Seeds Of Wellbeing - SOW

Ep 65. Hawaii Farm Bureau

• CTAHR SOW Podcast Team

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You have probably heard of Hawaii Farm Bureau and their annual state-wide farm fair and their annual convention, but did you know that they are first and foremost an advocate for farmer-focused Hawaii agriculture bills? Did you know that if you have an idea for a bill that could help Hawaii agriculture that there is a path to working with the Farm Bureau to make it a law? In this episode we speak with Executive Director Brian Miyamoto about the work of HFB and why you may want to be involved.

Brought to you by University of Hawaii College of Tropical Ag. and Human Resilience (CTAHR), and the Seeds of Well-being (SOW) Project. This podcast is supported by the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN) grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture and Hawaii Department of Agriculture.

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Jim:

The views, information, or opinions expressed in this episode are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience, our funders, or any of the organizations affiliated with this project. Welcome to a Seeds of Well Being Experts in the Field podcast, featuring Hawaii agriculture producers and affiliates working in their field of expertise to support agriculture in Hawaii, in the United States, and in some cases around the world. These podcasts are made possible by a grant from the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience, also known as CTAHR, and the Seeds of Wellbeing, or SOW project, and is supported by a grant from the US Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and the Hawaii Department of Agriculture

Brian Miyamoto:

Farm Bureau, although we're located, our office here on Oahu, we're a statewide organization with 11 county chapters across the state. We've got three here on

Oahu:

East, West, and South Oahu Farm Bureau, Maui Farm Bureau, Molokai Farm Bureau, Kauai County Farm Bureau, and then

five on Hawaii Island:

Kona, Hilo, Kohala, Hamakua, and Kau. We are basically an umbrella ag organization representing all different types of farming practices, all different farm sizes, and all different commodities. We are the voice of agriculture, and we're here representing farmers and ranchers, because they're busy farming and ranching, so we advocate that for them. And at this Hawaii Farm Bureau, at the state level, with the state legislature, with the administration in different state departments,

Jim:

You've probably heard of Hawaii Farm Bureau and their annual statewide farm fair and their annual convention, but did you know that they are first and foremost an advocate for farmer-focused Hawaii agriculture bills? Did you know that if you have an idea for a bill that could help Hawaii agriculture, that there is a path to working with the Farm Bureau to make it a law. In this episode, we speak with Executive Director Brian Miyamoto about the work of HFB and why you may want to be involved.

Brian Miyamoto:

I'm Brian Miyamoto, the Executive Director of the Hawaii Farm Bureau. Been with the Farm Bureau for this is my 21st year, actually, got involved in Farm Bureau. Really didn't know much about it before I started working here. My sister Dale Uno was the communications director at CTAHR back in the mid 2000s and I was working at the state capital at that time. I had some ambition of running for elected office. After a couple of sessions, I came to the realization that probably wasn't a job or career that I wanted at that time. Very difficult, very noble, these public servants, but I understood that maybe this wasn't something that I thought it would be. That's why I was at the Capitol to learn a little bit more about it, it's since it was something I was interested

Jim:

I think I saw on the website about 2000 members. Is in doing, and through some conversation with my sister, she told me there's a position open at the Hawaii Farm Bureau, she thought it'd be a good match. I met the leadership then of President Dean Okimoto of Nalo Farms, and the Executive that, is that pretty accurate, in Hawaii? Director at that time, my boss, former boss Alan Takemoto. I was fortunate to get a position with the Hawaii Farm Bureau in 2005 and I've been here since. Born and raised here on Oahu, third generation here in Hawaii. And in general, we are the voice of agriculture. We're a membership organization. We're founded in 1948 by Windward Oahu Farmers. We are run by farmers, and we're affiliated with our national organization, American Farm Bureau with about 6 million members across the nation.

Brian Miyamoto:

Yes, roughly 2000 farm family members.

Jim:

Okay, yeah, and it's, it's interesting you mentioned that you decided not to be in the legislature, but I imagine, especially, you know, during certain times of year, you're spending a lot of time at the legislature, is that right?

