Friends, on Monday we have a wonderful opportunity to encourage the Legislature to take a stand against monster developments that threaten the two most productive food farms in the state - Ho‘opili and Koa Ridge. So I am appealing to you for your support. If these resolutions pass they could have a major impact on the debate.

At 10:20 am in Conference Room 312, a joint hearing of the House Agriculture Committee and the House Committee on Water and Land will hear testimony on a resolution -HCR 72- that would serve as a clarion call from our two statewide elected bodies calling on DR Horton to preserve Ho‘opili forever in agriculture.

At 3:30pm in Conference Room 16 the Senate Committee on Water & Land and the Senate Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental & Military Affairs will hold a joint hearing on a resolution –SCR 178- that would provide ringing endorsement from our Senators and Representatives for the idea that the state and the city should work together to swap the proposed development at Koa Ridge for access to a development project in the urban core, so Koa Ridge can remain a food farm forever.

Please consider coming to testify in person. But if you can’t, please send testimony. Use your own words. Politely ask your Representative and your Senator to act. You don’t need to say much. But you could note that we have lost 50% of our best farmland since statehood, that we rely on imports for more than 90% of our food, that Ho‘opili produces at least 25% of the food we grow in Hawai‘i, and that Koa Ridge produces at least 15% of the food we grow in Hawai‘i.

Here’s the place to send testimony for the House hearing on Ho‘opili.

And here’s the place to send testimony for the Senate hearing on Koa Ridge – the direct link doesn’t work so when you get to this page, click on the “Submit Testimony” button.

Thanks for all you do.

Aloha

Anthony

Aloha Everyone,

Here is some really good news: the Senate Democratic Caucus has decided to throw its support behind our Food Self-Sufficiency Bill this year and we also have strong support from the new Chair of the Ag Committee in the House.

In other words we have a truly excellent chance of committing our state to doubling the amount of food grown for local consumption by the year 2025 – with all of the enormous benefits that would entail.

But it is not a slam dunk and WE NEED YOUR HELP to make it happen.

The Ag Hui, which brings together activists from the Sierra Club, Kanu Hawaii and the Food Policy Council, has been negotiating with members of the Legislature and the Department of Agriculture.

As part of that process we have accepted that you cannot double food production without knowing what we currently produce, so we have committed ourselves to help the DOA get the extra staff it needs to start compiling good data in this bill:

HB502 - http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=HB&billnumber=502

We also recognize that you cannot spark a food-growing renaissance without having a good sense of what the obstacles are and a clear set of proposals and measures to overcome those obstacles.

Coming up with that sort analysis and those policy proposals takes time and money. So we are pushing the Legislature to commit a million dollars to this effort over the next two years in this bill:

SB1284 - http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=SB&billnumber=1284

Other people will have their eyes on that money. Without that money our bill will be little more than empty rhetoric – indeed it might simply die.

That’s why we need you. We need to show the Legislature and the Administration that this is an effort that counts on truly popular support. And that effort starts with a hearing at the Senate Agriculture Committee tomorrow Thursday, 1/31 @ 2:45pm in Rm. 229.

Please contact your Senators and the Senate Ag Chair Clarence Nishihara to support SB1284.

Senator Clarence Nishihara

Hawaii State Capitol, Room 204

Phone 808-586-6970

Fax 808-586-6879

E-Mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

If you could show up to testify in person that would be great!

You can also submit testimony in writing here.

Here are some talking points:

§  Doubling our food production, according to a 2008 UH study, would give a $313 million jolt to the state economy, create $47 million in profits, provide $6 million in state tax revenues and create more than 2,300 jobs.

§  Hawaii currently only grows 8% to 10% of the food we eat, according to the US Department of Agriculture.  This leaves us incredibly vulnerable to supply disruptions.

§  Opinion polls repeatedly show this issue is one of the top political concerns of voters in Hawaii.  They also show that local people are prepared to pay a little more than for imported food because they place a premium on locally grown food.

§  A statutory goal for food production will have a galvanizing effect both on the state and on the private sector - in the same way as the Clean Energy Initiative has helped kick-start the booming alternative energy sector.

§ Hawaii's state constitution says the following:

ARTICLE XI

CONSERVATION, CONTROL AND DEVELOPMENT OF RESOURCES

Section 1.  For the benefit of present and future generations, the State and its political subdivisions shall conserve and protect Hawaii's natural beauty and all natural resources, including land, water, air, minerals and energy sources, and shall promote the development and utilization of these resources in a manner consistent with their conservation and in furtherance of the self-sufficiency of the State.

