UPDATE D of A hearing—Can Industrial Hemp be Grown in South Maui? Opinions vary.

UPDATE 4/13/17   The State Department of Agriculture has announced a public meeting next month at their facility  in Kahului, where they will accept public testimony.  At 9:00 AM on Wednesday May 17,2017 public testimony on proposed growth rules will be accepted at.635 Mua St Kahului  .

UPDATE 4/2/16. passed committee yesterday, but a few more parliamentary steps before it reaches Governor’s Desk for signature

UPDATE 3/30/16  No, not an April Fool, the hearing at FIN is Friday 4/1/16 1:00 PM, so now is the time to submit testimony on SB 2659.

UPDATE 3/25/16  As you see, almost two years the General Membership Community meeting addressed industrial hemp. In the 2016 session of the State Legislature some bills were introduced concerning this item, and SB 2659 has moved successfully through the Senate, moved over to the House and passed the JUD committee and is next up in the FIN Committee ”soon” (we expect week of 3/28/16) See  http://tinyurl.com/zk429wo.  

As anyone familiar with this process, there are no guarantees until the session is pau, and the Governor signs a bill into law, but in our estimation, is looks positive.

Many in our community believe this crop could at least be some part of the soon vacated sugarcane lands, and in ours, it should be available to any farmer who wants to grow it on his land.  Stay tuned.

4/16/14   At last evening’s (4/15/14) general membership meeting focused on industrial hemp, listening to Hawaii Farmers Union United’s President Vincent Mina address this issues and more and while the membership heard from KCA past president George Rixey discuss the benefits of Hempcrete in architectural designs and construction, it seemed that there was unanimous consent that it would be beneficial to grow this historic crop in our area. Whether it come to fruition was another matter.

With H C and S’s scheduled first public meeting on their long standing growth and production of sugar cane in south Maui scheduled at the same time in Kahului, we expected a reduced number of participants. In fact we had a few suggestions to cancel our meeting, but that is not our policy. But about fifty did attend , showing strong interest in both topics, and saw the relationship of the issues, since growing industrial hemp could be done on some of the very lands where H C & S presently grows cane.

As we await the results of the H C & S meeting in the media, we physically observed from Mina’s and Rixey’s variety of samples the variation of soil samples, both healthy and not, cultivated by agricultural uses, as well as the finished hempcrete products used in construction. Attendees were also show a few video samples from “ Bringing it Home,” a documentary on hempcrete. (See links to view,) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZAvYsAXwVM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yZUekID5lk#t=287

Look for a profession report on the meeting in next week’s Maui Weekly

Our May 20 meeting takes us back to our roots with the general topic of water, and more specifically, ” Water Resources and Management in Hawaii and how it affects South Maui” l featuring two very knowledgeable guys, William Tam, Deputy Director for Water at DLNR, and State Water Commissioner Jonathan Starr.