Many from Oahu’s farming and ranching communities support a Honolulu City Council plan to potentially restore the city’s now-defunct Agricultural Development Task Force.
Introduced by Council members Esther Kia‘aina and Andria Tupola, Resolution 243 requests that the prior task force, which ended in 2019, be reconvened in order “to foster the growth and enhancement of agricultural activities on Oahu.”
“The Council seeks to reconvene the task force to ensure that the Council’s policy decisions continue to reflect and incorporate the expertise of relevant agricultural stakeholders and practitioners,” the resolution states.
Among the stakeholders, Taylor Campbell, with the Waimanalo Agricultural Association, supported the resolution’s intent.
“It’s of great importance to the agriculture community to ensure that we have a voice at the table,” she told the Council’s Planning and the Economy Committee on Tuesday.
Campbell said, “In Waimanalo there are many competing interests on agricultural lands, leading to some misuse on ag lands for unpermitted activities.”
“The task force would be able to address these issues and create solutions for the continued preservation of agricultural lands, and ultimately help to protect and relieve farmers from undue burdens,” she added.
Frederick Mencher, with the East Oahu County Farm Bureau, said his group “strongly supports the revival of the ag task force.”
“Without such an advisory body, the City Council and the county administration have no direct line of communication to hear the needs and concerns of Oahu’s farmers and ranchers,” he said.
Mencher also offered two amendments to Resolution 243.
“First, that if the task force is revived, the majority of its members (would) be active farmers and ranchers,” he said. “And second, that the list of suggested topics for review by the task force include the cost and availability of water, including water infrastructure such as water meters, water piping, irrigation systems and wells.”
Mariah Yoshizu, with the Ulupono Initiative, which advocates for locally produced food, said the new legislation supported her group’s goals as well.
“We really want to elevate these agricultural voices and make sure that they are able to support and uplift our agricultural industry,” she said.
As drafted, Resolution 243 could see the Council chair and vice chair jointly designate the members of the new task force.
It “would consist of no more than nine and no less than five members with no term limits,” and “include at least one task force member with expertise in traditional Native Hawaiian agricultural practices and food systems,” the resolution states.
If renewed, the task force could then be tasked with reviewing areas such as zoning, land use, infrastructure requirements, taxes, data gathering and analysis, food security, institutional purchasing and other demand-side improvements.
Other areas of focus would include biosecurity — to deal with invasive species — as well as economic development, permitting and certifications, the resolution states.
The task force’s objectives also could include investigating how to get more state or federal grant funding and other incentives to local farmers.
Following public testimony, Kia‘aina told the Council she believed the resolution still needed further amendments. “There’s no timeline duration on the task force members, there’s no various levels of expertise, for example,” she said.
Tupola spoke to the history of this task force as well as the role the city can play in fostering agriculture.
She noted in 2003 a prior Council urged the city administration “to designate an agricultural development officer.”
“In 2004 they suggested that a task force be created to talk about the real property taxation of ag land,” Tupola said.
The original Agricultural Development Task Force convened Jan. 10, 2005.
Still, Kia‘aina said the work of the previous task force appeared deficient.
To illustrate her point, she held up what she described as a task force report generated in 2019 that was printed on a single piece of paper.
“It’s basically a page-and-a-quarter paragraph,” said Kia‘aina. “So I just want to put everybody on notice that if anybody wants to be on this task force, I’m not going to get a report like this; the report has a narrative and explanation for everything.”
And she said, “This is not a task force you want to get on just to say you’re on a task force or for show.”
“This is serious,” she said. “And I expect a thorough report from this committee when it does come out, because I will not accept a report like this, that doesn’t basically say anything.”
Council member Tyler Dos Santos-Tam later asserted the previous agricultural task force lost momentum as time passed.
“So I think it behooves us as a Council to stay on top of them,” he said, “and to give them clear direction.”
He added, “If there isn’t an expiration date for the task force, and we’re creating this as a permanent thing, we may want to do that as an ordinance at some point and have a permanent task force that meets” consistently.
To that, Kia‘aina said. “I thought about that, but there’s something about fluidity that I like about this.”
“Because we’re not constrained by the requirements of an ordinance,” she added.
Kia‘aina said she wants to advance an amended, finalized Resolution 243 at the Council’s next planning committee meeting, Nov. 21.
