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Sen. Blanche Lincoln Becomes Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee
Sen. Blanche Lincoln Becomes Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee
Gossip has been swirling around DC lately that there would be a big game of musical chairs in Senate committee chairmanships, due to the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy. Today the music got turned up loud, and chairs were, in fact, moved. Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark) will become the new chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry (Lincoln, in photo). Sen. Lincoln is the first woman and first Arkansan to ever lead the Ag committee in its 184 year history, but it’s not her only first: She was the youngest woman ever elected to the senate, at age 38, in 1998. She also has long experience with Ag issues; her father was a farmer, and she’s a second term Dem who defends crop subsidies, has served on Ag sub committees, and founded a Senate group that focuses on hunger. She also has lots of constituents who are farmers, particularly of cotton, poultry, and rice.
Industry fights for inspectors – Starbulletin.com
Agricultural groups fear state layoffs will backlog shipments
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Sep 08, 2009
Agricultural industry executives worry that Hawaii businesses will wither on the vine and incoming food will rot on the docks if the state goes through with massive layoffs of agriculture inspectors.
Plans call for laying off 50 of the state’s 78 agriculture inspectors, 64 percent of that specialized work force.
Diminished inspection capacity could also cost hundreds of millions of dollars each year if additional invasive species get established, industry officials say.
State inspectors both certify products to be exported out of Hawaii and inspect food and plants being imported into the state.
Where Did All the Flowers Come From? – NYTimes.com
Throughout his life, Charles Darwin surrounded himself with flowers. When he was 10, he wrote down each time a peony bloomed in his father’s garden. When he bought a house to raise his own family, he turned the grounds into a botanical field station where he experimented on flowers until his death. But despite his intimate familiarity with flowers, Darwin once wrote that their evolution was “an abominable mystery.”
Darwin could see for himself how successful flowering plants had become. They make up the majority of living plant species, and they dominate many of the world’s ecosystems, from rain forests to grasslands. They also dominate our farms. Out of flowers come most of the calories humans consume, in the form of foods like corn, rice and wheat. Flowers are also impressive in their sheer diversity of forms and colors, from lush, full-bodied roses to spiderlike orchids to calla lilies shaped like urns.
Hawaii law may hurt farmers | The Honolulu Advertiser
Bid process could bring more outside competition
By Sean Hao
Advertiser Staff WriterHawai’i taxpayers will likely be paying more to buy agriculture products under a new state law aimed at supporting local growers.
Act 175 hopes to use government purchasing power to benefit local agriculture. The law, which took effect July 1, requires state agencies to gather competitive bids before buying food and other agricultural products.
It gives up to 15 percent preference to locally grown products in the bidding process. So if a Mainland grower can supply the food for $100, and a local grower bids $114, the local grower gets the contract.
"What this bill allows is for the state to use its purchasing power to procure these local products to really enhance local agriculture by giving them viable market opportunities," said Elizabeth Haws Connally, who lobbied for the change on behalf of the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation.
Hawaii and Related Agriculture Daily Charts for the week ending 09-04-09
The annual charts have been updated also. CLICK HERE to view.
Maui Land and Pineapple (MLP) 09-04-09
Calavo Growers (CVGW) 09-04-09
Alexander and Baldwin (ALEX) 09-04-09
iPath DJ AIG Sugar TR Sub-Idx ETN (SGG) 09-04-09
Monsanto (MON) 09-04-09
Syngenta (SYT) 09-04-09
Agricultural inspector layoffs slammed – The Maui News
KAHULUI – Environmentalists and farmers lashed out Thursday night at the announced layoffs of state agricultural inspectors, arguing that the move planned by the Lingle administration would uproot efforts to preserve the island’s agricultural industry and pristine environment.
Close to 100 people turned out at a Senate Ad Hoc Committee meeting held in the Maui Waena Intermediate School cafeteria. The crowd applauded those who spoke against the layoffs, some even attacking Gov. Linda Lingle.
County of Hawaii Issues: Emergency Senate Hearing on Dept. of Agriculture layoffs.
From Jeffrey Parker and Masako Cordray Westcott of the Hawaii Agriculture & Conservation Coalition
Emergency Senate Hearing on the Dept of Agriculture layoffs – please testimony today!
Thursday, Sept 3rd, 5-9pm, Maui Waena School, 795 Onehee Ave, Kahului
governor.lingle@hawaii.gov
reps@capitol.hawaii.gov
sens@capitol.hawaii.gov
Sample Testimony
O/S Hawaii » If I Had 8 Million Dollars.
The bill that Hamakua Councilman Dominic Yagong proposed with regards to county council scrutiny with the sale of the Hamakua lands is apparently postponed.
If I had 8 million dollars, I would buy all those lands myself. 1/3 of them to be pastoral/agricultural lots donated to DHHL, and lease the rest of them leased out to prospective agricultural-minded tenants. The idea is creating businesses on this island that will help our island economy, and create self-sustainability. Maybe I would dedicate a small portion of them to be a windfarm and perhaps one or two 15 home subdivisions, and a small commerce/town center (they can call it Kekuawela Village)
Upon my death, the lands would honor out their leases and then placed into a trust that will be used to fund an institute of Higher Learning dedicated to health sciences, business, and agriculture. The college will be called “Hamakua College” with admission preference to residents of the Big Island.