Kona Coffee Farmers Association
Board of Directors meeting
MONDAY, MONDAY, MAY 17, 2017
CTAHR Conference Room, Kainaliu
CALL TO ORDER— 3:00 pm
Suzanne Shriner, president
Melanie Bondera, Chris Coleman , Kay Dixon , Allan Frank , Chet Gardiner , Bob Kraus , Mike McMullen , Jim Monk, Cecelia Smith , Greg Knowles, Sandra Scarr , Suzanne Shriner , Karen Zulkowski
GENERAL
Consent Agenda – (5 min)
Approval of March and April Minutes
Approval of Membership Applications
Acceptance of Committee Reports
Motion to accept Bob K., Second Mike M. Motion approved
Treasurer’s Report – Jim M. (5 min)
Motion to accept Karen Z. , second Mike M. Motion approved
NEW BUSINESS
FY 2017-18 Budget—Discussion (15 minutes)
Discussion of each committee doing their budget.. Some confusion on expenses with treasure not here. Each committee will try to complete their budget and get it to treasure before next meeting.
Labor—Allan Frank (10 minutes)
Need more discussion on how farmers help labor. Board for pickers and who needs them. How can we help them.
Kay will bring housing requirements. Chet also interested
OLD BUSINESS
Expo Post-Mortem–Karen (10 minutes)
Good attendance. Date for next year and confirm consultant and think about speakers
Thank you by Karen to everyone who helped.
Board have more responsibility for next time. Each board member be in charge of different parts of the expo
Grant times need to be determined and the date set for next year.
Slow Food Nations – Kay (10 min) July 15 Denver Kay needs to put Names in by June 2
Mike and Bob Approved
Motion to apply for selling permit Sandra and second by Cea Motion passed
Banquet – Sandra/Chris (10 minutes)
Pre harvest dinner discussed.
Coffee for next meeting
Adjourned
Committee Reports
Science Committee
Members present: Melanie Bondera, Bob Kraus, Mike McMullen.
The members present agreed to change the name of the committee from “Pest and Disease” to “Science” to recognize broad goals of promoting and disseminating science based solutions for coffee farmers.
Melanie presented concerns on black twig borer impacting coffee production. She is organizing research collaboration with UH and ARS scientists with the goal of determining extent of problem, environmental factors conducive to BTB, interactions with alternate hosts, and possible control methods. The group will be looking for a number of farms on which to conduct multi-year studies. The Committee supports this effort and Melanie will present to full board when more details of the study plan are available.
Suzanne brought to the Committee’s attention an opportunity with EPA to delist or reduce regulations on the use of Beauvaria for CBB control. The Committee approved the plan to submit a letter of intent to EPA. We are particularly interested in the ability to use local strains. There were a couple of concerns raised: limit the request to Hawaii as relaxing Bb in all states may lead to effects on non-target species in other agricultural settings, and concern if farmers “grow their own” that pure local stains be made available to farmers so be sure of what farmers are growing. Suzanne will take the lead in working with ARS scientist to meet a May 15 deadline for initial letter of intent.
The committee discussed the potential impact of climate change on HI’s coffee farmers. The committee agreed to begin work on a long-term plan to improve resilience to climate change and to support efforts to increase awareness of the scientific bases of the problem.
The committee began a discussion for preparing recommendations for revised standards for Kona coffee. Emphasis was placed on needs for information for making informed recommendations. This will be a major, long term, focus of the Committee.
Web Tech Committee report for May 15, 2017
Emails to Members: EXPO Tomorrow, May 2017 Independent Voice and Saturday Selecting Workshop (2).
Face Book posts: Facts About Coffee, Warning about Honey Bee Swarms, Happy Earth Day with photo, EXPO poster (2), EXPO photos, etc. May’s Independent Voice, and Selecting Workshop
Posted to KCFA website: Roasting Workshop, EXPO Today!, EXPO Photos and May 2017 Independent Voice. “Selecting Workshop” is listed as an Event.
