Hawaii-USDA Ag Policy Summit

This is the second Hawaii-USDA Ag Policy Summit led by Lt. Governor Sylvia Luke. This was a follow-up to a larger delegation visit to USDA for the first time as an ag-focused group in May 2024. Since Secretary Vilsack is no longer leading USDA, we scheduled to meet with new leadership, Secretary Brooke Rollins. 

Nicole, HCC Managing Director, led the meeting with NRCS and advocated for continued support for the Climate Smart Commodities grants and EQIP grants, whether they are funded by IRA funds or not. 

 While many of the departments did not have a lot of answers for us, we spread the messaging that food security is national security and we can’t have food security without biosecurity. This resonated well with the administration. We also wanted USDA to begin looking at Hawaii as part of the US and removing restrictions for us sending goods to the continent. Currently, we are treated more like a territory.

In addition to USDA, we also met with commodity stakeholder groups Farm Bureau, NCBA, and BIO. All organizations were in opposition to tariffs that the administration is preparing to enact.