Brian Miyamoto:

Absolutely, I mean, one of the member benefits that we have as a, as a membership organization is the advocacy that we do at the state legislature, so not only are we there during session, which runs from the third january, 3 Wednesday in January to roughly the end of April, beginning of May, but in preparation. So for a few months prior to the session, we have a government affairs meetings, committee meetings, and we formalize some of the policies that we'd like to introduce, some of the bills that we'd like to introduce, and then one session starts. We are there literally every day. We meet with our government affairs committee every week, and we testify on a number of bills, and every year there seems to be more and more legislation, not just purely agriculture, but legislation that impacts our members across the state. So a lot of ag bills, lot of business-related bills, land use, water use bills, all these different subject matters that affect our members, our producers across the state of Hawaii.

Jim:

And we, on one of our podcast episodes, I can put a link in the show notes, but we spoke with Hunter, who works out pretty closely with Hawaii Farmers Union as well in legislative issues and those is pretty involved. Do you folks collaborate at all or work together on issues?

Brian Miyamoto:

We absolutely do. You know, agriculture is a small component now of our of our economy here. You know, it used to be a real big contributor to the state. It's a lot smaller now. We're trying to grow and increase it, so we need to be collaborative and we need to have partnerships, so not just with folks like Hunter at the Hawaii Farmers Union, but the Hawaii Cattlemen's Council, Hawaii Floriculture Nursery Association, Hawaii Macadamia Association, Hawaii Coffee Association, folks like SHAC, which is on Hawaii Island, Synergistic Hawaii Ag Council, the Hawaii Aquaculture Aquaponics Association, as well, with our state agencies like ADC, Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity, Department of Business Economic Development, Tourism, DLNR, many state agencies, but as far as the commodity groups, we pretty much work with all, and for the most part, are aligned in a lot of our policy decisions and our positions, and we need to be. And working together and being able to advocate at the legislature and to educate the legislators on what is important for farmers and branches across the state is extremely important. Again, we're an umbrella organization, so all those different commodities, all different farm sizes, all different farm practices, we represent a very diverse group of producers across the state of Hawaii.

Jim:

Do you think your membership is representative of all types of farmers, then, like proportionally, or do you think it's more skewed towards larger farms or smaller farms? How does that play out do you think?

Brian Miyamoto:

Well, in general, I mean, Hawaii is made up, you know, the last census of ag reflected, I believe, around 6500 farms here in Hawaii, and majority of them are small farmers. So, if you look at the makeup of the Hawaii farm, but majority of our members are small farmers. We do have some of the larger farmers, our larger commercial farms, so again, we represent a diversity of the different stakeholders of producers here in Hawaii.

Jim:

Great. I think.. I've actually been to the Ag Conference on Oahu. You have an annual Ag Conference as well. Well, and you have a number of different conferences and events that you, you work on every year, is that correct?

Brian Miyamoto:

