Category: Covid

April 4, 2021 Covid, General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Maui small businesses have no choice but to change

Maui News
By Kehaulani Cerizo

Despite the many uncertainties Maui County residents face amid a global pandemic, perhaps two things have remained the same: strawberry and pineapple guri-guri.

Iconic mom-and-pop business Tasaka Guri-Guri — which dates back more than a century — is still going strong, and its flavors are produced with the same popular taste and texture as they were decades ago.

Gail Saito, who runs the family’s shop with sister Cindy Tasaka-Ing, said Thursday that the business’ income is similar to pre-pandemic levels. She credits a local base, which is helping the store weather COVID-19’s economic downturn.

“People of Maui, they come,” Saito said. “They’re the ones that kept us going.”

The multigenerational Maui company is one of a handful of legacy small businesses that have survived 2020, a hopeful sign for Maui’s cultural and economic climate, according to Frank De Rego Jr., Maui Economic Development Board director of business development projects.

Ron Williams, former Hawaii Tourism Authority chairman, said small businesses like Tasaka Guri-Guri are essential to Hawaii’s economy; they’re what cultivate culture and community.

“Small business is the backbone, it’s what Hawaii’s economy is made of,” he said Friday. “As we see with Love’s Bakery, we’re at the risk of losing that.”

The U.S. Small Business Administration reports that 99.3 percent of Hawaii businesses are small businesses, defined as those with 500 or fewer employees. Nearly 98 percent of the state’s small businesses have fewer than 20 employees; about 82 percent have no employees at all.

While state projections show recent signs of hope for a faster economic recovery than anticipated due to the vaccination rollout, tourism reopening and federal aid, local business leaders agree that it’s too early to tell how much damage has been done.

“The challenge is we still don’t have great data on how many businesses were actually lost,” Maui Chamber of Commerce President Pamela Tumpap said.

SHIFTING GEARS TO RESTART, KEEP BUSINESS

Many small businesses, already reeling from leases and other expenses that didn’t stop with the shutdowns a year ago, were forced to find ways to pivot to stay afloat.

The median income for self-employed individuals at their own incorporated businesses was $48,073 in 2018. For self-employed individuals at their own unincorporated firms, median income was $25,445, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

Marla Mings of Wailuku said last year that the pandemic wasn’t how she envisioned the end of her 14-year-old clothing store, Details Boutique, in the Queen Ka’ahumanu Center.

She closed her shop in June, only to find months later that customers would not let go of the brand, often expressing interest when they would see her.

In January, she hesitantly launched an online retail shop at detailsboutiquehawaii.com and said Thursday that she’s shocked it’s going so well.

“I’m surprised — this is not the same thing I used to do at all — but it’s going really good,” Mings said. “I was able to have enough of a following of people and enough interest in my brand, so that was a really big deal for me.”

The entrepreneur admits switching to technology platforms requires a high learning curve. But she’s up for the challenge, especially since she’s seeing customers enjoy shopping with her again.

“I’m really grateful that my customers love the brand,” she said.

Other business owners, such as local maternity photographer Kristy Copperfield, also drastically changed their approach during the pandemic.

From May to January, Copperfield got COVID-19 tested before newborn sessions, organized clients in one-week groupings and would self-quarantine until her shoots were done, typically seven to 10 days out of a month.

She rearranged her studio so clients sat about 15 feet away, wore two masks during shooting and invested in lots of Lysol and Clorox. Copperfield added that she did lots of laundry during that time.

“I needed to ensure I was doing all I could to avoid getting a baby sick,” the Makawao resident said. “The hardest part by far was isolating for seven to 10 days per month.”

The Maui Economic Development Board helped Maui County administer the Maui County Adaptability Fund, which provided federal money to support small businesses in their switch to health and social distancing guidelines. The fund also allowed small businesses to invest in technology to expand their virtual platforms, web-based marketing and e-commerce.

Businesses adapted to employ contactless point-of-sale technologies; Plexiglas enclosures; mechanical upgrades to include COVID-19 mitigation technology; e-commerce platforms; website development with online sales capability, including search engine optimization; use of graphics, photography and videography to highlight products and services; disinfection of equipment and supplies; creation of outdoor spaces to serve clients and customers; modifications to indoor work spaces and customer spaces to incorporate social distancing requirements, De Rego said.

