You are all invited to participate in a Food Security Forum this evening at 6pm at Mapunapuna Olelo, 1122 Mapunapuna Street, Honolulu, HI (808) 834-0007
Come listen to experts discuss what needs to be done to shift Hawaiiʻs agriculture from big farms, plantation style to diversified ag that grows food for Hawaii.
this can make the difference between eating and starving when our supply lines are disrupted by natural disaster, terrorism or transportation strikes.
Just wait till you are paying for a billion dollar plus high power electrical transmission cable to Maui. Civil Beat looks at the numbers. There are alternative. We can produce the power we need right here on Oahu.
The Environment Caucus steering committee has had several very interesting conversations about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and frankly they have changed my mind on the unknown dangers of GMOs.
This is a great article on GMOs and a very interesting blog. Read it and learn.
This call to action is posted for those who are interested in the plastic bag bill which will require vendors charge a fee for disposable bags with said fee funding the DLNR watershed initiative. The Environmental Caucus supports HB2483.
HB2483 will be heard 4/3/12 at 2:45pm in rm 225.
If you can submit testimony personally, please do so.
If you prefer to submit you testimony electronically, here are the details.
To submit testimony:
1) go to this site: http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/submittestimony.aspx
2) Type in “HB1893” in the box under “enter a measure” and click on “submit”
3) The date, time, etc. for the hearing will appear in green
4) Then enter your personal information, click on “individual” and click “oppose”
5) Then scroll down to the “additional comments” box, add your personal comments/
sentences into the box (OR write up your comments and save as a document, use the “browser” box, and it will upload for you).
6) Then click the little “I agree to terms” box at the bottom, and hit “SUBMIT”
It will automatically be sent to the Chair of the Committee.
Posting courtesy of Laura Thielen.
Please read this, and if you are concerned about what is happening, cut and paste the email addresses at the bottom and send an email to the Legislature TODAY.
The Legislature is poised to pass two bills that will eradicate more high quality farmland than Ho’opili.
SB 2341 allows vacation rentals on agricultural lands, including the highest production lands. Even worse, vacation rentals can be the primary use, no farming is required.
SB 2350 doubles the number of houses permitted on agricultural lots with one ohana dwelling for each farm dwelling.*
If these bills pass, the number of houses built on agricultural lands will dramatically increase and agricultural lots will be priced for their vacation rental value, not their farming potential.
The expansion of tourism has already transformed other areas, like Windward Oahu. The density of some communities doubled when ohana units were allowed. The vacation rental market dominates many neighborhoods, affecting home prices.
Nearly 16,000 acres of farmland on Oahu’s North Shore are being marketed for great views or access to the ocean. These qualities aren’t relevant to farming; they’re relevant to tourism. The bill permitting vacation rentals as a primary use will destroy any ability to assure these lands remain available for agricultural production.
The price of Oahu farmland is nearly out of reach for food farms today. These bills will make it impossible for food farms to operate. The vast majority of Oahu’s food is grown on rented land. Will landlords force farms to close when neighboring vacation rentals complain about noise, or when they realize they can increase their rental income by transforming all or some of the property to vacation rentals?
The Department of Agriculture, Office of Planning, and City and County of Honolulu have all testified against these bills and the Farm Bureau has raised serious concerns.
Our Constitution requires the State to assure the availability of agricultural lands for agriculture. The law requires directing non-agricultural uses away from the best farmland. Several bills before the Legislature this session support increasing local food production.
How is it that the Legislature on one hand says it supports agriculture, but on the other hand takes action to pass laws that will transform the agricultural district into the rural tourist district?
The Senate unanimously passed both bills. They are now at the House Committee on Water Land and Ocean Resources.
Contact legislators at the links below and tell them to stop SB 2341 and SB 2350.
Email addresses for Chair Jerry Chang, Vice Chair Sharon Har and Committee members:
repchang@capitol.hawaii.gov; rephar@capitol.hawaii.gov; repcabanilla@capitol.hawaii.gov; repcarroll@capitol.hawaii.gov; repcoffman@capitol.hawaii.gov; repherkes@capitol.hawaii.gov; repito@capitol.hawaii.gov; repkawakami@capitol.hawaii.gov, repnakashima@capitol.hawaii.gov, repriviere@capitol.hawaii.gov, repthielen@capitol.hawaii.gov
* While the ohana unit bill was amended to take out Oahu, it just as easily can be put back in, now or next year.
The Environmental Caucus
of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i presents
The First of a Four Part Series
FOOD SECURITY 101
An Introduction to Food Security in Hawaiʻi Nei
Why is food security such a hot topic at the capital?
What exactly does it mean to be food secure and how venerable is our State?
Please join this live 90-minute call in discussion with some of the States top experts. You may attend either in person or from the comfort of your own home. Call in information will be provided during the event.
