Senate Standing Committee on Agriculture and Environment

Hello, my kako and good afternoon. Mahalo for joining today's AEN hearing. It's Wednesday, March 4, 2026 and we're convened in room 224. And also video conferencing which includes audio and video remote participants that's being streamed live on YouTube.

So in the unlikely event that this hearing is cut short, the Committee will reconvene to discuss any outstanding business on Friday, March 6th at 3pm During a time slot. And a public notice will be posted on the legislature's website. So we have 1, 2, 3, 4 GMs today, governor's messages.

And we'll start off with Governor's message 6:15 submitting for consideration and confirmation to the Advisory Committee on Pesticides gubernatorial nominee Matthew Lyum for a term to expire June 30, 2029. First up to testify is Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity. Yeah. Hello Sharon.

Chair Gabbard, Vice Chair Richards, Member Rhodes. Sharon Hurd, Department of Agriculture Biosecurity standing on our submitted testimony in support of Matthew Lyum . The Pesticides branch appreciates his service in the past year and would greatly appreciate your confirmation, your confirmation of his second term. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next is Christy Martin with CGAPS.

Aloha, Chair Gabbard, Vice Chair Richards Member Rhodes. Christy Martin, Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, CGAPS. CGAPS is in strong support of Matt Lyum . We've worked with him for a number of years on the Landscape Industry Council of Hawaii Board. He's been a board Member for a number of years.

He's currently the President and doing great work with that organization, increasing awareness. He's also the co founder of Performance Landscapes, one of the most respected landscape companies in Hawaii and recently retired from that. So he's got time on his hands. You should put him to work some more. So please, please support his confirmation. Mahalo. Thank you, Christy.

Next is Brian Miyamoto from Hawaii Farm Bureau.

Hawaii Farm Bureau will stand on a written testimony and support.

Thank you, Brian. Anyone else wishing to testify on GM615? We have 11 in support and 0 opposed and no comments. And let's see. And is Matthew here online?

He is here.

Okay, there he is. Aloha, Matthew. Would you like to make a statement?

No, just I appreciate you confirming me or testifying for me. I'm not sure I need that much work, Christy. But thanks for that last comment. I am willing and able to help more so I appreciate it.

Okay, Members, any questions for Matthew or for the testifiers? Yeah, good for Matthew.

Senator Richards, thank you, Mr. Lyum . Thanks. Really appreciate you throwing your name in the hat. Understand you need a lot more work since you're now retired. Talk to me a little bit about Australia, your consulting down there.

Wow, that was a long time ago. My degree and my first part of my career was in aquaculture, so I managed shrimp farms on Molokai and Kahuku, and I got hired to consult for a sheep station down there that was getting into aquaculture.

Okay. And I see you went to school at University of Washington, correct? Go dog. I'm a cougar.

Oh, sorry about that. We're both Seahawks fans, I hope.

Actually you handled that response quite well. No, I appreciate the concern and see you have a restricted use. Restricted use pesticide license. That is a area. How do you approach that when it comes to the use of restricted pesticides? Because reading through your resume, we have the.

We have to balance between use of pesticides and non use of pesticides. So what's your approach on that?

That's a great question. And actually, in 25 years running my landscape company, we actually didn't use any restricted use pesticides. I went for that license primarily for the education side.

And I applied the protocols applied to restricted use applicators to all my pesticide applicators, including EPA handler and worker training, logging every pesticide and fertilizer that we use, location, if appropriate, EPA registration number. So I actually tried to avoid, and I did avoid using restricted use pesticides for landscaping, but I used all the practices that they required.

Okay, thank you. Thanks. Chair.

A question. Matthew, what are your thoughts on the pesticide buffer zones around schools, parks and healthcare facilities?

I think that would be, from what I know of it, is it only restricted use pesticides or all pesticides? Do you know what the buffer zone Includes?

I'm not 100% sure, but just what? Yeah, just in general.

In general, I would depend on location of the school to whatever the nearest facility is that is requiring the use of the pesticide, what the pesticide's for, what pesticide it is. I'm getting my house tented, you know, in a month. And I would be.