“We have all experienced the uptick in the use of technology and its impact in all our lives due to the pandemic,” he said. “For many of these businesses the technological learning curve was steep, but one they were willing to undertake. For some businesses, the movement to online service and e-commerce opened new possibilities and an expansion of their reach beyond the shores of Maui Nui.”

DEVASTATING LOSSES HARD TO QUANTIFY

Some businesses weren’t able to pivot.

When nonessential business came to a screeching halt a year ago with mandatory shutdowns, many never reopened.

After the pandemic hit, a craftsman leasing from Maui Land and Pineapple Co. in Haliimaile who relied on the tourism industry defaulted on rent for months, packed up his rental, left his unit in disarray and moved to back to the Mainland.

Other small business owners let customers know about their closures. Vacant commercial spaces around Maui leave a tangible reminder of loss.

Tumpap said that when the stay-at-home order went into effect last March, businesses were frantically calling.

“There was panic, anger, frustration, crying,” she said. “It continued in April, May and June as businesses had to make impossible decisions, including laying off their valued employees. They were heartbroken. They would frantically call trying to help their employees get their unemployment when the state’s UI system collapsed and desperately needed unemployment was delayed.”

Hawaii in 2020 was down 8 percent for real gross domestic product growth, the biggest decline in the country, according to the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, or UHERO. The next closest were Wyoming (7 percent decline), Oklahoma (6.1 percent) and New York (5.9 percent).

The economic devastation is still being tallied, UHERO said, as many people have moved out of the state.

Tumpap said the number of businesses lost during the pandemic is difficult to quantify for a number of reasons.

“Those who publicly announced their closing, like Love’s Bakery recently, are known and we have a list of those, but that is far from the full story,” she said. “It’s devastating to close your business, lay off employees, lose your investment and income to support your family. That is why countless businesses go out silently without notifying anyone other than their employees.”

Other companies closed temporarily and have reopened, she added. Some are still considering whether to reopen, cautiously watching the economy for indicators on what may be ahead.

CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM, RESILIENCE IN FORECAST

One of the state’s top economists, Carl Bonham, said Thursday that despite Hawaii having the weakest economy in the entire country in 2020, better recovery than anticipated may be in store.

“The optimistic tone that we took in our first-quarter report is almost certainly going to be replaced by an even more optimistic tone in our second-quarter report,” said Bonham, UHERO’s executive director, during a Hawaii Economic Association event.

Bonham said Maui and Kauai were the hardest-hit counties in the state for job losses due to their “very dominant” tourism sectors. Almost half of the jobs in accommodations and food services and more than 30 percent in transportation and utilities were lost.

“They may also see some of the more rapid, in terms of percentage change, bounce back — not only because of the nature of math, but because we know Maui is seeing a large increase in visitor traffic and that will help to draw those jobs back, obviously,” he said.

Bonham said the nationwide vaccination rollout, Hawaii’s Safe Travels program that reopened tourism, the state’s work to bring the virus under control and federal aid that buoyed Hawaii are factors contributing to a more positive economic outlook.

One of the biggest factors improving the forecast is vaccinations. With the vaccination rollout, possibly 60 to 70 percent of the U.S. population could be vaccinated by the summer, and many will be thinking of a Hawaii trip, he said.

Also, an increase in consumer confidence for Hawaii is a good sign.

“Hawaii’s confidence has been on a relatively steady uptick, which bodes well for the local economy, for the sort of non-tourism-centric recovery,” he said.

However, this week’s closure of Love’s Bakery — along with other shutdowns of small businesses since the pandemic onset, such as Da Kitchen, Valley Isle Seafood and Horses R Us in Kahului; Sea La Vie and Sailboards Maui in Paia; and Afterglow Yoga in Kihei and Lahaina — is evidence that irreversible damage has already been done.

Based on state projections, Tumpap and De Rego say that recovery may not happen until 2023 and 2024. They acknowledged that much uncertainty remains.

Regardless of near-term or long-term outcomes, the two expressed confidence in the strength of local small business owners, who often gauge success beyond just the financials.

