STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1060

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: H.B. No. 353

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Water, Land, and Agriculture, to which was referred H.B. No. 353, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR ORGANIC AGRICULTURE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to provide Waianae Organic Agriculture Center with half of its operational expenses.

The Department of Agriculture, the University of Hawaii Leeward Community College and College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, Big Island Farm Bureau, Hawaii Farm Bureau, Respiratory and Environmental Disabilities Association of Hawaii, and ten individuals submitted testimony in support of this measure.

Your Committee finds that the Waianae region of Oahu suffers from poor food security, making the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods limited or uncertain. Thus, this measure will promote and support the improvement of the Waianae community's food security by linking higher education, applied research, and organic food production together for a more secure future.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting the amount of the appropriation and has left it blank for determination by the Committee on Ways and Means; and

(2) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050 to facilitate further discussion on this measure.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water, Land, and Agriculture that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 353, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 353, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

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

____________________________

RUSSELL S. KOKUBUN, Chair