Absolutely. So, not only do we do advocacy again as a member benefit organization, we do a lot of outreach and educational activities to support the farming community and our membership. Well, one of our signature events is the Hawaii State Farm Fair, which is held every July this year. It's going to be July 11 and 12, and we found a new home, basically what we believe is going to be permanent fairgrounds out in Whitmore Village. And so again, one probably the largest agriculture outreach event, the Hawaii State Farm Fair. We're on our 60th year. It started off, or originally, back in the days, it was at McKinley High School. It was 10 days straight, and then over time it did move over to Aloha Stadium. It was seven days over two weeks: Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then the following weekend: Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Then we moved out to Kapolei for about four years, moved up to the Bishop Museum for two years, outgrew the Bishop Museum. Was fortunate to be welcomed out to Kualoa Ranch, which people recently think that that it's still at. Again, went down to a two day event, just a Saturday, Sunday event. Outgrew Kualoa Ranch, as big as they are, it just got very, very, very busy traffic both ways. One way towards Kaneohe went all the way to the Hygienic Store. Kind of outgrew Kualoa Ranch, and now fortunate we're on ADC land out at Whitmore Village. And it's a two-day event. It is an agriculture event, it's not a carnival, although we have some, some rides, and but it really a hands-on geared towards Hawaii families to really showcase what agriculture is here in Hawaii today. Partner with the 4H. We have the 4H Livestock Show and Auction, FFA comes out, and then we have producers and exhibitors from across the state, all part of agriculture. CTAHR always has a very big presence there. That's one of our events, as you said. We do have our annual conference, we do call it a convention, but it's acutally an annual business meeting every October. That's where our delegates come together. They vote on policy, on our bylaws, elect the officers, share reports on what's going on in different county chapters across the state. We share from a legislative standpoint, so we not only have our members come out, we do have our partners come out also, and then elected officials do come out to see what's going on in agriculture. Other county events, in fact, this weekend we've got, you know, May 30, we've got the Maui Ag Fest, Maui County Farm Bureau's big agricultural fair. Again, 4H is a strong component. Kauai used to have the Kauai Farm Bureau Farm Fair. Now it's more of a smaller activity that they hold, not as big as a farm fair used to be. And then we also operate several farmers markets. Again an opportunity for our members and for those in the ag industry. Not just, you know, produce and proteins, but also food producers and value-added folks to have an opportunity to sell directly to consumers, to engage with the consumers, opportunity for consumers to engage with the farmers and know who's growing their food, where they're growing their food, and so not only from an economic standpoint allows farmers to, you know, sell premium and sell direct and get bigger profit margins, but again, it's education. It's really great communion activities, and so we have several here on Oahu, and then we have some on the neighbor on Kauai, and our Kawai Farm Bureau runs a couple, and our Kona Farm Bureau has one in Keohole, so again our role is truly be the voice of agriculture, advocate for farmers and ranchers who are busy on their farms, on their ranch. We're a trade group or a membership organization, and most probably we are a grassroots organization. Our power comes from our grassroots members,

Jim:

And I did notice on the website, and of course, I'll put a link to that in the show notes as well. On your website, there's some details about the farmers markets, which I think folks can reference, and maybe there's a form to use to sign up if they wanted to be part of those farmers markets. I did see the different districts that are represented under the Hawaii umbrella, so I guess to go back as an example for legislative issues, how do legislative issues get decided or prioritized by you as on behalf of the farmers? Do you, is that start at the local group level and kind of move up to the to the county or to the state level?

Brian Miyamoto:

Absolutely, and real quick on the farmers markets, absolutely. If you're a member the Hawaii Farm Bureau, and you're interested in a farmer's markets, it's an online form. It's on our website, hfbf.org. Go ahead and fill that out, and you get on the list, and we do ask what you're selling again. As the Farm Bureau, you know, fresh does need to be locally grown, locally produced, value added using local products, and even our prepared foods needs to have some local component to it. Getting back to how we introduce our legislation, every year we put together a Hawaii Farm Bureau legislative package. It can range from a handful of bills, I think, during COVID, I think we had two to three bills, up to I've seen years when we have 20 bills that we are asking the legislature to introduce on behalf of the Hawaii Farm Bureau members. So the way it works is at the county level, the 11 county chapters, they would request legislation, a bill to the state committee, so the board of directors and Paul, the state committee to determine what bills or what requests are going to ultimately be on the Hawaii Farm Bill legislative package. So, for example, a county farm bill, Hilo County Farm Bill says, hey, we would like to ask that Department of Agriculture ag park leases can be extended past the 65 year, so they, as a county Farm Bureau, would submit a written request. Those requests would come up to the Government Affairs Committee, which is comprised of a chair who's normally our Vice President at the state level, and one member from every county chapter. We do allow others to participate, but they do not get the vote. I am a non-voting member on the committee as Executive Director, so every county gets one vote. They'll submit, we'll compile the requests, and then the committee will vote, whether or not. So, as a county, you have to go and justify and explain what it is that you're asking for. Does it align with the Farm Bureau policies? We have written policies. And then the committee will ultimately decide if it makes it onto the Farm Bureau package. That is also prioritized by the committee, so say there are 10 bills that make it on the committee votes for. The committee will now prioritize 1-2-3-4-5-6 in priority order, and the reason we do that in the past, usually a lot of times we'll get asked by the legislators, what's your number one priority? We can't say, oh, we're not, you know, we know that not every bill is going to pass. We don't even assume that anyone of the bill is going to pass, but again, we do. It allows us to say, okay, these are the priorities, they're all important, but this is the top priority, this is number two. So, once it's prioritized, then we present it to the House of Delegates at our annual convention in October. Now, at the annual convention, we do allow the delegates to also ask for a bill to be introduced into the package, that happens occasionally, so they'll go ahead and vote to add another bill. Again, you have to justify, you have to give the documentation how it aligns with policy, and then the committee is empowered if something comes up at last minute, even though it's been presented in October at a convention. Something comes up in November that's very urgent. Committee does have the authority again, it has to be voted on, approved by the committee to add that on. And then when we roll into session, we'll ask the legislators to introduce our bills. Normally, if it is an agricultural bill, we will ask the agricultural chairs, committee chairs in both the Senate and the House to introduce companions. If it's a water and land bill, we'll ask the water and land chair, so we'll select the chairs of the appropriate committees. Most of the time, it'll be the agricultural committee chairs. This past year, Senator Mike Gabbard and Representative Corey Chun, and they will normally introduce the bills for us, and then we'll ask our members throughout the session and our partners to submit testimony on behalf of the bills, and in the meantime, we are there with others testifying in front of the different committees to advocate and to hopefully get those policies approved and passed and funded, or whatever the case may be.