“One cannot discount the resilience of our people as a factor in the recovery of small businesses,” De Rego said. “For this inspiration, we don’t need to look to the West or the East, but within to our own local culture and our First Nation. The depths of malama (care) and aloha ‘aina (love for the land) that are rooted in the foundation of local culture are there for all to share, which invites us to see our notions of progress and prosperity in a different way.”

Even during the worst of times, Saito said that Tasaka Guri-Guri family members had never thought about shutting down.

“Every so often people come in and say, ‘Are you guys closing?’ And we’re like no. It was never in the back of mind,” she said.

But for their family, staying open wasn’t just about the bottom line.

“For us, it wasn’t to make money,” Saito said Thursday. “It’s really to serve, or to give back.”

November 30, 2020 Covid, General Ag News and Notes, Tropical Fruit Post a Comment

Hawaii Can Learn A Lot From Japan About Farming And Food Production

Civil Beat –
By Ken Love –

As the longtime executive director of the Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers association — and a longtime Hawaii farmer myself — I have spent decades traveling through the islands of Hawaii and many countries in Asia, meeting farmers, agricultural extension agents, researchers and policymakers.

What I have learned is this: We in Hawaii are at a point in our history where we could use some help, and there are all kinds of good ideas out there waiting for us, like nourishing fruits that are ripe and ready and waiting to be harvested.

Japan has much to offer us when it comes to agriculture. Its focus on farming and local production is not just a matter of pride — it’s ingrained, dating back to their Jomon period, which coincidently started at the same time as agriculture itself, about 12,000 years ago.

Just because we started later does not mean we have to lag behind.

When the first canoes were bringing settlers to Hawaii, the Japanese monk Kobo Dashi was bringing the first medical textbook home from China. That book explained how to use loquat as a medicinal. Today any of the shops in Honolulu’s Chinatown will have loquat extract and loquat leaf tea to help the lungs. I can testify that it works great to combat the effects of vog.

The Hawaiians who arrived in those canoes also came with an exceptional history of farming. The canoe plants they transported thrived in the islands under their care: niu, kalo, ulu, olena, ko, many others. For centuries, hundreds of thousands of people in Hawaii feasted on the bounty that the land gave them. Vast agricultural field systems flourished.

In the 19th century, monocropping of sugar became the agricultural norm in Hawaii. Monocropping of pineapple followed.

Now it’s all changing again. The vast Hawaiian field systems are a memory. So too are the sugar and pineapple plantations. Freighters bring us our meals from thousands of miles away.

When I say we need help and Japan can help us, I’m thinking of very specific things: learning how to better market our products, improving certain horticultural practices, putting the culture back in agriculture (something our Ulu Cooperative here in Kona is already excellent at).

And this: At the core of Japan’s agricultural success is respect for farmers and support of their work.

Given a history that is many thousands of years old — and that has seen plenty of war and famine — Japan is a country well aware of the value and importance of having a strong food production system.

For example, let’s say you’re a farmer in Japan and you need a greenhouse. Much of Japan’s produce is grown in greenhouses, which eliminates most problems with pests and bacteria and allows the farmer to better control the environment. (Japanese greenhouse farmers always get two crops of mangoes per year, something few farmers in Hawaii even attempt.)

Back to that greenhouse you need: The national government supports agricultural development by offering growers 50% of the cost of a new greenhouse. Another 20% of the cost comes from the prefectural government. The farmer just needs 30% to move forward, and greenhouse loans are loans that local banks are eager to make.

Japan Agriculture is a national cooperative that farmers rely on for many aspects of their operations. JA provides services including reduced cost fertilizer and supplies, which farmers can purchase from one of the thousands of JA co-op markets that exist in rural areas.

These co-op markets often offer classes in making value-added products from local farm crops, and they sell those products as well as produce fresh off the farm. Some JA shops will have farmers markets too.

In addition to the stores, the local JA office will usually have an affiliated gas station and often a branch of the national JA bank.

Bottom line: Japan Agriculture buys in quantity for a low price and sells to farmers at or just above cost.

Marketing one’s crop in Japan is often a family affair. Most JA stores and grocery stores will post flyers next to produce, showing a photo of the farming family, all smiling for the camera.