I'm not near school, but I would be bummed out if I couldn't tent my house because I was in a buffer zone. So I guess it would depend on the circumstance.

Okay. All right, thank you very much.

Thank you.

And moving on to the next GM. It's GM616 submitting for consideration and confirmation to the Board of Agriculture and biosecurity gubernatorial nominee En Young term to expire June 30, 2029. And first up is dad.

Thank you again, Chair. Vice Chair Member Rhodes. Sharon Hurd, Department of Agriculture Biosecurity Chairperson.

Regarding En Young, I've had the pleasure of knowing en for a few years, but he has been in decision making roles for 18 years and he's one of the few nominees or Member of the Board of Agriculture and Biosecurity that would have experience with Lanai Agriculture.

He served as general manager for Sensei and since then their product has been appearing in all the supermarkets and the packaging is really quite nice. So he's done a good job with Lanai Aggregate. He's also got experience at the Food Basket on the nonprofit side. Food safety is big and he's got experience there.

So I guess what I'm saying is Pacific Gateway center is part of his resume and he's now with Director at Kamehameha Schools. His experience is vast and deep and statewide he would be a really good. He has been and will continue to be an asset to the Board of Agriculture Biosecurity.

Greatly appreciate your consideration in confirming him as a Member. Thank you. Thank you, Sharon.

Next is Brian Miyamoto, Hawaii Farm Bureau.

Thank you, Chair, Vice Chair, Member Rhodes. Brian Miyamoto, here on behalf of the Hawaii Farm Bureau. We have strong concerns.

That his term is not long enough. We absolutely support it. And in fact, I was just going to stand, but here in the chair talk about Sensei Ag and Food Basket. Our testimony references Kamehameha Schools and he's doing an amazing job with institution Purchasing. Pacific Gateway and I serve with him on the Sidney County's AG Task Force.

That in itself is just broad background that we need for Department Agriculture involved security. So I want to come up here and show. Show our strong support for Mr. Young to continue the great work that he's doing. And the Farm View is in strong support of this nominee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you. Next is Nicole Galase from Hawaii Cattlemen's Council on Zoom.

Thank you, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, Nicole Galase. On behalf of the Hawaii Cattleman's Council, we support this confirmation. Mr. Young has proven his ability to contribute meaningfully to the board in his first term, and he has a wide breadth of knowledge about agriculture and its supporting industries in Hawaii. Mahalo.

Thank you, Nicole. Anyone else wishing to testify on GM 616? Okay. Do we have Mr. Young on Zoom? Nope, we have him in right here. Okay.

It's because I comb my hair, I think. Huh? Jack Average Vice Chair Richards. Member Rhodes. Good to see you folks. I did submit a written statement that you know, your guys job is to vet us. So I'm more than happy to be here for you folks to answer any questions and give you a chance to kick tires.

Okay, Members, any questions?

Yep, here it comes.

This is kind of funny because I'm in and I are friends so. I know but. And talk to me a little bit about asensei on. Sure. Lanai. Because I'm curious about that. And one of your statements in there was you were able to do things quickly to scale because you had the financial backing to get it done.

That is true. You guys may know that Manaya has a single owner with quite a bit of capital and you know, he wanted to get things done.

And so it's not necessarily that budgets went out the window but you know, for us we were given a real opportunity to dream the big dream, you know, lay out exactly what that would take and you know, use his name, Mr. Ellison. He's a businessman as well. Right. So you know, he held our feet to the fire.

We put together a scaled hydroponics plan. I mean I think still it's, it's the largest in the state and the only, the only farm that you know, didn't really grow organically in terms of. Not organics, but growing in terms of, you know, I started with one acre, I moved to two acres, I moved to three acres.

You know, we went full bore, you know, straight to scale. And that was made possible not only through the support of Mr. Ellison, but you know, really the support of the community looking for an alternative to hospitality for sure. So you know that, that ability to move was facilitated by capital for sure.

