Farmer William Greenleaf was “thrilled” with a proposed bill that would designate land for regenerative farming practices, prioritize local food consumption and reduce the use of harmful chemicals in Kula soil.

The Maui County Council is considering a measure that would implement organic standards and regulations in the expansion area of the Kula Agricultural Park and allow local farmers increased access to labor and land resources to support growing of local food.

The expansion area covers about 260 acres of county-owned land that borders Omaopio and Pulehu roads, according to county documents.

“The new park is really rough; I’ve walked the land three times. It’s going to need some work and farmers that start there, I think regenerative farmers, that’s the perfect place for them — they are really good at building soil fertility and that soil has been ignored for a long time,” Greenleaf said during the council’s Agriculture and Public Trust Committee meeting on Tuesday. “It will be a great project for Maui County to see the difference … When it starts to come alive with beautiful food, it’s gonna look like art.”

Chemicals that are sprayed on agriculture kill the microbes in the soil, he added. And, when the microbes die, “that’s the end of soil fertility.”

The committee voted 5-0 to recommend passage of Bill 160, which plans to address some of those concerns by only allowing a particular list of pesticides and fertilizers for use on lots in the Kula Agricultural Park Phase I expansion area. Failure to comply with all provisions of the lease could lead to termination of the lease.

To grow organically, crops must be grown away from chemically sprayed agricultural lots, said Committee Chairperson Shane Sinenci, so this expansion project “provides a great opportunity to farmers” to grow natural food crops and promotes “ecosystem health.”

It also updates the rules of the Kula Agricultural Park Committee to have 11 instead of nine members, and amends various lease requirements, as well as prioritizes food for local consumption and establishes a waitlist for prospective lessees, Sinenci said.

These amendments only apply to the 260-acre expansion area.

According to the bill, pesticides and fertilizers allowed in the expansion area would include:

• Pesticides and fertilizers listed as “allowed” on the federal government’s National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances are permitted.

• “Minimum risk pesticides” exempt from registration under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act.

• Disinfectants, germicides, bactericides, miticides and virucides; insect repellents, and rat and rodent extermination products; general use paints, stains, wood preservatives and sealants; and citric acid, as long as each is used in compliance with manufacturer specifications.

Annually, expansion area tenants must submit to the committee a report of all the fertilizers and pesticides used on the farms for the year, including date and product used.

Tenants don’t have to be certified as organic; they just need to adhere to the permitted substance list.

“Chemical farming is a thing of the past in the ag circles I live and work in,” said Georgia Pinksy of Kaupo, who has been working in beginner farmer training since 2017. “A common passion for good, clean food while feeding others while feeding the earth is essential to our vision and dreams and goals. Pesticide drift is real.”

Water quality scientist Robin Knox said during testimony she was “really happy” to see this proposed bill considering that unnatural fertilizers and pesticides can contaminate the groundwater, stormwater and soils.

“Regenerative practices can help correct what has been done in the past,” Knox said. “As a consumer, I seek out organic and locally grown (food) and that is kind of the holy grail that is sometimes hard to find. We have some, but often I have to buy conventionally grown if I want local or buy weeks-old organic (food) that was shipped in and I don’t think either one of those are satisfactory.”

The supply-and-demand market also needs organic farmlands more so than it needs conventional farmlands, said Autumn Ness, director of the Hawaii Program of Beyond Pesticides and co-founder of the Maui Food Hub.

“If we, as a body, are going to build a system that really increases production and consumption of local food, we have to respond to that market,” Ness said. “We hear over and over again that we need new, young farmers because our farmers are aging out. … We need those emerging farmers to get on land.”

Getting on land — and land with water sources — is often challenging and is the biggest barrier for emerging farmers, which is why Ness is hopeful that the affordable lease rates in the park’s expansion area will allow local producers to access plots in order to grow and sell reasonably priced food on island for community consumption.

“We have to create an environment that allows that to be a successful career in this economy. We have to create a system that supports that career choice,” Committee Vice Chairperson Gabe Johnson added.

Organic is the fastest growing sector in the U.S. food industry with sales increasing by double-digits annually, jumping by a record 12.4 percent to $61.9 billion in 2020, Johnson said.

“Organic agriculture can and should be used as an economic development tool,” he said.

Bill 160 would also prioritize farmers growing food for local consumption over non-food crops or crops for export, which Maui resident Brian Lehmann testified in support of on Tuesday.

“This is something that Maui needs and could benefit from,” Lehmann said of the proposed legislation.

The 11-member Kula Agricultural Park Committee, which will serve as an advisory body, will be made up of representatives from the University of Hawaii’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources; Maui County chapter of Hawaii Farmers Union United; Maui County Farm Bureau; tenants of the expansion area; and GoFarm Hawaii, farm apprentice mentoring program or a comparable farmer-education program.

The new Maui County Department of Agriculture, which will work with the committee, must maintain a waitlist of prospective lessees, Sinenci said. Priority for new leases and subleases must be given to those on the waitlist.

Council Members Tamara Paltin, Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, Mike Molina, Sinenci and Johnson voted in support of the bill with amendments. Alice Lee and Kelly King were excused.

* Dakota Grossman can be reached at dgrossman@mauinews.com.