DeLeon, Dave

Office Seeking: Maui Council Member (Makawao-Haikū-Paia)

Party: Democrat
Website: davedeleonmaui.com

Food security is defined by the USDA as "access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life." How will your platform address food insecurity in Maui County?

I support Mahi Pono's effort to repurpose Maui's former sugar lands by planting real food that we can actually eat. I also support the gardening programs in the schools to let kids get their hands dirty growing stuff.

Please list any initiatives you have supported in Maui County to increase food access and food production that you are proud of:

I have an acre in fruit orchard and seven laying hens.

Hawaiʻi imports roughly 85% of our food supply. How will your platform address increasing local food production?

By promoting local agriculture via the county budget-- personally contribute to the Maui Food Bank

Please indicate your position on the following policies:

Creating County funding mechanisms to support DA BUX Double Up Food Bucks. SUPPORT
Increasing local food procurement for Maui County schools. SUPPORT
Increasing Farm to School initiatives including school gardens. SUPPORT
Pursuing County Farm to Food Bank Funding. SUPPORT
Developing regional organic waste and composting services. SUPPORT
Restructuring the Department of Water Supply and Department of Wastewater to encourage strategies for conservation, efficient water use, storage, and growing water resources. SUPPORT
Increasing the budget for the Maui County Department of Agriculture. REQUEST FOR MORE INFORMATION
Offering subsidies to local farms that have shown the ability to sustain production. SUPPORT
Supporting policies that allow for increased affordable housing for farmworkers. SUPPORT
Improving policies around hunting and utilizing invasive protein sources. SUPPORT
Funding updated shared processing facilities, including slaughterhouses and food hubs. SUPPORT
Implementing new inspection policies to reduce the spread of invasive species. SUPPORT
Establishing local control of water resources through a Maui County Community Water Authority, with the ability to establish regional community boards. OPPOSE

Please elaborate on any of your above positions here.

I support maintaining the EMI system as vital to the Upcountry community and to the greening of the Central Valley of Maui. I don't believe the County has the capacity to maintain the EMI. Maui is blessed to have an entity capable of replanting and growing crops we can eat on the old sugar lands. Compared to the Central Valley of Oahu, Maui's large scale agriculture is bouncing right back. Oahu's farm land around Wahiawa has been abandoned for decades. If the goal is replant the Central Valley, then we must have a serious farmer of scale -- small farms by themselves will not be able to do it. And all farmers in the Central Maui must have a strong water source.

Are there other issues, County-wide or within your own residency area, about food security that concern you, and how do you plan to address these issues if elected?

I am very much into finding a way to turn our excess of axis deer into a serious food source --