Japan’s post office system sells gifts by mail, and at any post office counter, you can order a case of persimmons with a picture of the family that harvested them.

In railway stations and other high traffic areas like street corners in Tokyo, JA and farmers will set up displays for a few days. Entire prefectures will often do this in different areas, just to feature their local crops. I can imagine Hawaii County setting up a display in Ala Moana Shopping Center, selling Big Island avocados.

All of these markets and the displays help to educate consumers about local farming. You can tell it’s working by visiting the stores: When local items are placed next to less expensive imported items, the local always sell first. People expect to pay more for locally grown at markets in Japan, unlike in Hawaii where we still have a flea-market mentality around locally grown crops.

Speaking of cost: We often hear how expensive everything is in Japan with tales of just one mango or one melon selling for $100. If fact, such high-end mangoes and melons are used solely for gifts and represent fewer than 1% of the country’s crop. Many costs in Japan are actually lower than they are in Hawaii.

I ask people in Hawaii what they imagine a grafted fruit tree would sell for in Japan. I love to hear the guesses: $150? $200? And up.

In fact, farmers in Japan can purchase a wide variety of citrus, persimmon and other fruit trees for, on average, $7.50 a tree. Yesterday I checked citrus trees at a big box store in Kona and the prices started at $50 and went to $199.

We at the Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers association sell trees for $20. I know what it costs to produce and care for those trees and we have to charge $20 to make a tiny profit. Japan’s price of $7.50 is a concrete illustration of the country’s commitment to its farmers.

Japan is famous for its exquisite gardens and its tree pruning practices are excellent. Most of the country’s food-producing trees are kept low, about six feet, which helps them to weather typhoons, improves production and reduces the need for external labor and machines.

Fortunately, these pruning practices are now being employed by growers on Maui, Kauai and in Kona. Yoshimi Yonemoto, who ran the Japanese government’s tropical fruit tree research station, has spoken numerous times at the annual conference of the Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers association. He has demonstrated better ways for us to manage our trees and facilitate harvesting.

In Hawaii, ignorance about proper harvesting is a major problem and the reason we have a reputation for poor-quality watery avocados. I would guess 70-plus% of those avocados would have been delicious if they had stayed on the trees until they reached maturity.

Japan has a small army of extension agents to help its farmers. These agents educate farmers in all kinds of areas like, for example, harvesting. Thanks to the extension agents, in Japan there is no question about when to harvest.

The country’s extension agents come from many institutions and companies: universities, the national government’s ministry of agriculture, prefectural governments, companies that produce large quantities of value-added products from local crops, JA, fruit parks and machino eki.

A machino eki is what was once referred to as a roadside oasis or stand — a place to stop for a rest or coffee and to shop for local produce and products.

A good example is the Tomiura Biwa Club. “Biwa” is Japanese for loquat. Today in Japan you can buy 3,000 items made from or featuring loquat. Yes, that includes a Hello Kitty doll holding a bunch of loquat! But there are literally thousands of cakes, jams, jellies, teas, everything you can think of, made from loquat.

Perhaps more importantly, the Biwa Club, which is four hours from Tokyo, buses in visitors on picking tours when the season is right, the ripening of loquat being considered one of the first signs of spring.

On weekends in the spring and summer, the area is bombarded. The club has a library for growers, meeting rooms and an extension agent to answer questions about growing. There are sales of local produce as well as displays of local art and handicrafts. The restaurant offers loquat-based curries, salads and, of course, ice cream.

In other machino ekis, there are kitchens that offer classes on making jams and jellies. These lessons are sponsored by the government and companies through public-private partnerships. We could set up machino eki across the islands.

For me, the most important undertaking that we should emulate in Hawaii is the Japanese Fruit Park. There are four or five now across Japan. The fruit parks are a one-stop shop for growers, visitors, consumers, school and senior tours. I usually reference Nagoya’s Togokuzan Fruit Park.

Here, in addition to fruit trees both in and out of greenhouses, there is a library, restaurant, museum, kids’ park, kitchen rental area, farmers market, seasonal fairs and numerous special events throughout the year.

Any park visitor can use the reference materials in the library. A wide range of items can be found, from childrens books to technical publications of national agriculture organizations.

