[dnautics]

No. Pretty much the entire big island is a cattle ranch. However beef is expensive in Hawaii because due to state law, cattle must be sent out of state to the abbatoir before it hits your plate. Ranching on Maui probably seeks to take advantage of the infrastructure already available because of operations on the big island.

[underbluewaters]

There are a couple slaughterhouses but most beef consumed on the island is from the mainland. There are no non-grass-fed local options. My understanding is that there just isn't enough land to "finish" the cattle so it's sent to the mainland for fattening up and slaughter. They actually fly a lot of the cattle to Canada.

[greedo]

This doesn't appear to be accurate. Most of the cattle is sent to the mainland due to a lack of slaughterhouses, not due to any law restricting said slaughterhouses.

http://www.hawaiibusiness.com/hawaii-beef-comes-home/

[dnautics]

That is not what I was told at parker ranch! Or possibly I misinterpreted what they said. Thank you for the clarification. I do think that the overall result is more or less the same, instead of being an absolute ban, it's a licensure restriction that limits the number of cows that can be slaughtered locally.

[kinofcain]

There are slaughterhouses on multiple islands, and I can't find anything that states building a new one would be illegal.

At least on Kauai you can often find local beef, pork, and chicken, though it's still more expensive than meat from the mainland.

[derekp7]

Is there some advantage to laws such as this? If not, what would state lawmakers lose if they repealed this law? For their re-election, they could claim to have had a major positive economic impact by lowering food prices, that I'm sure the voting public would eat up.

[dnautics]

I've had the experience of driving through greely, colorado, and you do not want an industrial scale abbatoir in your backyard.