Several Oʻahu lawmakers are looking to revive a group meant to support agriculture on the island.
The Agricultural Development Task Force was first established in 2005 but has been inactive since 2019, according to a resolution being considered by the Honolulu City Council.
The nine-member group of agriculture stakeholders and practitioners would recommend policies in zoning, land use, infrastructure, and other issues that would affect farming and food production on the island. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2022 census, there are about 1,000 farms and 60,000 acres of farmland on Oʻahu.
Advocates of the measure and the task force say it would give farmers a voice in city decisions.
They said it would have helped the council as it overhauls the city’s Land Use Ordinances via Bill 64, including recent discussions by the council on how to manage farmland.
“ It’s of great importance to the agricultural community to ensure that we have a voice at the table. And if the task force had existed before the undertaking of Bill 64, it would have been able to provide really valuable guidance from a farmer’s perspective from the get-go,” said Taylor Campbell, a farmer and board member for the Waimanalo Agriculture Association, in a meeting on the resolution last week.
That’s in part because there are competing uses for land on the island, and in Waimānalo, Campbell said it leads 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,” Campbell said.
Frederick Mencher, president of the East Oʻahu County Farm Bureau, echoed those sentiments in his support for reviving the 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 Oʻahu’s farmers and ranchers,” Mencher said.
He said he wants a majority of the task force to be comprised of people actively farming. He wants the group to discuss the cost and availability of water to farmers, including infrastructure like water meters, piping, irrigation systems and wells.
The group, if reconvened, would be required to report its findings and recommendations to the council, mayor, and other leadership in the city’s administration, no later than a year after the resolution is adopted.
Councilmember Esther Kiaʻāina, who co-introduced the measure with councilmember Andria Tupola, said she plans on amending the resolution depending on input from the local agriculture community. She noted that it doesn’t specify the term lengths for task force members or levels of expertise.
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