Take a look at the images below. These charts illustrate the crop summary by acreage for the past 35 years. Over this period, the total "crop acreage" for crop production dropped significantly from 350,830 acres to 151,830 acres. As Civil Beat published an article about the Hawaii Department of Agriculture's Statewide Agricultural Baseline Project report earlier today, the Senate Committee on Water, Land, and Agriculture passed a bill I introduced, SB2795, to establish an "agricultural land acquisition fund".
Article XI, Section 3 of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii outlines the State's responsibilities to conserve and protect agricultural lands yet the State has no dedicated fund to achieve this mission. Over the years, the approach to buy ag land was achieved by the legislature on a year-to-year basis. For example, each year we (the legislature) requested in the State's budget, a specific amount of funding to purchase lands listed for sale by Dole Food Company Inc. Since 2012, the legislature has appropriated funding each consecutive year to continue to buy specific parcels of ag land thus increasing the State's inventory.
If we are serious about decreasing our food imports and moving towards food sustainability and security, then we need to prioritize our investments and focus on acquiring prime ag land.
Contact:
State Capitol Room 202 | 415 S. Beretania Street | Honolulu | HI 96813
P. 808.586.6090 | F. 808.586.6091 | E. sendelacruz@capitol.hawaii.gov
