The recent World Conservation Congress meeting in Honolulu apparently triggered Gov. David Ige to reexamine core parts of his 2014 campaign and adjust accordingly.
The most glaring realignment came from his once- guiding principle to double local food production by 2020.
That target grew by a decade, becoming 2030, because as Honolulu Star- Advertiser government reporter Sophie Cocke report- ed in an interview with state Agriculture Director Scott Enright, “there has yet to be any significant increase in local food production.”
Last year, Ige was recalling his first State of the State speech and marveling at the progress his administration has made.
“The Department of Agriculture conducted a food sustainability baseline study to map farms statewide for food production. The information will be used to develop metrics for doubling local food production by 2020,” Ige reported.
Of course, you really should have some base number in mind when you start promising to double it. As Sunday’s news article pointed out, despite Ige’s “metrics” proclamation, the state does not have real numbers regarding how much of what — coffee, beef, eggs, avocados? — is produced here as compared to what’s shipped in.
That vapor pledge didn’t stop Ige from listing on his web page that one of the administration’s goals was to, “Develop a long-range plan to increase the local food production from the current 10% to at least 20% by the end of the decade.”
During the same World Conservation Congress, Ige also showed off the administration’s new “Interagency Biosecurity Plan.”
It is a good first step, and you have to hope that previous state administrations had already been working on keeping Hawaii from becoming infested with coqui frogs, tiny fire ants and the assorted burrowing nematodes chomping our banana plants. But they are here, so maybe not.
Be that as it may, the Ige plan turns out to be more of a plea, than an actual plan.
The executive summary of the biosecurity plan admits that the state Agriculture Department lacks management technology and an inspection facility, does not have a biocontrol lab or the ability to restrict certain commodities inspected and does not have enough staff.
The plan points out that the state Health Department is “operating at 60 per- cent of the capacity needed to fight diseases such as dengue, Zika and chikungunya.“
The University of Hawaii, Ige’s plan notes, lacks stable funding for agricultural and invasive species programs.
Finally, the plan is candid enough to also say the private industry does not have the infrastructure to handle inspected cargo and lacks the needed outreach and help for farmers, growers and the public.
“Achieving this vision will require hard work, policy development and financial commitment,” the summary concludes with more of a pep talk than a plan.
Ige, however, was not finished. He also touched on his energy plans, including the little-discussed undersea energy cable.
Although solar has always been the bright spot in Hawaii’s energy future, Ige told meeting delegates last week that “Geothermal holds particular promise as a clean and firm energy solution that is also low-cost.”
Ige said he wants to link the state’s counties via cable.
“Since existing technical analyses show that Oahu lacks resources and sites to economically move beyond 25-30 percent renewable energy on its own, investing in undersea cable infrastructure is the pathway to an energy future that breaks our addiction to fossil fuels,” Ige said.
Get ready: The little- noticed speech sets in motion the next two years of the Ige administration.
Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.