You know, without the money you can't do it. But really you know, there were these, a number of other elements that came together to be able to, to move that project forward.

The reason I asked that when it caught my interest was we collectively as government, sometimes nonprofits award grants to get somebody started. But I've always worried that we give them enough to sort of break the Ayes, but not enough to be successful.

Yeah.

And so they don't fail because of lack of interest or lack of good idea, but we under capitalize them, which is almost a slow death. And so Board of Ag, you got programs, grant programs. How would you approach that given your experience?

Yeah, I think it's two sided. Right. So you know, on the, on the governmental side and you know I've been in government, we try to run lean and you know There's a certain set of strings that come attached to whatever that funding is. On the private side with Mr. Ellison, obviously those strings were different.

They're still present, but they were different. And making sure that in a capital stack that has private funding, government funding and maybe some debt or those kinds of things, that those strings don't get in the way of each other and stop that money from really facilitating the outcome we're trying to get to.

And then I think on the farmer side as well, a lot of us, I think just personally, we don't like to take on debt. Right.

So it's kind of running lean on the funding side, that running lean mindset on the funding side, but also on the folks who are getting the capital, they're afraid to ask for that operating expenses, they're afraid to ask for cushion to run their business. They think like, zero, all I need is this tractor.

And of a sudden is, you know, the world's going to open up. But you know, as you guys know, farming one acre is not like farming two acres, is not like farming five acres. You know, it's not double the work, it's 67 times the work. Right.

You know, labor, once you start getting employees, all those things, so, you know, it needs to be two sided.

One on the government side, you know, do we have employees that have farming experience that are going to understand where the wiggle room is, they're going to understand the business model and be able to help, especially new farmers, understand that maybe your assumptions should be a little larger in certain areas.

And if not, then how can we incentivize or train our workers to have a little bit of that?

And then on the farm side, it's really making sure that they understand when they do receive the funding, one, what the strings are, what that allows them to do operationally and really get them to a place where their business model is going to work within those constraints.

Okay, follow up. Sure, sure. You get your MBA at Scheidler's. Years ago, Jay Shidler and I were talking and he asked me to explain to him agribusiness, business and agriculture. And after we talked for a little while, he said, so what I'm understanding is agriculture is your way to get rich real, real slowly.

Given that mba, do you see how we can accelerate income streams in agriculture?

Yeah, I think so. You know, my General goal, now that I've been exposed to kind of their world of technology and you know, understanding a little bit more about what, how we can apply different techniques to agriculture. So B, being a Hawaiian. And also being at KS is understanding, you know, there's intensive agriculture and there's extensive agriculture.

Right. And so extensively, what are the natives, what are the crops? What are the crops that are going to support habitat for our native birds, our native bugs and all that kind of thing, because that's also a bio control.

And then on the intensive side, all the things we want to eat that are not from here, lettuce and tomatoes. I forget what I told Robbie Halm. I told him a number of years ago, really, lettuce and tomatoes are invasive species. They're taking up space that, you know, things that could do better for us here could occupy.

And so, you know, on that side, trying to intensify those crops with high, you know, better technology, decreasing the footprint and increasing output at the same time, I think, you know, those are good, high paying jobs. Right. And then on the other side, one, we reduce, on the extensive side, we reduce our outlays for those biocontrols.

You know, we create those conservation jobs and we get people back on the land.

So that's the overall goal piece. And then, you know, in terms of supporting acceleration in AG, I mean, some of the crops are orchard and stuff like that. You know, it's going to take time and it takes time to, to rebuild your herd and that kind of thing.

But there are ways, I mean, you know, financial instruments, forward contracts, you know, those kinds of things have been used for years in other industries. Right. So if it is an issue of cash flow, you know, to the farmer and having that as an accelerant, I think there are financial instruments that, you know, we're playing around with.

We're playing around with at the food basket, using SNAP and some of the other federal funding streams to try to get, you know, those monies into the hands of farmers that, you know, we're still playing with. Right. Double bucks.

Yeah, I was mostly the double bucks thing that you worked on.