Jim:

Yeah, and I think some of your priority bills are listed on your website as well. I noticed some of the things that you're emphasizing this session. I think so. It sounds like you folks do a lot of introduction of new bills. Is it also support or advocacy for other bills that are being introduced by other means?

Brian Miyamoto:

Absolutely, we do not only advocate for the whole way farm bills. As an example, this year there was around 2800 bills that were introduced. What we do is, when the bills get introduced every session, we will screen every bill, and we will determine which bills start on the Hawaii Farm Bureau legislative tracking list. That number, I believe, was 621 bills that were agriculture related or had impact, we believe, to our members. Now, not every one of those bills would be scheduled for a hearing, but we do need to be prepared, so we start with a tracking list. This year was 621 bills, out of those 621 bills, those that got hearings, we submitted written testimony for 167 bills. So we wrote testimony for 167 different bills. Many of those bills had different committees that they went through, so we submitted a lot more written testimony, but specific for individual bills, 167 bills. According to what, what we saw with the final report 22 bills that we had submitted testimony on did end up passing. 22 agriculture related bills, so a good number of bills. We introduced nine bills, five of those bills were were approved either through state budget or as a bill. So, again, pretty good success for agriculture this year. We do have a written report. There was a lot of support for agriculture. Again, we're very appreciative to our legislature past several years, been extremely good as far as funding and policies. So, to answer your question, yes, by submitting 167 pieces of testimony, but we only introduce nine bills, that if it is good policy for agriculture, it doesn't matter, regardless whether or not we introduce it. If it's going to help our members, we will absolutely take a position on it, you know, and a supporting position. There sometimes there are bills where we think this may not be in the best interest of our, of our farming community, and our members, and we will take opposing positions on it, but again, for the most part, it's usually positions of support, and you know, we make sure that we're there to try to, or to attempt to educate the legislators on our positions. And what makes it easy for me, as the main person who's there testifying and advocating, is we do have Farm Bureau policies, so it's not like I or even the community just coming up with a position on something. We kind of have our policies that help guide us in our positions and decision making, as far as we're concerned with the legislature,

Jim:

That's great. It sounds like I have a sense now of how the locals might, might impact the state organization of the Farm Bureau. Are there ways that the national, that you're, that that you're a subsidiary of is helpful to Hawaii, and what we do here? What's that relationship like?

Brian Miyamoto:

So it's very interesting, so even at the local level, our local farm bureaus, they do what we do at the state level, at the county level, work with the county councils, work with the county mayors and their administration, sometimes with the state level will get involved, especially here when we're on Oahu right, with with some things that come in front of the sitting county of Honolulu, the county council will go on, we'll testify on a couple things, but for the most part we allow our county chapters to take care of the that level, the grass, the real grassroots level. So that being said, the American Farm Bureau national organization doesn't get as involved unless requested at the national level. We've seen situations where yes, sometimes when maybe a national organization, not necessarily the Farm Bureau, not necessarily for agriculture, comes in at the state legislature, may not be as welcome as a state entity. We depend on our American Farm Bureau Federation, our national organization, to work with Congress to work with with the administration to work with the USDA and other federal agencies that impact farmers and ranchers across the nation, which, if it impacts a certain state, they'll probably impact Hawaii also, and so that's where we mostly rely on our American Farm Bureau, the same where counties will allow the state Farm Bureau to kind of manage activity at the state level. That doesn't mean that we won't reach out for certain issues that are large issues that maybe require some federal agency or some partnerships. Absolutely. We have monthly meetings with my colleagues, monthly means with the state presidents, and so there's there's this constant interaction because we need to make sure that we're unified and united as an agriculture sector, not just here in Hawaii, but nationally, in order for us to succeed, you know, not a lot of farmers out there, right, there's what, 2% of us growing for the rest of the 98% so it's in our best interest if we stay united together.