The staff, either in the library reference room or out in the field, is more than happy to answer questions on pruning, irrigation, soil care, post-harvest care and to teach visitors how to use the crops they’ve purchased.

In 2007 The Kohala Center arranged for the Rocky Mountain Institute to do a study on Hawaii island. The fruit park concept rated in the top five for ideas to consider.

Though I have visited Japan hundreds of times in the last 40 years, spent many months studying and learning about its agricultural practices, and thought a great deal about how those practices could help farmers in Hawaii, I do recognize that there are, of course, differences between Hawaii and Japan. One of these is land.

Land acquisition has always been an issue in Japan as in Hawaii, but Japan, with its dwindling population, now faces a different set of issues than our islands.

As Japan’s economy expanded in the 1950s and the 1960s, children left rural areas for jobs in Tokyo and other large cities. Eventually the parents died, and children were left having to pay an exorbitant inheritance tax. It was sometimes easier just to give the land back to the prefecture than it was to pay the tax.

Some rural prefectures were left with many hundreds of small abandoned farms. Some of the prefectures decided to offer ownership of the land for free to anyone who would come and work it for five years. In a few cases, prefectures even paid a small salary to the new generation of farmers until they got established.

Now, with COVID-19 changing everyone’s lives, people in Japan’s cities are looking more seriously at returning to the countryside.

There is one last idea from Japan I’d like to share here, something we could do for our kupuna. It is modeled after a delightful tradition carried on by the Aichi-ken Experiment Station for seniors who live around Nagoya.

The Aichi-ken station grows a large number of fig trees, each one in its own milk crate. The trees are typically pruned so that each tree has five or six vertical branches, with each branch holding about 20 figs.

In the spring, these trees are delivered, for free, to any senior who would like to have one. The seniors can eat, give away or sell the figs, at which point the trees are picked up and moved back to the experiment station to weather in a greenhouse over the winter.

Next spring, after the trees are cared for and pruned so the figs will sprout again, the trees are delivered once more. It is so very wonderful to see the faces of elders enjoying the trees.

September 25, 2020 Covid, General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Help restaurants stay in business

Star Advertiser
Editorial –

As Honolulu tries for a second time to recover from COVID-19’s crushing impact on the kamaaina economy, restaurants are now reopening — as they did the first time — with tables set at least 6 feet apart and protective partitions in place for dining at 50% capacity.

However, under the city’s new four-tier recovery plan, there are more layers of pandemic-related rules. Tables will be limited to parties of five in which all must be from the same household; and diners must provide information that could be used for contact- tracing. Also, everyone must mask up, except when eating or drinking. No mask-free chitchat.

For the foreseeable future, such directives will change the dining-out vibe — and alter all businesses that have banked on a steady presence of on-site social gathering. Change in long-established commerce and activities can be hard to accept, but it is our sole path to simultaneously rebuilding Hawaii’s economy while fending off COVID-19 community spread.

It’s encouraging that the Hawaii Restaurant Association has expressed confidence that through stepped-up directives in the reopening plan, which took effect Thursday, restaurants will serve up “stronger evidence” that dining out can be a “relatively safe activity.”

But sadly, due to months of COVID-19 restrictions, according to one recent statewide count, nearly 50 restaurants have permanently closed. The association describes many of the remaining restaurants as in survival mode, bringing in only 50% to 65% of the sales they made prior to the pandemic; and without federal and state assistance they, too would be closed now.

Especially hard-hit are bars and nightclubs. Under the city’s tiered strategy, in which reopening gains depend on the number of daily virus cases reported and test positivity rate, the soonest these two high-risk business types could open is mid-December. Some may try to secure restaurant status by serving more food, but such a pivot can be difficult for an already cash-strapped operation.

In response to small business struggles, Honolulu Hale is rightly pouring a large portion of its federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act allocation into the city’s Small Business Relief and Recovery Fund (SBRRF). So far, some $60 million in aid has been distributed to more than 6,500 recipients on Oahu.

Currently, the fund is providing reimbursement grants of up to $10,000 to small businesses with commercial storefronts — those with 50 or fewer employees and less than $2 million in gross annual income. The money can be used to cover fixed costs like rent and utilities as well as other costs of operation and interruption, including COVID-19 signage, personal protective equipment and automation.