Yeah. So, you know, I think that the tools are there and we've been trying, you know, a bunch of them for a while. So, you know, it's a good time to go mainstream.

Okay, thank you. Thank you, Cair. Okay.

So Mr. Young, what is your, from your perspective, how can the board strengthen. Help strengthen Hawaii's food security?

Oh, well, I mean, there's a myriad of ways for sure. You know, I think start from the top. Yeah, yeah. I think the highest level one is really making ag land productive. Right. And I think, you know, for all of us, we understand what AG is not.

You know, we go and say, well, this guy's on five acres and he's got one horse, right? That's. That's not AG. But we're having a harder time saying what. What AG is. And I've seen some of the bills floating around saying, okay, you know, DAB is going to be the arbiter of what bonafide farming is.

And that's a sticky conversation, but, you know, our responsibility as board members is to represent the public. Go out there, continue to listen, continue to see what folks are doing, bring that to the board, and, you know, make room not only for what is there, but for, you know, some of the newer models.

And then, you know, Brian mentioned we're on the city and county ag task force, and, you know, they're looking at real property assessment. And what are the enforcement tools that we haven't been using to disincentivize that?

Because I think, you know, if we're making productive, productive use of all our AG lands, we'd actually be in pretty good shape.

Okay. All right. Anything else? Thank you very much. Thank you. Moving on to GM617, submitting for consideration and confirmation to the Board of Ag and Biosecurity, gubernatorial nominee Jason Moniz return to expire June 3rd 30th, 2029. Okay, first up is DAB.

Good afternoon again, Sharon Hurd, Department of Agriculture Biosecurity, Chairperson. You know, I've known. I've worked at the Department for 20 years, and that is nothing like the amount of time that Dr. Moniz has worked there.

He started off his career as an AG as state President for 4H, moved on to other roles of agricultural importance and retired in 2022 to go back to his ranch.

And we were lucky enough to tease him out of retirement to come back and serve us as the veterinarian that he is and bring that knowledge to the board. Ranching, the knowledge that he brings, especially with the disease side, is so vitally important today. It's almost essential with.

Just got an email today that the fifth case of screwworm was found in Mexico. You know, five cases, five new cases. And someone with the experience that Dr. Moniz has is essential to keep the board apprised of the impacts of what would happen if scrum.

So with that, I would greatly appreciate again if the board, the board of sorry, AEN would then consider confirming Dr. Moniz as a Member of the Board of Agriculture and Biosecurity. Thank you.

Thank you, Sharon. And by the way, on the last one of GM616, there were seven in support as far as testifier. Zero opposed and zero comments. Moving on, Brian Miyamoto back to GM617 Hawaii Farm Bureau.

Thank you Chair, Vice Chair, Member Rhodes, Brian Miyamoto here on behalf of the Hawaii Farm Bureau, it is our pleasure to offer our strong support for the confirmation of Dr. Moniz. You heard heard the chair talk about his background and he has the background, hasn't been there in 30 years with Dab. He's got the experience.

Fourth generation agriculturalist, currently a rancher. He's engaged. You heard her mention 4H. But also Hawaii Cattlemen's Council, even the Hawaii Farm Bureau. He's very thoughtful in decision making and he's not afraid of hard work. I think he's a. He's a great nominee. He'll offer his skill set to the board.

And on a personal note, Dr. Moniz has been very engaged in the recent Act 90 deliberations and our efforts to get those DLNR lands over to the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity. He was one of those lessees. He was one of those leases. Once this was transferred, he didn't stop. He. His efforts were even doubled.

He wants to see all his other fellow ranchers and agriculturalists. So again, his efforts are for the industry as a whole and not for himself and his operation specifically. So again, great candidate, great skill set and we are in strong support of this nominee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you, Brian. Nicole Galase from Hawaii Cattlemen Councilor

Thank you, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, Nicole Galase on behalf of the Hawaii Cattlemen's Council, we offer our strong support for Dr. Moniz. He. He provides a valuable skill set to the board. As a veterinarian with decades of experience with the Department.

