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L BACKGROUND
<br />E kanu mea `ai o nand keiki i ka ha `i.
<br />Plant food lest your children look with longing at someone else's.
<br />`Olelo No`eau, 317
<br />The Vision:
<br />The guiding vision for agriculture on Hawaii Island articulated by the ad hoc agricultural plan
<br />committee from comments made during the thirteen public listening sessions is:
<br />A thriving and sustainable agriculture industry is a vital contributor
<br />to Hawaii County's economy, rural lifestyle, and character by producing
<br />food, fiber, energy, and ornamentals for local consumption and export.
<br />Definitions in this Plan:
<br />Agriculture is a wildly diverse industry around the world and is no less diverse and variable on
<br />Hawaii Island. This diversity has led, at times, to fragmentation of the key groups of producers,
<br />processors or consumers who collectively comprise the agriculture industry. To clarify that an
<br />island -wide plan intends to embrace agriculture in all its possible forms, the following are terms
<br />and definitions used in this plan:
<br />Agriculture: The art or science of cultivating the ground to produce food, fiber, energy or other
<br />tangible good for the benefit of mankind. From: Webster's New International Unabridged
<br />Dictionary, Second Edition (1961). Note that this report also includes water-based agriculture
<br />(aquaculture) for the purposes of this plan.
<br />Agriculture Enterprise: A human endeavor that specifically produces food, fiber, energy or other
<br />tangible good from the land or water resources. For this report, this definition includes all plant
<br />and animal products that can be grown, cultivated, raised or harvested from the land or water.
<br />Other common terms for this enterprise include farm, ranch, plantation, orchard, greenhouse,
<br />dairy, feedlot, fishpond, nursery, etc. Since 1975, the USDA has defined a "farm" for statistical
<br />purposes as "any place from which $1,000 or more of agriculture products were sold or normally
<br />would have been sold during the year...".
<br />Agriculture Producer: Any occupation that has decision-making authority for the production of
<br />agriculture products is included in this plan under this term. This includes but is not limited to:
<br />farmer, rancher, dairymen, horticulturalist, orchardist, floriculturalist, aquaculturist, apiarist,
<br />forest managers and nurserymen, to list just a few of the many terms embraced by the phrase
<br />agriculture producer.
<br />Agriculture Processor: Any industry that engages in cleaning, sorting, preparing, packaging, and
<br />distributing or that, in any other way, participates in modifying primary agriculture production
<br />to a consumable state is included here under this term. This includes minor processing, such as
<br />washing and sorting as well as slaughter, packaging, cooking and preparing, and extends to
<br />packing plants, distribution centers, saw mills, chippers and other industries designed to modify
<br />primary production. With this definition, the term "processor" is specifically linked to the
<br />enterprise, not the owner/operator.
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