This event will air on cable channel 49
March 14, 2012
7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
or join us in person at
‘Ōlelo Māpunapuna Community Media Center
1122 Māpunapuna Street, Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96819
Neighbor Islanders may attend though
Livestream available at: http://www.olelo.org/live
Channel 49
Topics and featured speakers
The Agricultural Renaissance: Esther Kia‘āina & Giorgio Caldarone, Kamehameha Schools
Ho‘omaopopo Na Mea Ai (Defining Food Self-Sufficiency): Representative Faye Hanohano, Hawai‘i State Legislature
Variables in Food Security: George Kent, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Hawai‘i
Moderated by Gary Hooser
Director Office of Environmental Quality Control
agricultural committee will be hearing this ECDPH platform issue February 1, 2012, Wednesday morning at 8am in Room 312 of the Hawaii State Capitol. We need to send in or personally attend and give public testimony from the people of Hawaii who are concerned and support local livestock farming and true food security. ECDPH first introduced this bill last year. ECDPH can now stand proud that our voices have been heard, in the efforts to support the need for local agribusiness cooperatives that will support many small family farmers as one united voice. Hawaii farmers can maintain economic self sustainability by supporting or creating small local feed mills within a good agribusiness cooperative. The 2011 Oahu County Democratic convention agreed with the ECDPH and supported and adopted Resolution SCR 81 as part of the Oahu County Democratic convention platform. We will be encouraging the State Democratic convention to adopt this same resolution to provide the support for programs regarding Agribusiness Cooperatives and local feed mill production across Hawaii nei.
Please send in your testimony and let our legislators at the State Capitol know we are waiting for solutions to food security for all people of Hawaii.
Please click on this link attached and say yes I support HB2363 :
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/submittestimony.aspx?billtype=HB&billnumber=2363
The Solar Industry vs. HECO – Not So Hostile
Flickr: US Army Environmental Command
It wasn’t a boxing match. But representatives from Hawaiian Electric Co. and the solar industry presented opposing visions of Hawaii’s clean energy future Monday at a meeting sponsored by the Environmental Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaii.
Unleashing Rooftop Solar Energy through More Efficient Government
From Energy.gov website Submitted by Ramamoorthy Ramesh on June 1, 2011 – 11:45am
http://blog.energy.gov/blog/2011/06/01/unleashing-rooftop-solar-energy-through-more-efficient-government
Across the country, the race is on to drive down the cost of solar energy. And a new challenge through the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative could help slash the costs even faster.
We are challenging cities and counties to compete nationwide to cut the red tape that can push up the price tags on solar energy projects.
One of the highest hurdles for would-be investors in residential and small commercial solar energy installations is navigating the differing and expensive administrative processes required to get their solar panels from the drawing board to the rooftop.
Today the Department of Energy announced a new challenge in which teams of local and regional governments compete for funds to help bring down administrative barriers to residential and small commercial photovoltaic (PV) solar installations by streamlining, standardizing and digitizing their administrative processes. The Rooftop Solar Challenge will also spur participating cities and states across the nation to enable innovative financing programs to help homeowners and entrepreneurs install solar energy systems on their homes and businesses.
Up to 40 percent of the total cost of a solar energy system is the result of balance of system costs, which include the capital required to pay for siting, permitting, and installing a solar energy project and connecting it to the grid.
By challenging local governments to cut their upfront fees and paperwork and standardize their permitting processes, the Challenge will not only reduce the cost to homeowners and businesses of installing solar energy systems, but it will also save money and time for local governments already struggling with tight budgets.
Using the Administration’s “Race to the Top” model, the Rooftop Solar Challenge incentivizes local governments to find new ways to tackle old problems and use the best of those innovative solutions as models for other regions. To participate, cities and counties will build teams with other local governments in their state or region, as well as with other critical stakeholders such as their local utility and their state energy office, to develop a step-by-step plan for how they will meet the goals laid out in the Challenge.
The Rooftop Solar Challenge will encourage participating government teams to compete in four critical areas: standardizing permit processes, updating planning and zoning codes, improving standards for connecting to the grid and increasing access to financing. Each team must submit data, including information about their current permitting and grid interconnection processes to establish the baseline against which to measure the progress they make during the year of the Challenge.
The Rooftop Solar Challenge will make it easier for investors to capitalize on all of the benefits of solar energy technologies, support jobs for solar installers, create new opportunities for small solar companies across the country and help the U.S. remain a top competitor in this key renewable energy market.
The Rooftop Solar Challenge will be funded with $12.5 million as part of the SunShot Initiative, which aims to make solar energy cost-competitive with traditional forms of electricity by reducing the total installed cost of solar energy systems by 75 percent before decade’s end.
For more information and to follow the progress of the Initiative, visit the SunShot Initiative site.
Ramamoorthy Ramesh is the Director of the SunShot Initiative and Solar Energy Technologies Program
Posted by Lisa Hinano Rey