I noticed that so much of the testimony in support of Dr. Moniz mentioned these decades, which makes it sound like he's long in tooth, but in my experience working with him, I've had to stretch to keep up with all of the work he does. Transportation, animal health and well being, getting donations to the community when it's needed.

In his role with the Hawaii Cattlemen's Council right now as Vice President, he's shown his ability to thoroughly work through issues and opportunities. And throughout this, he holds the ability to represent the industry as a whole, even as he's a generational rancher himself. I actually could not dream up a better candidate for this board seat. Mahalo.

Thank you, Nicole. Anyone else wishing to testify on GM617? Okay. We do have 29 in support. 0 post 0 comments Dr. Moniz.

Albert. Vice Chair Richards. Senator Rhodes, thank you for considering my nomination to the Board of Agriculture and Biosecurity. I presented my resume and you had asked some very probing and interesting questions. And so I'll stand on on those responses.

I got four areas that I just kind of wanted to highlight that are pretty important to me going into this if I do get selected for this position. And it pretty broad, but it takes a lot of effort and going forward. First one is preserving AG lands and water resources. That has been huge throughout my entire career.

AG doesn't survive if we cannot have the lands to farm and ranch on. And water resources improving and strengthening our biosecurity. I worked in that area for my entire career.

And we have to do a lot better job than what we've been doing to keep some of the pests and organisms out of the state that have raised havoc with our agriculture and our environment. We need to ensure our farmers and ranchers are afforded conditions which allow them to be successful and sustainable.

Sometimes we got rules, regulations, policies in place that make it pretty tough on farmers and ranchers to succeed. And having walked in their boots for the past 36 years as a rancher, you understand how some of those things are just not working. We need to get some of those things fixed.

And then the last one is to increase food production in Hawaii. There's a lot of folks that are on board with that, and I've been on board with that for a long time.

So that was four areas going into it that I intend to focus on two years down the road, four years down the road, those things may change, but I don't think those four would disappear. So.

Okay, Members, any questions?

Yeah, again, Jason and I have been friends for 40 plus years, work together in a lot of capacities. Jason, you made a comment specifically that kind of piqued my interest in your questions. Strong, resilient advocate for Agriculture. And Department of AG and Biosecurity is often taking sort of a backseat.

But you said don't expect me to keep quiet. Expand on that, please.

Yeah, the department's always kind of been little sisters to other departments, Department of Health, Department, Natural Resources and so forth. And I mean, if we all say we want to support agriculture, we can't just say it. We got to follow up and give them the support that they need.

There's a lot of times I'll look at situations like, you know, my whole career trying to battle bovine tuberculosis on Mokai, and everybody gets real interested when there's an outbreak and then, and then the support and the money just kind of goes to the side after, after a while and we can't keep doing that to agriculture.

We gotta, we gotta give them the support they need and sustain that support.

And I appreciate that. And you know, I've been on the same side of many, many arguments over the years. Trust me, to get things moving forward. One thing that was brought up in here was potential conflict of interest. And I appreciate you upfront disclosing it and you too, and same deal. Hawaii is small community.

Hawaii agriculture is smaller. We all know each other and so I appreciate the fact just putting it on the table will continue to function going forward. But we're not going to hide it. It would just tell you this is our relationship.

So anyway, I appreciate Jason, it's, and this is an easy one for me because you and I have worked together for so many decades. So appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

Mr. Moniz, after leading the animal disease control branch in DAB for three decades and continuing to operate your own ranch, what motivated you to step into a broader policy role?

To be truthful, some arm twisting. Yeah, kind of put my money where my mouth is, you know, I won't say I have the broadest background in all of agriculture, but there are some areas that I have a lot of experience and it'd be kind of a shame to just walk out towards the sunset.

Although that was a plan, hasn't worked out real well, but yeah, you know, boots on the ground as a producer, important in policy making to see things from that side. The biosecurity, the education, continuing education, I'll probably be the strongest board Member in that area. Yeah, it's.

