security in the State.

According to testimony received by your Committees, the Department of Agriculture has no authority to set policy, establish objectives, or enforce action on seafood sustainability. In addition, the Department's expertise and regulatory authority with regards to fish and seafood is limited to net-pen aquaculture and other farm-raised seafood.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Replacing references to "seafood sustainability" with "aquaculture" and "wild seafood" with "freshwater and saltwater aquatic organisms";

(2) Amending section 1 to reflect its amended purpose; and

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

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

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Water and Land,

________________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair