House Standing Committee on Agriculture & Food Systems

One.

Aloha kakahiaka kakou, happy Aloha Friday welcome to the hearing for the House Committee on Agriculture and Food Systems. Today is Friday, March 14, 2025 and we're here for our 10:00 am hearing notice and we're convening in room 325 at the Hawaii State Capitol.

I'm Kirsten Kahaloa, Chair of this Committee, and with me this morning, bright and early on a Friday, is Vice Chair Kush and Representative Perruso. Maybe it's not early for others, but it is for some. Before we get started, I'm going to go over some brief housekeeping roles.

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So first on our agenda today is Senate Bill 1185 SD1 relating to agriculture. Establishes within the Department of Agriculture a working group to review and make recommendations on amending or appealing unnecessary or obsolete laws pertaining to agriculture. Requires a report first to testify this morning is Hawaii Department of Agriculture.

Happy Aloha Friday Chair, Vice Chair, Member of the Committee. Cedric Gates here on behalf of the Department of Agriculture. The Department stands on its written comments on this measure. We have some concerns, but we're here for any questions. Mahalo.

Hawaii Farm Bureau.

Thank you Chair. The Hawaii Farm Bureau stands on its testimony in support.

And support Hawaii Cattlemen's Council via Zoom thank you.

Chair, Vice Chair, Rep. Perruso. We stand on our - Nicole Galassi on behalf of the Hawaii Cattlemen's Council - we stand on our testimony in support.

Thank you very much. We have Hawaii Agricultural Research Center in support. Land Use Research foundation of Hawaii in support. Purple Maya foundation in support. East Oahu County Farm Bureau in support...

...and Hawaii Farmers Union in support. Are they virtual today? No. And several individual testifiers in support. So in total, 13 in support and one with comments.

Would anyone else wish to testify in this measure? Members, any questions? Seeing none. We're going to move on to our next measure, SB 1582, relating to the coconut tree. Recognizes the coconut palm as the official sustainable staple food source in the state. First to testify is DLNR.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Committee Member. I'm Rob Hoff from Department of Land Natural Resources and the Department supports this Bill and are available for questions.

Thank you. Next, we have Hawaii Farm Bureau.

Morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. I know it's only one Member, but I think the others are watching. So, Members of the Committee, Brian Miyamoto here on behalf of the Hawaii Farm Bureau. You have our written testimony in support. We are absolutely in support of recognizing coconut palm as an official staple food source.

However, coconut or...will impact our ability to recognize this as a food source. So, we are proposing, or we'd like to ask, it's not in our testimony, but a friendly amendment, if we could provide some funding allocation so that we can assist in achieving our desire to have coconut palm as an official food source.

But be mindful that we need to address coconut or...so we asked for an amendment and asked for a allocation and some funding in this Bill. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you. Next, we have Purple Maya Foundation in support, Hawaii Farmers Union in support, and an individual testimony in support. Would anyone else wish to testify in this measure? Members, any questions?

I believe I have a question, and I just need to find my place in the Bill, maybe for DLNR, since I do not have testimony from the Department of Ag. Quick, quick question, quick question. In the Bill, since they are, you know, recognizing the coconut palm, but they are focusing on the food source.

You know, we've been considering just adding, of adding to the Bill, especially the preamble, just the focus on all the things you mentioned in your testimony about the important reasons for this plan.

So, do you think there's any other things we need to put in to kind of make that acknowledgement, to talk about all the important reasons this plant is important, versus just this Bill does kind of lean into the food importance only?

Sure. I think that, yeah, it's definitely important to recognize the cultural significance of this plant that was brought here by the Polynesians. I don't know if this place in Department of Ag's regulations is the right place to do that. I would defer to them on that.

We don't have any regulations pertaining to coconut trees, but we do certainly have community programs that work with communities and educate people on the cultural values of the coconut tree.

Perfect. And do you, do you know if DLNR has any seed banking or plant nursery related specifically to coconut reproduction or outplanting?

Sure. We actually do have a project funded through the Federal Government right now, through USDA.

And we've hired somebody who's working with communities and going around and looking at these historical coconut groves and trying to genetically preserve them and to make sure that we don't lose these different varieties that were brought by the Polynesians and have cultural significance because some of these areas have been kind of forgotten. So, it's, it's an exciting project, and.

Is that—does that happen to be under your division or?

Yes, it does.

Is there more resourcing that is needed to provide support? Especially since you said federal program, just kind of clarifying what that support might look like because.

Yeah, to kind of effectuate the importance of what the statute is trying to do, we are seeing—how do we also then protect from CRB, whether it is hopefully to protect our ancient and historical and cultural significant trees in special locations, but also, just looking at opportunities for a replacement program if trees are just infested and need to be replaced.

Yeah. I can get back to you. Our Urban and Community Forestry Manager who oversees that project couldn't be here today. She's on a neighbor island, but she oversees that. And that I believe that project is funded through the IRA Program.

And that's the kolunani...no?

Yes, Kokolunani. So, we can—it would be great to get some state funding for that program because the federal funds are certainly in jeopardy right now and unlikely to be renewed.

Perfect. Thank you so much. Members, any questions? Seeing none. Do you have a question?

No.

Okay. Are you sure?

Yeah. You asked them all.

Okay. We are going to go on to the next measure. SB140 SD2, relating to invasive species. Prohibits the importation, transportation or sale of firewood within the state except for firewood that is certified and labeled as heat treated. First to testify on this measure is DLNR.

Good morning. Rob Hoff again with DLNR. This Bill is a little bit closer to the area that I work in and have more expertise in. So I'm a little bit more comfortable speaking to this one and just want to, you know, stand on our strong- our testimony in strong support.

This is something that came to our attention over five years ago when USDA dropped their quarantine on firewood on the mainland for emerald ash borer. And a lot of states. So after that it was upon states to really regulate firewood going between states.

And most states at this point have developed regulations to require heat treatment for firewood moving between states. Hawaii doesn't have this. And what most people don't realize is that we actually do import firewood. We don't have statistics on how much and what percentage of that is heat treated.

We do know that non heat treated firewood comes into the state and is sometimes infested with insects and pests. And so passing this Bill would close what might be a small but important gap in our biosecurity. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Hawaii Department of Agriculture.

Aloha Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Cedric Gates on behalf of the Department of Agriculture. The Department stands on its written testimony offering comments on this measure and supporting the intent. And I call up my chair on the previous measure. The Department also wants to voice its support for that measure. And we'll get some testimony to you as well. Thank you. Mahalo.

Thank you. Hawaii Invasive Species Council.

Aloha Chair, Vice Chair, Representative Peruso. Chelsea Arnott on behalf of the Hawaii Invasive Species Council. Similar to the testimony of Department of Land and Natural Resources. We're in support of this support the purpose, but how it happens doesn't really matter.

I know Department of Agriculture has comments on the pathway and how to do this, but we just support the purpose reflected in Department of Land and Natural Resources testimony. Mahalo.

Thank you. Next we have CGAPS Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species.

Good morning Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. My name is Stephanie Easley with the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. You have our written testimony which talks about everyone knows firewood's a high risk pass pathway.

It has bark. Often the tree dies and whatever killed the tree is still within the tree. We recognize that HDOA suggests that the requirements for heat treatment be in their administrative rules instead of in statute. We feel that HDOA needs the Legislature's help to adopt these requirements. They have been working on this actively since 2020, maybe 2019.

They had the head of the Don't Move Firewood group address the their prevention EDR working group back in 2020. Maybe that led to the creation of a task group in 2021 that collected photos of firewood that was for sale within the state to identify stakeholders. They did an informal telephone survey of people.

That task group included National Park Service, US Forest Service, DLNR, and others trying to figure out how to get these administrative rules rolling. They had a meeting for stakeholders in 20- or a couple meetings for stakeholders in 2022. And the text of the administrative rule at that time was similar to this text.

And they just because of capacity issues, I believe they mentioned in their testimony they want these protections for forest and trees, but they just don't have the capacity to do it. And it's like a two page rule or regulation. And if it's in statute, then they can start enforcing it.

If they put it in their administrative rules it's going to have to go in this really long chapter that relates to plants. It has 16 subchapters, most of which are from pre-1981. It's going to be a very heavy lift to get that chapter so that it could go through the rulemaking process. And I think that's probably what's hung it up.

And so five years they've been trying really hard. And I hope that you'll support this effort to help them out and get this enacted into law. Thank you and I'm here if you have any questions.

Thank you. Next we have County of Maui Mayor's office in support. Hawaii Forest Industry Association in support. And two individuals in support. Would anyone else wish to testify in this measure? Members, any questions? Yes, Vice Chair Kusch.

Thank you, Chair. For CGAPS. In your testimony you mentioned about forests, but we've mostly been talking about bugs that have been in the firewood. Is there other pathogens that get imported in firewood? You know, of course when you said forest, I thought of ROD. And so is there any other?

There are. And I'm not going to try to with the scientific name. The one that comes to mind is these shot borers, which are an Ambrosia beetle fungus complex, which maybe brings to mind ROD. Ambrosia beetle we don't have here in the state. It's widespread in Southern California and it's killing avocado trees and many other trees.

We really don't want that and those shot borers and that complex to come here is not here yet. And this is the regulation that would protect, you know, that dead wood from coming into Hawaii as firewood.