And then as a lessee with, on a state lease for 30 something years, you learn a lot about how those leases work, don't work. And so I'd like to have some input in that area also. So it's kind of key areas. Whenever we've had disasters in the state and there was a need for food

to be supplemented, it was always a no brainer for me to try to get the industry to step up and participate. And the last one I think was Lahaina fires. And you know, I expect to participate in that from the board standpoint, from the Hawaii Cattlemen Council standpoint going forward to make sure it's.

We shouldn't only be disastrous where we step up. I mean if there's a need, there's need. We should be have some sort of ongoing program that makes sense for the producer and for the consumers out there. That need that home. So.

Okay, thank you. Okay. Anything else, Members? Okay, let's move on to GM680. Submitting for consideration and confirmation to the Board of AG and Biosecurity nominee Michael Faye for a term to expire June 30, 2030. And start off with DAB.

Chair Gabbard, Vice Chair Richards Member Rhodes, Sharon Heard, Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity Chair. While I do not have the same personal relationship with Michael Faye, I have met him. He's taken me up on a tour in a helicopter to tour the water systems of Kauai. The man knows a lot.

He can tell you that the amount of gallons that's flowing through this system, what it was doing 10 years ago, what it's doing today and why it's doing what it's doing. So it. He has a encyclopedic knowledge of Kauai. Looking at his resume, the man is born and raised on Kauai and Kauai is everywhere in his resume.

He has served Kauai for he has a life of service to the Kauai community. So it makes sense that he would be the Kauai Member to the Board of Agriculture and Biosecurity representing the interests of Kauai Agriculture.

If you just look down, he's just done so much for Kauai and currently with the Kika Ag association, he is a strong advocate.

If you were to pick up the phone right now and call him and say, you know what, I want to go see such and such on water system or field, he would be more than happy to take you there and he would give you the who, what, where, when, why he is so knowledgeable.

He's just, you know, wonderful for Kauai. And I would again greatly appreciate if this board would. If this chamber, this Committee would confirm him as a Member of the Board of Agriculture Biosecurity representing the County of Kauai. Thank you.

Thank you, Sharon. Anyone else wishing to testify on GM680? Yes, please come forward.

Hello, Chair. Vice Chair. Senator Rhodes, Brian Miyamoto here on behalf of the Hawaii Farm. Your apologies, Chair, if you don't have our testimony. Okay. Hawaii Farm Bureau is in strong support of Mr. Mike Faye. We echo many of the sentiments that chair heard had said as an example.

Nearly every time we bring somebody to Kauai, be it somebody from our codel, some, your colleagues here at the state Legislature or anyone, Mike Faye, Kauai Association is somewhere we always visit.

And the wealth of knowledge, as you see in his resume, in our testimony, about Kauai agriculture, which will translate to State of Hawaii agriculture is immense. It's great. And again, another skill set that he can bring.

Keka', AG, working really closely with ADC and the work that they've done on the west side of Kauai, I think is invaluable and can bring a lot of background and resources with his background to the Board of Agriculture.

Again, another, we believe, great nominee that can bring some different skill sets and diversity to the Board of Agriculture because agriculture is extremely diverse. So, again, Hawaii Farm Bureau is in strong support of Mr. Mike Faye's confirmation. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you very much. Okay, so we have 30 in support, 0 opposed, and 0 comments. Members, any questions? zero. Oh, there he is. Hey, Michael, would you like to make a statement?

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Chair. Vice Chair. Senator Rhodes. Yeah, my resume is strong on Kawaii. I've worked all the islands, however, in various capacities. I. I've got three or four points that I'd like to make. You know, I grew up in. In. In sugar. And let me.

By the way, obviously you're not from Kauai, so you're pronouncing my name a little bit wrong. It's pronounced fire, kind of like the fire engine. But, you know, I grew up in. In sugar, where. When sugar covered a lot of land.

Kikaha sugar, which has been kind of part of our DNA, was once considered the most valuable asset the territory of Hawaii had back in the 1930s. And, you know, what it looks like today is. Is a shadow of itself. I think what agriculture in Hawaii today is a shadow of itself.