Jim:

Yeah, I think that percentage has been shrinking regularly over the years, right? We spoke with Tim Richards too on a on one of the earlier podcasts, and I think he's he's in there swinging for the farmers when it's hard to a lot of the jobs seems to be education, because some, so few folks are connected or related to farmers these days, by comparison to the way it was in the past. So, I look at your website, it looks like the regular membership levels about$95 a year, and so if I'm, if I'm thinking like a farmer, and you know, always trying to save money or not spend money where you don't need to, then tell me, you know, why might I want to join, join Hawaii Farm Bureau? What, how much involvement might be appropriate or might be valuable to be involved with the local chapter versus the net versus the state chapter?

Brian Miyamoto:

We get that we get asked this all the time, and again, go back to, you know, our President Randy Cabral, always reminds me, and others, that our number one member benefit is the advocacy that we do, either at the county level for the Hawaii Farm Bureau, at the state level, that we've spent a little bit of time talking about, and even our national level. So, if you join the Farm Bureau, you're actually joining the County Farm Bureau, so say you join the Kona County Farm Bureau, you are a member of the State Farm Bureau and a member of the American Farm Bureau, and so again, start with the biggest benefit, the advocacy. I've had farmers say,"Hey, you know, Brian, quite frankly, the work that you folks do, we would be able to take advantage of whether or not we were members of the Hawaii Farm Bureau." and I don't disagree with them. I say, "You're absolutely right, Jim." Yes, we advocate, although we advocate for our members, the policies that we advocate impact all farmers and ranchers. So, you know, for example, one of the bills that was on the Farm Bureau legislative package was the grant writer position at Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity. That bill passed through the budget was funded, that will not only go to Farm Bureau members, that will assist all producers. So, again, we, I tell them, yes, you're absolutely right, Jim, if you don't join, but if every farmer and rancher had that mentality, there would be no Farm Bureau, and there would be no one to advocate for the things that we want for the farmers and ranchers, be it policies, be it funding, whatever the case may be, be it support, like we saw with the Kona laws, or or Maui wildfires, or other things. When farmers need, you know, I got a call from a farmer about Rose-ringed parakeets, be able to work with invasive species, so 100% membership pays for the work that we do at the county, state, and federal level from an advocacy standpoint. Just working with, you know, I had a meeting today about bovine tuberculosis on Molokai, and so we get involved with any issues that really impact our members, and sometimes it's just a singular issue, and we may be able to connect them with the appropriate parties, so that's one of the benefits. We are a membership benefit organization, or membership organization. We answer the phones all the time, leave a message, we'll call you back, send an email, we'll respond. And then you have what other membership organizations are just regular benefits of one that that people take advantage of is our HDS dental benefit. We have, we have dentists that direct their patients over to us. We have other, other travel benefits, you know, our national organization, American Farm, but works on on different benefits. One here on Oahu that people, they're not active members, so I should go back. We have two level, two major tiers of

membership:

