This move comes in response to deceptive labeling concerns and a recent report from the Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture, which offered clear economic justification for the Legislature to increase the minimum content required for a product to bear the Kona name on its packaging.
The state is reporting progress in the transfer of state leases for pastoral and agricultural lands from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to the state Department of Agriculture. “The transfer of these leases, representing tens of thousands of acres, will help to further preserve important agricultural lands and support the state’s self-sufficiency,” said Gov. Green.
The PDP is a statewide project with the second pesticide collection event to be on Maui on Friday, Dec. 15, 2023 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The registration deadline is Friday, Nov. 24, 2023 by 4:30 p.m. The exact drop-off location on Maui will be provided only to registered participants.
On Oct. 11, the resident found five large grubs (larvae) in a decaying palm tree stump on the property and reported it to the Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle Response Project. Staff from the Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture responded to the site and collected the specimens which were sent to a University of Hawai‘i laboratory in Honolulu where a DNA-based test was used to identify the grubs as coconut rhinoceros beetles.
The new interim rule follows the first detection of CRB on Maui three weeks ago, when a dead adult CRB was found in a bag of compost shipped from O‘ahu at a Maui retailer. No other CRB has been detected on Maui. However, the efforts to restore the land and soil on Maui and Hawai‘i Island due to the wildfire damage have increased shipments of compost and organic landscaping material from O‘ahu, increasing the risk of the transport of CRB to non-infested areas.