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Jeffrey Dias, a 71-year-old cattle rancher on the Big Island, has been working the same 7 acres of land for the past 40 years. According to his sister, Sheila Dias, the land has been in the family for generations.

“Our father worked on that land,” she said. “Our father’s father worked on that land. We were born and raised here, and we’re one of many born and raised here.”

While the family occasionally sells its cattle to feedlots, their land is primarily used for subsistence farming — something that they said used to warrant a tax break, making the land reasonably affordable.

Now, thanks to a series of Hawaii County bills designed to restructure the island’s agriculture programs, the Dias family could be slapped with a 1,900% increase in taxes, making them pay up to $4,000 a year.

“My brother at 71 still has to work part time just to make ends meet for his family, and now you’re telling him he has to go back full time if he wants to keep his property?” Sheila Dias said.

Sheila and her brother are just two of hundreds of subsistence farmers and small-time ranchers across the Big Island wondering how they will afford to keep their land under the county’s new agriculture programs, which were formally introduced with a series of bills passed last July. The county’s finance director is currently working on rules to implement them.

Previously, the county offered farmers and ranchers two agriculture programs that allowed them to save money on taxes: a non-dedicated agriculture program and a long-term dedicated program. With the new bills, the non-dedicated program — which was all that some small-scale farmers and ranchers could qualify for — is being sunsetted.

While two new programs are being introduced, some property owners are finding that they don’t qualify for either of them, leaving them at a loss for how they can continue working their land.

According to council member Heather Kimball, who introduced the bills, the changes are meant to ensure that people benefitting from the county’s agriculture programs are legitimately “doing agriculture,” but not everyone agrees on what that means.

As Big Island property owners come to terms with the changes, some are questioning the county’s broader agenda and the role of subsistence farming in the community.

Restructuring Hawaii County’s Agriculture Programs

Bills and , which both passed last year, call for the restructuring of the county’s agriculture programs, which allow participating property owners to save on taxes. The long-term program, which caters to farmers and ranchers on a 10-year plan, is still in existence. But the bills call for sunsetting the non-dedicated program.

The county created the non-dedicated program for farmers and ranchers who were just starting out and couldn’t commit to a longer program, according to Kimball. She said that there was no documentation required for the one-page application.

But Kimball said that not everyone participating in the program was actually meeting its requirements and engaging in agriculture for the benefit of the community. By doing away with the program entirely — the program is supposed to be fully eliminated by 2028 — Bills 57 and 58 aim to keep people from reaping its tax benefits without using their land for a broader, community-based purpose.

Growing your own food simply isn’t what the county had in mind when it adopted the program, Kimball said.

“It is not for self-use,” she said. “That’s not within the definition of agricultural use.”

Two new programs have replaced the old one: a short-term dedicated program and a community food sustainability program.

The short-term program is a three-year plan that requires a map of the land and one additional document proving that property owners are using the land for agricultural purposes, such as a farm plan. Participants must also generate a minimum annual income of $2,000 or follow generally accepted standards within the agriculture community.

The food sustainability program is limited to intensive agriculture, orchards and diversified agriculture. It also requires a document demonstrating the property owners’ intentions. Additionally, participants must sell or donate up to $1,000 worth of food per year in exchange for tax benefits.

Kimball said this program can apply to some people doing subsistence farming. In fact, Lisa Miura, an administrator at the Hawaii County Real Property Tax Office, said that just about everyone qualifies for one of these programs or for the 10-year program.

“The goal is to get actual active farming,” she said.

Growing Food For Friends And Neighbors Doesn’t Count

But some people trying to grow for themselves and their neighbors say the programs leave them out.

As a subsistence farmer mainly raising cattle to share with his family, neighbors and community members, Jeffrey Dias doesn’t meet the requirements for any of the programs. That includes the food-sustainability program. The issue is that the program doesn’t provide a tax break for pasture land, which he needs for ranching.

Dias says lawmakers don’t seem to understand the role of subsistence farming in Hawaii.

“The politics is supposed to work for the people, but right now, they’re against the people,” he said.

Dias isn’t the only one concerned about the county’s approach to subsistence farming. Kanoe Dowd, a farmer based in Makahanaloa, was one of roughly 20 individuals who testified against the tax changes at a July 19 hearing regarding the finance director’s proposed rules. Approximately 300 people attended the meeting, including 166 on Zoom.

Ultimately, the finance department decided not to vote on passing the rules and regulations at the hearing, delaying their decision until August.

At the hearing, Dowd spoke about the role of subsistence farming in Hawaii.

“In our culture, we are stewards of the aina, not profiteers,” she said. “We feed our ohana and our community with what the land we care for provides and take only what we need. That’s how the land and community sustains itself.”

Dowd asked the county to recognize the efforts of all farmers, including family ranchers, hobby farmers and subsistence homesteaders, arguing that they all contribute to the food system regardless of the income they bring in.

Others at the hearing questioned the requirement for participants of the community food sustainability program to sell or donate $1,000 worth of food each year. All donations must go toward a certified nonprofit, raising an issue for people like Denise Blakeslee and her husband.

Together, they own 4 acres of land, where they grow fruit for local fruit stands, neighbors and kupuna. Because they don’t donate their produce to a registered nonprofit, they would not qualify for the sustainability program.

“We’re not a nonprofit,” she said. “We’re just two old people who wanted to grow food for people.”

Numerous testifiers also referenced the , one of six plans across the island meant to encourage community input for land use. The plan includes an objective to “preserve traditional subsistence practices and encourage a reciprocity (e.g. bartering) economy.”

“This is a form of agriculture, and it is the only form of agriculture that is truly sustainable,” said Eric Weinert, who said that he practices regenerative agriculture and has been a part of the island’s agricultural community since 1979.

“Hawaii Grown” is funded in part by grants from the Stupski Foundation, Ulupono Fund at the Hawaii Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation.