Food and farming advocates look to state budget after mixed results this session

Despite a bumper crop of food and agriculture bills being submitted this session, several marquee pieces of legislation appear to be on death’s door. 

But agricultural advocates are hopeful that some of those bills might yet appear in the state budget which is due to be released within the next couple of days. 

The number of bills aimed at revitalizing Hawaiʻi’s agriculture sector that have passed through conference committees both deflated and buoyed industry advocates, and they now wait for the full state budget to understand what the industry will take from this legislative session. 

Some long-fought draft legislation made it through the conference committee Friday, but other big ticket items that were asking for state funds fell by the wayside as lawmakers scrambled to make the deadline.  

“We were hoping that a few more agriculture bills would get passed. There were some that sort of made it at the last minute and others that didn’t because we were waiting on approval,” Rep. Kristin Kahaloa, vice chair of the House Agriculture and Food Systems Committee, said in an interview. 

Bills that did not make the cut this session include several tax credit initiatives for farmers and ranchers, a plan to reboot the state’s meat inspection program and various bills that would benefit hunger initiatives statewide. 

One bill asked for $3 million in state funds to be injected into the Double Up Food Bucks program which doubles the dollar of recipients of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s when they buy local produce. 

Those state monies would be matched by the federal government, and would bring $12.6 million in economic benefits for Hawaiʻi, a potential “triple win” for the state that benefits farmers and consumers along with the economy, supporters argue.

But Kahaloa says a “small glimmer of hope” remains because it may be slotted into the the state budget.