one's an active regular member, which are farmers and ranchers or producers. It's $90 a year, plus your county do, so your county is charging $5 And then we have an associate membership, which we call Friend of Farmers. Those are your supporters. That's $60 a year. The only difference between the two, other than all the benefits you see on our website, is as an active member, as a producer, you get to serve on the boards, on committees. You can take a more active role in the organization versus a supporter, you get all the different benefits, you know, entering to the Hawaii State Farm Fair. One of the big ones that I want to talk about here on Oahu that people sign up exclusively for is you get to enter the KCC Farmers Market a half hour early, and you get some VIP parking, so you know there's some envy from from tourists or other locals that come and, like, why are they at the shopping? You do shop kind of leisurely, you know? They show off their membership cards, and they get to go in a half hour they get parking right up front, and they're done with their shopping. The freshest, most nutritious product to get the fresh flowers. Green Point Nursery is one of our regulars at the KCC Market. People line up for for the antheriums, and then you leave, and then everybody else comes in after you're done shopping. Farm fair, you get to bring your family into the Hawaii State Farm Fair. You get our award-winning, I call it award-winning magazine,"Hawaii Farm and Food Magazine," and so there's all these different benefits that lot of membership organizations offer, but again, we believe our number one benefit is the advocacy work that we do, is the work that we do on behalf of the farmers and the ranchers, and so you know we encourage everyone to join. We know there's multiple organizations, different commodity groups, and it's really tough when you know you remember this ag organization, that ag organization, this ag organization that ag organization, but again, without the memberships, it provides some income in order to do the work that we do, but also when we go to the legislature, you know, the larger the number, the louder our voice is, the larger the number of members, so it does really impact our ability to to advocate and educate when we're at the state legislature,

Jim:

and then I notice on your website there is the full list of the benefits is listed out, some of shipping is maybe another one I noticed on there that might be valuable for folks, you know, things like like John Deere and Granger and and and Ford, even right, so some names we know,

Brian Miyamoto:

Yeah, we rotate between the different auto units, GM and Ford Granger is a jewel, and it's here, you know, they have locations here that a lot of people aren't aware of what they offer. I'm glad you brought up the, the, the airlines. I actually have a little Air Cargo sitting up up here on my on my desk, you know, we offer discounts for air cargo shipping, and in light of the inflationary rate increase with Young Brothers, right, that might be very helpful for some. Although we were somewhat carved out of that bill. That's something that we advocated for. If agriculture somewhat is going to be carved out of the inflationary increase. It again shows a legislative support on top of it's something that we had lobby for years ago, having the PC authorize ocean carriers to allow for discounts for agriculture producers. So I believe it's like 30% on young brothers, so again, these are the things that we do to, you know, impact the farmers' pocketbooks, farmers and ranchers, to reduce their cost of production, so that they can be more profitable. I mean, we see it all the time, right? Farmers and ranchers, their margins, if any, are razor thin, and if we want to grow the sector, we need to make sure that the farmers can stay in business, and in order to stay in business, you have to have income, positive income, and you have to make a profit. So, again, those are the things that we try to focus on, amongst other things, at the Hawaii Farm Bureau, because we don't want to lose more farmers, we don't want to lose more agricultural lands, we don't want more gentlemen farmers and more urban encroachment. We actually want to grow the sector, you know.

We've got a lot of these goals:

double food production, farm to school, institutional purchasing, farm to food bank, which is another one of the farm bureau bills, finding money for the food banks to buy local for our families in need. And in order to do that, we're going to need the farmers, we're going to need the farmland, we're gonna need the water, we're gonna need the production, we're gonna need everything that it takes in order to grow more food, feed, fiber, fuel, and floraculture.

Jim:

And I would say I would agree that the magazine you put out quarterly, correct? That's that's it's always an interesting read for me. Is that going digital or is that still paper? What's where's that in 2026?

Brian Miyamoto:

