Courtesy Hawaii House Blog Specialty tomatoes from Hamakua Springs County Farm, Big Island.A new pilot program in Hawaii should help another 100 or so of the state’s local growers get their food into local hotels.
House Bill No. 1471 was passed into law late July and established the Food Certification Pilot program, which will be managed by the Hawaii Department of Agriculture, with assistance from the Hawaii Department of Health.
The program is designed to coordinate purchasing agreements between agricultural cooperatives and hotels, restaurants and other buyers in the visitor and hospitality industries, according to the bill. The pilot program should help with that by developing and implementing safe food certification for locally grown produce.
Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle vetoed the bill originally, saying the program “appears to be a gesture to improve food safety without the teeth necessary to make it a viable program,” according to West Hawaii Today.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority Special Fund will allocate $140,000 to establish the program. The idea is that if safe, local food is offered to local hotels and eating establishments, it could help Hawaii tourism.
Lingle argued there was no real connection to tourism. Her veto was overridden by the Legislature late July.
According to the West Hawaii Today article, only 32 of the state’s 2,000 farms are food safety certified by third-party audit. Supporters of the pilot program from the hotel and restaurant industry in Hawaii said food safety was a major concern for them, and that if good agricultural practices were followed and assured to buyers, it could make a big difference.
HONOLULU – Governor Linda Lingle has released a $250,000 grant-in-aid to the Hawai‘i Farm Bureau Federation (HFBF) to be used for agricultural research and market development.
HFBF is a non-profit organization made up of farming families who are committed to analyzing problems and formulating action plans to ensure the healthy future of agriculture in our state.
“The research facilitated by this grant will promote the growth of Hawai‘i’s agricultural industry and contribute to the overall strength of our state economy,” said Governor Lingle.
Past HFBF research has included studies on the development of disease-resistant crops and potential niche crops like blueberries, and were performed in partnership with academic and research centers in Hawai‘i.
HFBF also co-sponsored the Hawai‘i Agricultural Theft Study with the Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture in 2005.
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For more information, contact:
Sandra Lee Kunimoto
Chair, Board of Agriculture
Phone: (808) 973-9550
HONOLULU – Governor Linda Lingle has released a $250,000 grant-in-aid to the Hawai‘i Farm Bureau Federation (HFBF) to be used for agricultural research and market development.
HFBF is a non-profit organization made up of farming families who are committed to analyzing problems and formulating action plans to ensure the healthy future of agriculture in our state.
“The research facilitated by this grant will promote the growth of Hawai‘i’s agricultural industry and contribute to the overall strength of our state economy,” said Governor Lingle.
Past HFBF research has included studies on the development of disease-resistant crops and potential niche crops like blueberries, and were performed in partnership with academic and research centers in Hawai‘i.
HFBF also co-sponsored the Hawai‘i Agricultural Theft Study with the Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture in 2005.
####
For more information, contact:
Sandra Lee Kunimoto
Chair, Board of Agriculture
Phone: (808) 973-9550
WAILUKU ? The state auditor issued a blistering report last week charging the state Department of Agriculture with mismanaging the Molokai Irrigation System while simultaneously allowing it to deteriorate over a period of decades.
The irrigation system is crucial to the island?s agriculture-based economy but draws only about 4 million gallons a day ? less than 10 percent of its projected capacity when it was first planned.
?We found that while the Department of Agriculture inherited a broken system, little has been done to learn about system problems or to create a plan to address them,? state Auditor Marion Higa wrote in her 57-page report. ?The department?s flawed management endangers agriculture in Molokai.?
However, state Agriculture Chairwoman Sandra Kunimoto called most of the report?s criticisms ?overreaching? in a telephone interview Friday.
She said she felt as though the report?s dramatic statements weren?t backed up by the actual details contained within it.
