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Even as acres of farmland lay fallow, Hawaii imports the vast majority of its food.

Hawaii legislators are starting to take steps to change that, even if they’re moving slowly. Among the bills still alive are farm-to-school measures that would put local produce into cafeterias.

But for a leading environmental spokesman the agenda has been full of tweaks and fixes rather than aggressive overhauls.

“It has been a frustrating session and it seems like it’s been a much slower year than one would have expected with a Democratic administration,” Sierra Club Hawaii Chapter Director Robert Harris told Civil Beat Thursday. “There wasn’t the level of energy or enthusiasm one would have expected.”

Dozens of bills related to agriculture and natural resource protection were introduced in January. Civil Beat has identified key proposals, some of which are still green and some of which died on the vine:

What’s Alive

• Authorizing schools to grow food in gardens for consumption in the lunch program after it’s been inspected by the Department of Agriculture —

• Establishing the Farm-to-School Program and Hawaii-grown Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program to increase school children’s access to local produce — ( stalled)

• Creating a special fund for the inspection certification, weighing or grading of agricultural commodities to be shipped into, out of or around the state —

• Requiring the state attain food sustainability standards by enumerated deadlines —

• Appropriating money to acquire a slaughterhouse in the Campbell Industrial Park — ( stalled)

• Restricting the use of geographic origin of labels advertising “Hawaii-grown coffee” for blends grown only partially in the state —

• Establishing the Hawaii State Ferry System to ferry people and cargo between the islands — ( stalled)

• Extending revised state water quality standards past the current sunset date of June 30, 2011 —

• Prohibiting certain businesses in the State from distributing single-use plastic checkout bags —

• Requiring businesses to collect an unspecified offset fee for distribution of every single-use, non-reusable checkout bag (both paper and plastic) — ( stalled)

• Establishing two new marine life conservation districts on the island of Maui and requiring the Department of Land and Natural Resources to report on the effectiveness of those districts —  (Original version was a ban on aquarium fishing in state waters)

What’s Dead

• Establishing maximum floor area for a farm dwelling and increasing the minimum lot size to 5 acres —

• Requires foods sold in Hawaii that contain genetically engineered material to be labeled with a disclosure notice — , , ,

• Creating a task force to identify problems and recommend solutions to streamline the permit, license and application process —

• Establishing a task force to ensure that the Land Use Commission considers the cumulative and long-term impacts of all development requests — ,

• Creating a task force to study agricultural land classification and appropriate uses of agricultural lands —

• Assessing a surcharge on any land reclassified equal to any increase in the assessed value of the land resulting from the reclassification —

• Designating 5 percent of the shoreline of each island as a marine life conservation district — ,

• Authorizing lease extensions of up to 65 years for demised hotel and resort premises — ,

• Deleting provision that allows landowner to designate 15 percent of property as urban as part of designation of important agricultural land — , , ,

• Increasing the length of agricultural leases with a 35-year limit to 55 years —

• Protecting agriculturally suitable lands with productivity ratings of “A” or “B” —