Senator Mike Gabbard, Chair of the Agriculture and Environment Committee, made the following statement today praising Governor David Ige for signing HB 1819 into law to legalize the growing, processing, and sale of industrial hemp in Hawai‘i:
“Given the devastating impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had
on our economy, the signing of HB 1819 is a bright spot that has big potential for local agriculture. Soon, we’ll have local farmers applying to the USDA for licenses to finally move forward with commercial hemp operations. It’s been a long time coming since former Governor Ben Cayetano declared Dec.14, 1999 as Hawai’i Industrial Hemp Day and unfortunately our government fell asleep, as it tends to do sometimes. At the request of a dear friend who passed away recently, I introduced four bills from 2014 to 2018 that became law, which included a U.H. hemp research study and setting up a pilot hemp research program. Hemp is an amazing crop that can create over 25,000 products. The key is developing a cottage industry with Hawai‘i branding that will set us apart from the global competition. I’m hopeful hemp will help diversify our economy and create opportunities amid and beyond these extremely difficult times. Hemp, hemp, hooray!”
Governor Ige signed the bill into law as Act 14 on August 27, 2020.