Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 4, 1 April 2011 — POI BILL 'GUTTED' BUT ADVANCING [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

POI BILL 'GUTTED' BUT ADVANCING

By ūuane Shimogawa

Pound forpound, legalizing the selling of handpounded poi is one of the heaviest issues in the hearts of the Hawaiian community. Two bills have been introduced this session to address the selling of poi made traditionally by stone and board, in a process known as ku'i 'ai. The House bill was killed, but the Senate's version is still alive. On March 28, Senate Bill 101 SD1 HD1 passed out of the House Consumer Protection and Commerce Committee with amendments and now sits at a fork in the road. "It's bittersweet," said Amy Brinker, a University of Hawai'i law student who helped craft the bill. "It passed, but it was gutted." The amended version of the bill exempts producers of hand-pounded poi from having to use certified kitchens and from getting a Department of Health (DOH) permit if they sell their poi directly to consumers and prepare it near a hand-washing facility. The bill then directs DOH to adopt administrative rules to ensure that hand-pounded poi is sold in a way that protects public heahh. "We could ask the Senate to adopt it as is and hope that all the floor votes go well so the bill gets sent up to Govemor Abercrombie, or we ean ask the Senators to fight for the language that was taken out, but that may

risk it getting killed in committee," Brinker said. The bill heads to conference committee, where the House and Senate will iron out their differences. Poi pounders like Earl Kawaa, a 12th-generation taro farmer, hope they'll be able to sell their handmade poi. "Here we are in 2011 and our family's ways are no longer accepted," he said. "It makes pounding poi uncomfortable." In 2009, poi maker and cultural activist Daniel Anthony was told by state Department of Heahh inspectors that he wasn't complying with regulations for selling pa 'i 'ai, or pounded undiluted taro, at a farmer's market. "They said it was because of the stone, it wasn't safe to use because the stone is porous and bacteria couldcollect in it," Anthony said. "In 2009, 1 pounded about 15,000 pounds of taro, but after you elean h, h equates to 7,000 and out of that, we gave away about SEE POI ON PAGE 33

Twenty-year-old Kalae Kauwe, lop left, and four others pounded poi at the state Capitol on March 1 4 to show their support of a hill to legalize sales of hand-pounded poi. - Photo: UsaAsato

POI Continued from page 10 3,000, ate 1,000 and sold about 3,000." Anthony claims the pa'i 'ai hill has exposed the real cha!lenge, whieh is the laek of manpower, land and water. "What we need is new statistics that talk about why it's possible," he said, adding that if a bill like the original bill passes, "I plan on going island to island to do workshops, going to people without jobs and helping them to start small." For Brinker, allowing the sale of hand-pounded poi is more than just about money. "It's social justice," she said. "It's shaping the law, reframing the debate. Instead of asking whether ku'i 'ai meets the demands of Department of Health rules, we ask whether Department of Health's rules meet the demands of indigenous practice." Brinker said both bills were very similar to the state's current home-based honey producers law, whieh exempts certain se!lers from honey-processing requirements and fromneeding a permit from the Health Department.

The original poi bills would have created an exemption for cultural practitioners to sell their pa'i 'ai, if they sell directly to consumers, maintain hand-washing facilities, go to a food safety class, and lahel their products properly. The food safety class and labeling requirements as well as other provisions were removed from the current draft of SB 10 1 . "We are not asking for a handout," eighth-generation taro farmer Jerry Konanui said at the legalize pa'i 'ai event at the state Capitol on March 14. "We are certainly not asking for money, what we are asking for is an opportunity, to break that shackle called welfare and help us stretch that one paycheck away from being homeless. It will allow us to engage in our own small eeonomie development while feeding our families." For thousands of years, this Hawaiian tradition has been a staple in the community and proponents of the bills say it's also about keeping this tradition on board for generations to eome. "Iī'll give the younger generation more opportunities," Kawaa said. "More will plant taro and when they plant, we'll go back to being 'green.' Iī'll strengthen families,

but perhaps most importantly, iī'll preserve cultural integrity." But not everyone is pounding with enthusiasmaboutthepoibills. StateRep. Robert Herkes (D, Volcano, Kainaliu), the Chairman of Consumer Protection and Commerce Committee, has said the law woukl be unenforceable. However, since he's heard from all sides of the issue, including the state Department of Health, the Hawai'i Island representative has said he'd move the bill to the next level, whieh he has. Groups like the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the Sierra Club and even the Department of Health have thrown strands of support behind it and some say it's only a matter of time before pa'i 'ai becomes legal to sell. The debate continues through the Senate bill, as Konanui, Kawaa and Anthony hope to keep this ancient Hawaiian tradition alive. "I feel like we owe it to Hawai'i," Kawaa said. "For me, it's just one small injustice." ■ Duane Shimogawa, a MidWeek Kaua'icolumnisf isaformerreporter for Hawai'i News Now anel Hie Garden Isīand.