Wow. Okay. Thank you.

Members, any other questions? I have one for the Department of Agriculture. Thank you Jonathan. If you could just explain in your testimony the reason to look at administrative roues versus the HRS and why maybe we should or should not go with that opportunity.

Yeah, yeah, not a problem. So Jonathan Ho, Plant Quarantine Branch Manager. Yeah. So, you know, I guess I'm of the belief that administrative or a lot of the regulation should be placed into the rules just because if there's a change that is necessary, it can be done without going through the legislate the Legislature. There's no question that.

We could have, you know, doing it quicker is always the intent. And I think like as the folks from DLNR and CGAPS said, right. It is a lift. There's no question. And having dedicated resources to not necessarily just do, I think this one particular rule, I mean, or regulation. I think others like CGAPS said, right.

A lot of the regulations are old. If we had dedicated resources specifically for rulemaking, because a lot of the risks are dynamic, they change over time and we're always playing catch up. And having, I think people dedicated for this particular function, I think would eliminate this. So this is, I guess, like chicken and an egg.

You could do it legislatively and obviously we would have to get out and do all the, all the inspection statewide for it and or you know, waiting, which is I think again a different challenge to the extent of the possibility of, of something being introduced in firewood.

And it's not, thankfully, thankfully, it's not a very large importation, at least from what we've seen. We don't, we haven't done a lot of work on it, but it's generally used as a, what do you call it, like a draw to buy other things, generally speaking.

So like a lot of the stores that do bring it in, it's on a store by store basis based on their location on the island, for example, like, so if they're in a colder area, they will bring it, but the stores that are in a not colder or in a warmer area just don't have it at all.

So it's very, it's very regionalized generally with the exception of like the big boxes where they kind of just everything goes to everywhere.

Jonathan, I don't know if you can speak to this, but can the Department effectuate - because I think there's urgency because of invasive species - effectuate something like this quicker via HRS or administrative rules?

Because I think, I think, I think that's why there's a feeling that it should be in law to ensure that not only does it get prioritized, it happens. But can administrative rules be effectuated quicker per se? Or no?

Yeah, the rulemaking process, I mean, so like, so for example, like if we were to pick up what we did before, we would have to go...it would probably take two to three months before you got it approved. Preliminary, preliminarily approved by the Board of Agriculture. We'd have to then go to the Governor for approval for public hearing. You had to wait 30 days public hearing.

Then you'd have to do the Hearing Officer's report and then back to the Board and then to the Governor for final approval. When the Governor approves it and then implementation 10 days later after filing with the lieutenant governor's office.

So in a perfect world that would probably be six to eight months. The Department has done rules quickly.

I think the fastest we've ever done was I think it was nine months for Rapid Ohi'a Death. But that one we had an advantage in that we implemented interim rules. So we were able to restrict before, while the rulemaking was happening.

And Rapid Ohi'a Death generally had a very strong consensus in terms of the regulation once we kind of clarified a few things particularly as it related to soil. So I think, yeah, I think to the extent of speeding it up, obviously legislatively would be quicker.

There's no question because presumably the Governor would sign this in June and we'd be off to the races and doing it. And yeah.

Members, any questions? Seeing none. We're going to move on to the next measure, SB 1304, SD 2, relating to pesticide drift monitoring. Appropriates funds to the Department of Agriculture to continue the Statewide Pesticide Drift Monitoring Study. First to testify on this measure is Hawaii Department of Agriculture.

Aloha, Chair. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. The Department of Agriculture stands on testimony in strong support of this. Here for any questions. Mahalo.

Thank you. Next, we have the University of Hawaii System in support. Office of Hawaiian Affairs providing comments. The County of Maui in support. Hawaii Farm Bureau.

Thank you, Chair. The Hawaii Farm Bureau stands on its written testimony in support.

Thank you very much. It's, it's so wonderful to see you today. Hawaii Farmers Union in support. Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action with comments and Clayton Kubo via Zoom? Not present, in support, and several others in support. Would anyone else wish to testify in this measure? Seeing none. Members, questions? Seeing none.

We are going to move on to our next measure. Next, is SB 301, SD 1, relating to dogs. Establishes an additional penalty for a dog owner whose dog destroys property while on land zoned for agricultural use. First to testify on this measure is Hawaii Farm Bureau.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, Representative Perruso. Brian Miyamoto, here on behalf of the Hawaii Farm Bureau. You have our written testimony in support. We just wanted to clarify that this proposed new language only applies to dogs on agricultural land. Again, it's already in statute, Chapter 142. So, it's just adding an additional monetary fine up to $1,000.

So, again, we want to make sure that the Legislature understood or others may be watching that this is strengthening our ag crimes laws, and it is up to $1,000 for basically any damage to the personal and business property of the farmer rancher. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you. Next, we have Hawaii Cattlemen's Council.