So kind of one of my goals is walking kind of in the footsteps of my forefathers, is to return agriculture to the importance that it was at one time. We've got too many acres of good farmland that is fallow. So that's kind of one of my goals, is to get into any kind of agriculture.

You know, that's number one. I think another very important thing. It was touched on by a couple of the other nominees, but we have a tremendous investment in infrastructure that the plantation built, and very little money is applied to it.

And I can speak to that, you know, running kick our egg for the last almost eight years now. You know, we ask, we ask, we ask, and, you know, we just don't get the money. And then you wonder why, you know, we struggle.

So, you know, I'll be looking at getting more investment into that before it's too late. We've got tunnels and things and such that if we don't start slip lining them soon, we're going to lose them. The.

Another thing that I think faces the neighbor islands that the board needs to help with is the cost of freight and just the logistics of getting freight.

If you look at the farmers farming in the, on Oahu, you know, they'll get a bag of, or a bunch of, of banana, you know, cut the hands off, put it in a box, put in the back of a pickup truck. And next up is, is Costco.

When you look at it coming from say the island of Kauai, it is like vastly different and costing probably 10 times as much. ADC and KAA kick our egg association have been looking at reopen. For example, I've been looking at reopening Port Allen as an ag shipping point.

And you know, I really like to explore the idea of a cooperatively owned freight service to get freight from the neighbor islands to Oahu productively.

And then of course, you know, the biosecurity thing is, is just so huge and we can talk about it and, and moan and groan, but you know, I really think we need to be ready for the next, whatever comes next. And do we have contingency plans?

Do we like, you know, do we train for when a sneak brown tree snake falls out of a plane at pmrf? Are they ready, you know, is the community ready for us to take some pretty drastic actions to control this?

So I think those are the four areas that, you know, I like to work on and see progress in Hawaii. Thank you.

Thank you, Michael. Members, any questions?

Yep.

Thank you. Chair. Mr. Feya, your comment about the irrigation systems and need for upgrade and maintenance. I couldn't agree with you more. I'm most familiar with the ones in Kohala. Your thoughts? We had a briefing where we're thinking probably some around 150 million to take care of the ditches statewide. What's your opinion?

I think that would be great. I think we should lean on. There are a lot of experts still around in the state. Try to get their input. People like myself. I've got ditchmen who are 80 years old that are still working and have a huge amount of knowledge on how the systems work on our ditch system.

Know people who work on systems in, in your area on Hamakua and Kamala Systems. The Kohala ditch. I think it would be, it would be great. I just don't. I want to see it. I'd like to make sure that the money is spent judiciously on actual shovels in the, in the ground.

Instead of administrative and, and studies after studies and such like that that get burnt up. That scares me. We, we at Kikaha Ag, we're a nonprofit agricultural cooperative that the farmers support that are ADC tenants at on the Kikaha.

12,000 or so acres out there and acting as a private organization, we can really make the dollars go far. And my point is, I don't want to see it wasted on unnecessary expenditures.

Couldn't agree with you more and I look forward to talking more about that. One other question I had, you talked about the, the agrotourism side. Can you expand on that a little bit, please?

Yeah, I see there's a bill floating around right now. Actually. I think you guys are looking at it about agritourism that we have to have like ongoing agricultural entity before any agricultural tourism can be had or performed on, on AG land. Again, area that needs, I think some more discussion.

For example, at the Kekaha Lands, we've got, As I said, 12,000 some odd acres of that land, only 9,000 are tillable acres. The rest are gullies and hillsides and things like that. And you know, can we put those to use?

The plantation did it with, you know, trying to run cattle up there, but to be honest, it never made any money. But you know, can we, can we do some, you know, appropriate electric bike tours up there, bike paths or something like that that'll just help supplement the ongoing cost of maintenance of, of Farmland.

You know, once you, once you spend that 150 million bucks, some of that, you're going to maintain it, you know, afterwards and, and for the next hundred years we've got to maintain it. And I, I, I just believe that more agritourism will just help the agricultural industry here in Hawaii.