All public natural resources are held in trust by the State for the benefit of the people. [Add Const Con 1978 and election Nov 7, 1978]

AGRICULTURAL LANDS

Section 3. The State shall conserve and protect agricultural lands, promote diversified agriculture, increase agricultural self-sufficiency and assure the availability of agriculturally suitable lands.  The legislature shall provide standards and criteria to accomplish the foregoing.

Lands identified by the State as important agricultural lands needed to fulfill the purposes above shall not be reclassified by the State or rezoned by its political subdivisions without meeting the standards and criteria established by the legislature and approved by a two-thirds vote of the body responsible for the reclassification or rezoning action. [Add Const Con 1978 and election Nov 7, 1978]

I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.

I thought I would be able to write to you today to tell you that all your hard work had finally paid off – that the state Legislature had finally established a priority to double the amount of food we grow in Hawaii – setting the stage for a raft of measures that would ignite a food farming revolution.

But oh no… At the very last minute the Chair of the House Agriculture Committee, Mr. Clifton Tsuji, took it upon himself to hijack months of work and replace our bill with language not seen or discussed before - some of which is not even within his committee’s remit and has no relation to the title of the bill.

It’s Undemocratic

In other words, what Tsuji did was not just a dirty political trick that flouts the wishes of the hundreds of people who have lobbied for this bill, it’s probably unconstitutional.

So now we need you to call and email Rep. Tsuji at:

808-586-8480 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

and tell him to go back to the original Senate version SD2

And call and email Senator Nishihara at:

808-586-6970         This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

and ask him to either defend his SD2 version or kill the whole darned thing.  Yes, its’ that bad.

This our very last call… because The Moment of Truth has arrived!

I have been told that if our food self-sufficiency bill, HB2703, makes it out of Conference Committee it will –finally- become law.

We need one last outpouring of support.

Aloha Gang,

I confess, I feel a bit like a used car salesman! How many times can I keep coming back to you promising: “One last email and it’s in the bag?”

But the truth is we didn’t see this one coming and we need your help!

Our food sustainability bill -to commit the state to double food production by 2020- has passed every committee on both sides of the Legislature leaving just minor differences between the Senate and House versions to be ironed out in a Conference Committee before final votes on the floor of both chambers. Hallelujah! It’s a done deal, right?

Well, Not so fast…

The Senate has appointed its Conferees. But the Speaker, Calvin Say, has not named his House reps yet. No House conferees, no conference. No conference, no bill. It’s that simple.

HB2703 would set the stage to press for all the things needed to spark a true food-farming renaissance in Hawaii. Things like helping farmers get leases, investing in irrigation systems, providing covered port facilities to encourage inter-island commerce, building processing and purchasing networks and revising procurement codes so institutions like the Board of Education can start buying local, investing in training and loan assistance programs, putting food stamp machines in farmers’ markets, etc, etc.

So we need a huge response.

We need everyone to contact Speaker Say and the House Ag Committee Chair, Clift Tsuji, to politely ask them to pass this bill out of Conference Committee. We need the response to be bigger that at any previous stage. We need people who don’t normally do this kind of lobbying. We need people to identify themselves – “I’m a teacher, I’m a lawyer, I’m a waiter…” to impress on our reps the breadth of support.

And we’d really love it if you could email this to one or two friends, even if you don’t normally do that kind of thing. Hundreds of people have sent in testimony. Dozens have testified in person. We can’t allow that broad popular support to be squashed out of pique.

So please can you call and email:

Speaker Calvin Say

Phone 808-586-6100

E-Mail:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

and

House Ag Committee Chair Clift Tsuji

Phone 808-586-8480

E-Mail:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

You don’t need to write much. A couple of lines would do. Preferably in your own words. And keep the message positive. Ask them to pass the bill out of conference committee and here’s some other things you could say:

§  Doubling food production would give a $313 million boost to the economy, provide $6 million in state tax revenues and create more than 2,300 jobs.

§  Hawaii only grows 8% of the food we eat, according to the US Department of Agriculture.  This leaves us incredibly vulnerable to supply disruptions.

§  Opinion polls show this issue is one of the top concerns of voters in Hawaii and that people are prepared to pay a little more for locally grown food.

§  A statutory goal for food production will galvanize the state and the private sector – just like the Clean Energy Initiative helped kick-start the booming alternative energy sector.

Thanks for all that you do.