Thank you. Nicole, on behalf of the Hawaii Cattlemen's Council. So, the issue—we stand on our testimony in support—the issue of loose dogs on pastures has been an issue for many years and this isn't just a harmless thing.

The dogs have been known to physically attack livestock and even if they don't attack the livestock, they cause stress to the animals, which ranchers are always working to reduce for the wellbeing of their herds. So, thank you for considering this measure. Mahalo.

Thank you. We also had testimony from Ponaholo Ranch in support and several individuals in in support. One in opposition and one with comments. Would anyone else wish to testify on this measure? Seeing none. Members, questions? Seeing none. We're going to move on to our final measure on today's agenda, SB 1022, SD 2, relating to animal endangerment.

Allows law enforcement officers, animal control officers, and firefighters to enter an unattended vehicle to protect the health, safety, or wellbeing of a pet animal that is endangered by being left or confined in an unintended vehicle. Allows private citizens to rescue a pet animal that has been also left unattended under certain circumstances.

First to testify is Hawaii Police Department via Zoom, in opposition, and not present. Animal Rights Hawaii, in support. AAA Hawaii, in support. Animal Legal Defense Fund, in support, and several individuals in support. Would anyone else wish to testify on this measure? Seeing none. Members, questions? Seeing none. We're going to take recess before decision making. Thank you.

Aloha.

We're reconvening the hearing on Agriculture and Food Systems on our 10:00 AM agenda on Friday, March 14th, and moving into decision making. First measure, decision making, is SB 1185, SD 1, relating to agriculture. We're going to create a House Draft 1 and redefect the date to July 1, 3000. We will make tech amendments for clarity, consistency, and style.

And I do want to take the Hawaii Farmers Union amendment recommendation, only their first recommendation, and that was Section 2-C, which focuses on amendments to the working group and the focus of the working group. So, I think it would be good to maybe broaden, broaden or narrow, put more focus on clarity for that.

And we want to note the appropriation amount and need in the Standing Committee Report. Members, any questions? Concerns? Seeing none. Vice Chair for the vote.

[Roll Call]

Thank you, Vice Chair. Moving on to SB 1582, relating to the coconut tree. We're going to do a little bit more work on this. I think we do want to add some funding to the Agroforestry Program in DLNR to hopefully strengthen their program to protect our important coconut trees.

So, just want to make sure we have the language right and the statute is now in the right place. So, we're going to do some adjustments. So, I want to defer DM to—oh gosh, I didn't pick the date.

Wednesday, Wednesday, March 19th agenda, at 10:01 AM. So, we're going to defer that measure to just strengthen some language before taking a vote on that. Moving on to SB 140, SD 2, relating to invasive species. We are going to create a House Draft 1 and redefect the date to 7-1-3000. Make technical amendments for clarity, consistency, and style.

I do want to make note that—we do want to make sure that if this were to move forward, that it does go in statute because we know the need is there and therefore, we want to make it move quickly.

Although admin roles can be helpful, there's still some invasive file security admin roles that the Department still needs to effectuate that were already placed in law. So, we don't want to put undue burden to add to that queue. So, we want to notate that in our Committee Report, as well. Members, questions, concerns?

We're—Vice Chair for the vote, please.

[Roll Call]

Thank you, Vice Chair. Moving on to SB 1304, SD 2, relating to pesticide drift monitoring. This is a Gov package request an admin Bill. So, we do want to work on a House Draft 1, redefect the date to 7-1-3000. Make technical amendments for clarity, consistency, and style.

We do want to take Hawaii Department of Agriculture's amendment related to the annual report, as well as take OHA's amendments to use an external consultant and note the appropriation amount in the Committee report. Members, questions? Seeing none. Vice Chair for the vote.

Quick comment. You know, my district is heavily impacted by the use of pesticides and I really appreciate your work to strengthen this measure.

Thank you for your comments. Members, any further comments? Seeing none. Vice Chair for the vote.

[Roll Call]

Thank you, Vice Chair. SB 301, SD 1, relating to dogs. We are going to create a House Draft 1 and redefect the date to July 1, 3000, and make technical amendments for clarity, consistency, and style. Members, any questions? I think we're ready. Vice Chair for the vote.

[Roll Call]

Thank you. Moving to SB 1022, SD 2, relating to animal endangerment. We would like to move this Bill forward and create a House Draft 1. Redefect the date to July 1, 3000, and make technical amendments for clarity, consistency, and style. Members, any questions or concerns? And on that note, we will move to vote. Vice Chair.

[Roll Call]

Thank you, Vice Chair. Thank you, Members, and to those who testified today. There's no further business on our agenda. We are adjourned.