Starting Oct. 1, businesses and nonprofits with $2 million to $5 million in annual revenue may apply for reimbursement grants of up to $50,000.

The clamor for relief in our diverse business communities is sure to continue until the state’s tourism industry marks a significant upswing. So, city officials must continue to work in tandem with chambers of commerce and other groups to break down any language barriers impeding the SBRRF application process.

In addition, the city must continue to assist small-scale commercial fishing and farming operations through grants and programs such as Farm to Car and Boat to Car, which are connecting homegrown agriculture and aquaculture with local consumers; and in the case of Fish to Dish, connecting key elements of the local fishing industry with food-insecure households, through the Hawaii Foodbank.

September 21, 2020 Covid, General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Three things to watch as farm aid floodgates reopen

POLITICO Weekly Agriculture
By RYAN MCCRIMMON

WELCOME TO WEEKLY AGRICULTURE! We hope everyone enjoyed some football and fall weather this weekend. Today marks the start of another round of stimulus checks to farmers and ranchers, up to $14 billion in total, as Washington continues flooding the agriculture industry with record levels of taxpayer aid. So let’s step back and look at three major economic and political implications of what’s become a defining feature of federal farm policy in recent years:

Even before the new batch of payments, government spending was projected to account for more than a third of all farm income this year, driven by the historic coronavirus relief programs. But the rapid rise in subsidies precedes the pandemic: Agricultural aid has grown every year of the Trump administration, including a roughly 65 percent increase in two consecutive years — a trend that concerns some ag economists.

— If you look past the topline numbers, plenty of producers say the money hasn’t reached their corner of the sprawling farm industry. In response, the Agriculture Department expanded the stimulus program to new sectors — including growers of tobacco, winegrapes and certain wheat varieties — that weren’t included in the first round of aid.

— House Ag Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) said there are “some good things” in the new program, but he still wanted USDA to deliver aid to ethanol producers, contract growers, certain textile mills and livestock farmers that were forced to euthanize animals when slaughterhouses shut down.

ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL, President Donald Trump continues touting the coronavirus relief and trade bailout payments as proof of his commitment to farmers and ranchers, who are some of his most loyal voters.

— “Any farmers in this group? Because you’ve got to love Trump. I gave you $28 billion dollars,” Trump said at a rally last week in Mosinee, Wis. “Did everybody get that money? You had a very good year. The farmers have had a very good year.”

Democratic nominee Joe Biden has tried to blunt Trump’s appeal to agriculture by highlighting the financial fallout from his tariff fight with China. For example, a Biden campaign ad earlier this year features an Iowa farmer blasting Trump’s trade bailout as an effort to “screw you over and pay you off with somebody else’s money.”

MEANWHILE ON CAPITOL HILL, debate over the farm rescue payments is spilling over into high-stakes negotiations over a stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown next week, a potential snag that we flagged for readers earlier this month.

ICYMI, the White House asked Congress to ensure that USDA has enough spending authority to keep farm payments flowing when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1. But Democrats aren’t eager to give Trump a “blank check to spread political favors,” especially when he keeps dangling the money in front of farmers at campaign rallies, as one Democratic aide told POLITICO’s Caitlin Emma and John Bresnahan.

The farm aid standoff, which also tangled up September spending talks last year, forced congressional leaders to miss their own deadline to release a continuing resolution on Friday. (They’re now aiming to publish the measure today.) Before the delay, there appeared to be a deal to include the White House request along with an extra $2 billion to help families with school-age children afford groceries.

Bottom line: As farm payments have blown past historic records, political debate over the aid programs has bubbled up into a hot-button topic on the campaign trail and in closed-door congressional negotiations. Those debates are now coming to a head, with nine days until the next shutdown deadline and just 43 days until the Nov. 3 elections, when several farm states will play an outsize role in picking the next president.

HAPPY MONDAY, SEPT. 21! We’re back with your weekly look-ahead. And speaking of looking ahead, your host looks forward to writing about Martian farms one day. Send tips to rmccrimmon@politico.com and @ryanmccrimmon, and follow us @Morning_Ag.

POLITICO’s Energy Podcast, sponsored by Chevron: Check out our daily five-minute brief covering the latest in energy and environmental politics and policy, must-know stories, and candid insights and analysis from POLITICO’s 10-person energy team. Subscribe for free and start listening today.