Okay, thank you. I appreciate your thoughts. I also agree with your thoughts. So thank you. Thank you. Chair.

Yeah. Mr. Faya, you had mentioned biosecurity in your comments and you mentioned the brown tree snake. What are the largest threats for the entire state? Biosecurity. And then also specifically for koi. In your view?

I think one of the biggest things statewide is the lack of education the General community has about it when we have these things.

I was on the Environmental Council Back in 2005 or four, sometime around then when the Koki frog first came in and we wanted to, we were supporting the idea of applying a citrus based chemical on them when it was contained. But you know, somebody in the community says no, we don't want to do that.

It's, you know, the special Reptile from Puerto Rico or something. I don't think we can do that. I don't think we can, you know, allow that to stop something that's going to be a statewide problem. And so therefore, I think that the biggest problem is lack of education and understanding of the community.

I think we need some outreach on that, explaining to people what we got to get done with these invasive species and get them, you know, 100% agreement, or even not 100% agreement that we're going to need to take action to get them addressed quickly. And that goes with a, as I said, a, I think a.

Critical reaction team, you know, that'll move quickly into when something, when the next threat comes up, that we can attack it quickly at the root. So I think that's statewide. What specific species is an X statewide? I don't know what the next one is. Hopefully I'll learn more. Kauai, I think we've got two.

One, I mentioned the brown trees, say, the other one is, I believe Kauai is the only island that is not affected by that. The bees, that species that's attacking the bees or the, or the, the problem with the bees. And we're exporting, we're the only island that is exporting bees.

And I think that's critical that we keep Kauai isolated from, from that as well. So we can. Yeah. And of course, you know, we keep, we keep our eyes out for the mongoose, you know, all the time. So specifically for Koa, I think those are the three that I'm most concerned about.

Okay.

And do you believe that the inner island quarantine measures that we have currently are sufficient?

No, I, I think more could be done. We ship construction equipment back and forth. I, I've never seen. Well, I've seen a little bit, but I think it could be better handled. You know, maybe even the small scale, you know, one or two officers with dogs walking around the, the ports would be helpful.

I think there's small measures that could be taken that could have bigger, big impacts.

Okay.

Okay, Members, any other questions? Thank you very much, Mr. Faye. Thank you. Okay, Members, I don't think we need to go into decision making in terms of gathering out. You're all good. Okay, good. So we'll start at the top with the GM615 on the considering. Matt Lyum on the Advisory Committee on Pesticides.

So the Chair's recommendation will be to advise and consent any discussion or comments. Chair votes Aye then, Vice Chair.

On Governor's message 615. Chair's recommendation, advise the consent. Chair votes Aye. Vice Chair votes Aye. Senator DeCoite is excused. Senator Rhodes, Senator Awa. Chair, you have four in favor. Motion is adopted.

Thank you. Members on GM 616 for consideration and confirmation of Annie Young to the Board of Ag and Biosecurity. Chair's recommendation will be to advise and consent. Any discussion? Chair votes Aye.

Vice Chair on GM616 for Mr. Young. Of the Members in attendance, are there any with reservations? Any no votes? Chair, you have four in favor. Motion adopted.

Thank you. Members on GM 617, consideration confirmation of Jason Moniz to the Board of Agriculture and Biosecurity. The Chair's recommendation will be to advise and consent. Chair votes Aye, Vice Chair.

On GM617. Chair's recommendation, advise and consent. Of the four Members in attendance. Then you voting with reservations. Any no votes? Chariot 4 in favor. Motions adopted.

Thank you. And then on the final measure, GM680 for consideration, confirmation of Michael Faye to the Board of AG and Biosecurity. The Chair's recommendation will be to advise and consent. Chair votes Aye, Vice Chair.

On Governor's message, 680 of the four Members in attendance and by voting with reservations. Any no votes? Chair you have four in favor. Motion adopted.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Members. And thank you for stepping forward to serve.