We are in discussions, we're a little bit back on this, this current issue, and it's been a challenge, you know. Magazines, a lot, lot of times, for the most part, they're funded by ads, and we made a decision that we didn't want it full of advertising. We know that we need some in order to pay for a lot of the costs. The printing costs have gone up, the cost of our writers have gone up, and our editor. As a publisher, have to make sure that we can afford to put the magazine, because we do not charge for the magazine, we send it out to our members and to others free of charge. So all the costs are born on the Hawaii Farm Bureau. We have been in discussions on maybe, you know, doing it twice a year and doing a smaller one twice a year, also, or even exploring, as you've seen, digital, right? We kind of see that that's the trend for a lot of folks. We had some of them that we did put online when we're original or our last publisher, but it is something that we are working on that we're very mindful, but we also know that, you know, it's something that people enjoy reading, but as we plan, we try to plan for the year, the different stories we were finally, whoa, we already did that story three years ago, four years, five years, so we have our historical data, you know, because we have several featured articles, you know, our cover story, and two secondary articles. We have an organic piece, Dr. Ted Radovich does it every month. We have an industry piece, we have a talk story, you know, Q and A, we have recipes, and as we, you know, we sit down and we plan out the different issues, like, well, wow, what's new, because you want to talk about new and exciting things, and quite frankly, not every farmer or rancher wants to be in the article with a magazine, so sometimes it is, it is a struggle, but sometimes there's just some great information that we can get out, and we've, we've changed over the year. In over the years, in the past, it was truly a magazine for just our members, and we thought we needed a broader reach, so it was more for the general public, with information for our members also, right? Because, again, as a membership organization, but we try to make it a little bit more broader, as far as talking about agriculture and agriculture issues and food, so we changed it from "Agriculture Hawaii" to "Hawaii Farm and Food" magazine. I had to fight for that, because everybody wanted it, "Hawaii Food and Farm." I said we're an ag organization, fundamentally farm comes before food for us, although they're connected.

Jim:

Yeah, absolutely, you can't have food if you don't farm, right? So, if I want to be more active, right, I want to, you know, let's, let's even say that there's a bill that I'm, I really want to see passed, and is, is it naive of me to think that that's possible, or would I get together with my and meet at the county level, work with folks that are also at those meetings to try to come up with the bill of folks are in agreement, and to then be presented to the state level?

Brian Miyamoto:

Yes, that's absolutely Jim. That's actually the process. So, yes, the counties are supposed to have monthly meetings, and so they'll have monthly board meetings, and not just the members, but also just regular Farm Bureau County members can show up, and that's where you would engage on, hey, you know, this, this, this, it's this issue could be at the county level, and it would be handled at the county level, but if it's something from the state legislature, or that would be addressed at the state legislature, that's what would be the county would then propose it, and we do some of the heavy lifting, so it could be conceptually versus having a write out a bill, right? Conceptually, this is what we are proposing. This is all aligns with our policies, with our farm bill policies. We would like the government affairs

Jim:

Yeah. Well, I think you've given us some great insight into committee to consider this, so when we have, we have a simple form that the county fills out, and it says who, what county into the process and the and the focus it's from, and some basic, basic information, you know what the bill is, what the justification is, and how it lines aligns with Hawaii Farm Bureau policy, and then it's up to the committee. So what would normally happen is a committee member from that county would be the one who would be justifying it to the rest, basically selling it to the rest of the committee in order to get the vote, and then once it gets on there, it is pretty much up to us at the state level. We'll go and get the bill drafted, we usually send it back down to the county to take a look at the language, right? Is this, does this look

Brian Miyamoto:

asking came out like what you're trying to accomplish? And then once it gets introduced, we will bird dog that bill. We will send out at the state level the call to actions to our members, right, asking for support, written testimony, or oral testimony, whatever you submit testimony for this bill, but once it's on the Farm Bureau package, we will go and lobby for that bill throughout the process, and our goal every year is all of our bills, we would like them passed. If it's the first year of the biennium, doesn't even have to be the first year of the biennium, we have in normal practice, we will introduce a bill the following year if it doesn't pass a previous year. We rarely have a bill that's good for one year from a from a policy standpoint. If it's a good policy, yes, and in a lot of times it takes several years for new bills to get passed. So we will continue to advocate, and a lot of times we'll just almost as automatic get approval from the committee to reintroduce a bill that didn't pass. So we had four bills that didn't pass this year. We will ask the committee, the new committee, whoever's on the committee for this next fiscal year, would you like these to include these again on the farm think it goes to 61 years, right? Right now, you talked bill package, and again, if it's on on one year, it would make sense that it's still relevant and important to the Farm Bureau about earlier, we talked about the percentage of farmers to have it on subsequent years until it ends up passing. So producing for the rest of the nation, 2% versus 90% you said we've got bills that that been on for several years until we that number is going down, yeah, the other applies to can get it, or if it's, you know, one time funding. Ornamental red ginger funding, we've done for several years, and once it got passed, CTAHR says we're good, right, we got myself not real comfortable talking about, but understand the funding, okay, we can take that off the list, and then you that there is a need out there, and so for you know Seeds of know, add other bills, but we never really put a ceiling on how many bills, but we're also very mindful that you know it's Wellbeing to kind of fill that gap and to provide the not in our best interest to come with 20 bills. I like to see resources. I think it's a great resource, and I encourage all of anywhere from five to 10 bills, it's a lot more manageable, and you know, too many bills, there's a high probability that they won't pass. There's just too many, right? They're not going to pass all of these bills. And, as you, as you point out earlier, there are other organizations that introduce our producers out there, it may not be you, it may be your great legislation that we'd love to see, because it ultimately neighboring farmer or farmer that you're related to, or will help our members also. anybody else. Please take a look at the resources what this program can offer, and either reach out yourself or reach out on behalf of your fellow farmers. Again, we need all our farmers, we need them to be, you know, the best frame of mind to do the hard work that they're doing to produce the food, feed, fiber, fuel, floriculture that we need in Hawaii. We want to grow our industry, but we also need to make sure that their well-being is being addressed, so that they're able to continue to farm, especially with, you know, the recent Kona lows. Some of these small farmers may have lost everything on their farm. On top of that, they may have lost everything at their home, their homes, which are right by their farms, nearby in those communities. And you know, to have that kind of stress and nowhere to go, that, that, that's devastating. So, again, Seeds of Wellbeing is a great program, something that we support, and something that you know we hope that our farmers and ranchers, our producers are aware of, and ultimately will utilize.