September 18, 2020 Covid, General Ag News and Notes, Hemp Post a Comment

Hemp Farmers Now Eligible For USDA Coronavirus Relief Program

Marijuana Moment
By Kyle Jaeger

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on Friday that it is expanding its coronavirus relief program for farmers—and this time around, hemp cultivators are eligible for benefits.

In May, USDA said it would be making $19 billion available for agriculture producers to assist them amid the pandemic. But it excluded hemp and several other crops, stating that they don’t qualify because they didn’t experience a five percent or greater price decline from January to April. Industry stakeholders contested that point, arguing that there’s insufficient data to establish that given how young the newly legal market is. They said they were suffering just like other sectors.

It seems the department got that message and chose to accommodate the industry. A new round of funding through USDA’s Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) includes a payment category for “flat-rate crops” that lists hemp as eligible.

“Crops that either do not meet the 5-percent price decline trigger or do not have data available to calculate a price change will have payments calculated based on eligible 2020 acres multiplied by $15 per acre,” USDA said in a notice. “These crops include alfalfa, extra long staple (ELS) cotton, oats, peanuts, rice, hemp, millet, mustard, safflower, sesame, triticale, rapeseed, and several others.”

Jonathan Miller, general counsel at the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, told Marijuana Moment that the group is “thrilled” to see USDA take this step, though some stakeholders are saying that the calculation the department is using to determine benefits under the program “might not be as generous as for some other crops.”

“This is a very significant development for the industry,” he said. “We just want to be sure that our farmers are treated fairly just like other farmers.”

The office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has championed the industry and helped advance the crop’s legalization, highlighted the policy change.

In April, Congress approved a COVID-19 package that made hemp businesses eligible for federal disaster relief through the Small Business Administration (SBA).

For the past two years since hemp was federally legalized through the 2018 Farm Bill, USDA has been hard at work developing regulations and reaching out to the industry to ensure that the market has the resources to thrive.

This month, for example, it reopened a 30-day public comment period on its proposed rules for the crop in order to gain additional feedback on a number of provisions that stakeholders had expressed concern about. SBA recently asked USDA to extend that comment window. The department’s rule for hemp, when finalized, is set to take effect on October 31, 2021.

In July, two senators representing Oregon sent a letter to Perdue, expressing concern that hemp testing requirements that were temporarily lifted will be reinstated in the agency’s final rule. They made a series of requests for policy changes.

Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) called on USDA to delay the implementation of proposed hemp rules, citing concerns about certain restrictive policies the federal agency has put forward in the interim proposal.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) last month wrote to Perdue, similarly asking that USDA delay issuing final regulations for the crop until 2022 and allow states to continue operating under the 2014 Farm Bill hemp pilot program in the meantime.

As it stands, the earlier pilot program is set to expire on October 31. The senators aren’t alone in requesting an extension, as state agriculture departments and a major hemp industry group made a similar request to both Congress and USDA last month.

Perdue has said on several occasions that DEA influenced certain rules, adding that the narcotics agency wasn’t pleased with the overall legalization of hemp.

As all of this rulemaking continues, USDA has been systematically approving hemp plans from states and tribes. Utah is the latest state to have its proposal approved.

August 21, 2020 Covid, Webinar Post a Comment

FARMERS MARKET COALITION: Webinar: Unique COVID Farmers Market Models / Thursday, September 3rd @ 6:30 am HST

FMC and Ecology Center have teamed up and are excited to present the webinar Thinking Inside the Box- Making Healthy Food Accessible with Curbside/Drive-Thru (Contactless) Models at Farmers’ Markets During COVID-19.

Join us on September 3 at 12:30 PM ET to learn from 4 passionate and innovative farmer market managers who have implemented drive-thru/curbside/box programs in their communities. They’ll be sharing their challenges, successes along with the logistics, safety, and administrative aspect of implementing a program like this.

Click here to read the full webinar description, presenter bios, and register!
Megan Fox
Executive Director
Mālama Kaua`i
(808) 828-0685 x12
www.malamakauai.org
Advocating, educating, and driving action towards a sustainable Kaua’i.