Lawmakers Plan To Revive Old Bills For Future Of Food And Farming … As the focus on local food production continues, lawmakers and lobbyists want to make farming and ranching easier in Hawaii.
The recipe for getting more local food into schools is set for a rewrite when the Legislature returns to work next month.
Passed last session, House Bill 817 mandated state agencies to begin a graduated scheme to eventually source 50% of their food in state by 2050. But in the coming session, it will be reworked to focus on the biggest buyers of local food, including the Department of Education, according to Rep. Scot Matayoshi, who introduced the bill.
It’s one of several bills that the Legislature plans to take up in the 2022 session, which opens Jan. 19, that focus on historical and new issues compromising Hawaii’s food production. As the focus on local food production intensifies, civic groups and lobbyists are eager to focus on infrastructure, land regulation, biosecurity, technology and workforce development, though a full picture of what is to come has yet to be established.