Jim:

Thanks for that. I think from from talking to you today, it feels like maybe being part of a membership of a farmer membership association, too, is a way to connect with others that are having similar struggles and share stories, and maybe as a result support each other just through getting together at the county level on a regular monthly basis, or more often. It sounds like that that can be a resource as well to help address some of those issues and find a place where you can feel comfortable talking to people who understand. Yeah.

Brian Miyamoto:

Yes, absolutely. And that's kind of the design of our grassroots organization with the county chapters, aside from maybe Maui and Kauai, because they're one Farm Bureau county chapter, so it covers, you know, they're they're in different communities, so they're they're shared values, shared issues, right, and a lot of times they grew up together in their farm families, multi generation, so they know each other, and part of the whatever organizations say, Farm Bureau, their parents were Farm Bureau members, so they grew up in the Farm Bureau family, so there's a little bit more comfort there, and again, as you say, the support between these farmers and ranchers, so absolutely, you know, organizations like ours and other commodity group organizations can be beneficial to support each other, you know, farmers, a lot of times, are very independent, right, that's why they're farmers, but there are times when again we need to be able to support each other in the farming community.

Jim:

Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for your time today. Appreciate you being on your first ever podcast with us, and I know I hear you speak a lot, and on the news quite a bit. And so it's great to spend some time with you today, and make some information available to Hawaii ag producers. So, mahalo,

Brian Miyamoto:

Mahalo, Jim. Again, thank you for inviting the Hawaii Farm Bureau. It was a pleasure, and we appreciate this platform to really talk about the Hawaii Farm Bureau and agriculture in general.

Thao Le:

The intention of these podcast series is to create a safe space for respectful and inclusive dialog with people from across a broad and diverse spectrum involved in growing and making accessible the food we share together, a diversity of voices, perspectives, and experiences can serve to deepen mutual understanding, to spark creative problem solving, and provide insight into the complexities of our agriculture system. If you, our listeners have experiences with Hawaii agriculture ecosystem, from indigenous methods, permaculture, small holder farmers, to large, including multinational agricultural industrial companies, and everywhere in between, and you would like to share your story, please contact us. We welcome your voices and perspectives.

Jim:

We want to take a minute to remind you that the Seeds of Wellbeing project is funded to research and provide resources for Hawaii agriculture producers related to their mental health.

Thao Le:

The Seeds of Wellbeing offers services to agriculture producers and farm workers, including families who may be struggling with mental health challenges, in the form of peer support, vouchers for free services, including in-person on the farm mental health therapy, online individual mental health therapy, couples therapy, trauma-informed equine-assisted services, healing with horses, and occupational support services. Your wellness is important, so please contact us at sow.ctahr@gmail.com to claim free vouchers and allow us to support you.