From Membership Chair Chet Gardiner: " Our esteemed and responsive web guru Val added two new buttons for membership management that allows us to send out New Member and/or Renewed member emails filled in with the member's information. That will save your humble Member Chair a significant amount of work in cases like the recent Expo where Chair had to convert expired to active and add a new member -- that unlike someone renewing or becoming a member on-line did NO automatically generate the email..."
Respectfully submitted,
Cecelia Smith
Legislative Update
1—Extension of Current Coffee Grade Standards—On March 14, 2017, the Board of Agriculture accepted the minutes of public hearings (including the March 7 hearing in Kona) and adopted amendments submitted by the Hawaii Department of Agriculture (HDOA) to the administrative rules for an extension of the current coffee grade standards. At the EXPO on April 28, HDOA Chair Scott Enright advised that the amendments have been forwarded to the Governor for signature. The extension of the “sunset” date through June 30, 2020, will provide a much needed additional 3 years for the coffee farmers of Hawaii Island, Maui and Oahu to continue to develop and implement measures to combat Coffee Berry Borer (CBB). Many KCFA members submitted written testimony and others testified in person at the March 7 hearing at the West Hawaii Civic Center.
2—HB186: HDOA Subsidy Program for Beauveria bassina (Bb)—On April 26, the Senate/House Conference Committee reached agreement on a final version of HB186 to extend for 2 additional years (to June 30, 2021) the HDOA-administered subsidy program for coffee farmers purchasing Botanigard and Mycotrol to combat CBB. The amended version from the Conference Committee was subsequently passed by the Senate and House, and was transmitted to the Governor on May 3, 2017. Unfortunately, the section for additional funding for the program was stripped from the bill. It is uncertain when current funds will be exhausted. At the EXPO, Scott Enright pledged that the HDOA will seek to provide resources to continue the program if the Legislature fails to appropriate funds again next year. Many KCFA members sent written testimony to the 5 separate committee hearings supporting the bill.
3—HB256: Fair Labeling for Hawaii Coffee—At the EXPO on April 28, 126 Hawaii County residents signed the following Petition. The Petition was presented to Tim Vandeveer at the Democratic Party’s Hawaii County Convention on May 6. The Petition reads:
Petition
4/28/17
To: Tim Vandeveer, State Chairman
Democratic Party of Hawaii
We, the undersigned residents of Hawaii County, respectfully request that you convey to the Democratic Party Leadership of the Hawaii House of Representatives our disappointment and concern that the Fair Labeling for Coffee Bill (HB256—50% minimum genuine content and identification of origins in “blends”) was killed behind closed doors and without a hearing by the Chairman of the Consumer Protection and Commerce Committee. This action disregarded an express resolution from the 2016 State Democratic Party Convention (BUS/AG 2016-03) and the inclusion of HB256 in the Democratic Party’s 2017 Package of Legislative Priorities.
Name (print) Signature Address
Membership:
Counts (05/12/17):
Active Voting Members 205
Associate Members 31
Supporting Business Members 19
Total Membership: 255
New Members|
*Voting:
Mark Dubay, Ray Vater, Chuck Ponthier, Bruce Craven
*Associates:
*Business:
Sharron Statham - Holualoa
Raymond Suiter - Kona Coffee Purveyors - Expired to Active 5/4
*At Coffee Expo - 4/28/17
NEW Voting: Luiz Kona - Kona Coffee Hunter
*Associate renewed:
Kima Brickland
*Expired to Active:
James Biven (2 yrs), Patricia Eames, Roger Hudlow, Bud Jenkins, Anita Kelleher
*Expired to Supporting:
Michael Braun, Emmerich Grosch
*Reported as Expired:
Patrick Loftus, Michelle Joven, Claudio & Beth D'Angelo, Gary Queen, Mario Panccia, Bill Downs, Terrance Shay, Carol Okamura, Nancy Pisicchio, Gary Washington
Education Committee
On May 13, the Vertical Selection workshop was held at Lehu’ula Farm in Kainaliu. Bob Smith and Bob Nelson led the class. Approximately 25 people attended and one new member was registered.
