How to keep agriculture/farming viable in Hawaii?

[Menehune]

Aloha kakou!

Not sure which forum to run this on - here or farming & gardening?

"Little Miss Muffet" got off her tuffet - went to the market to buy some eggs!
And to her surprise - her wandering eyes found no eggs to share - the racks were BARE!

How to keep agriculture/farming viable in Hawaii? Is it a lost battle?

It started with new labeling and the first thing it affected was "Loco Moco"!
http://starbulletin.com/2001/06/12/news/story2.html

Then even stricter regulations and there went Maui eggs!
http://starbulletin.com/2007/07/01/busin...ory01.html

Now it's Hawai'i's turn and your choice is Oahu or "mainland" eggs!
http://starbulletin.com/2008/01/26/busin...ory01.html

Let's not stop with eggs - and Oahu is not immune to these happenings - how about milk!
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/p...8801240353

I really don't like the feeling of helplessness I have reading these events and the long term damage it will have for ALL Hawai'i.

Uncle Sam once again protecting us from ourselves - rules and regulations are necessary for a safe society - BUT what about when they HURT the society?

'O wau no me ka mahalo,
Joey

Time will tell - I'm listening?
Time will tell - I should have been speaking?

[Rob Tucker]

There is a recommendation (as well as a number of them for agriculture) from the Puna Community Development Plan (PCDP) to down zone large areas of Puna to reduce or eliminate the ability to subdivide ag land for housing.

Fact is that large areas of Puna are zoned AG-1 (one acre minimum). Land in this zone classification are really potential residential subdivisions in sheep's clothing. The proposal to take ag areas of AG-1 and rezone them to the parcel sizes as they exist now. If a parcel is 50 acres it would rezone to AG-50. If a parcel is 100 acres it would rezone to AG-100.

There may be a provision to provide a one time subdivision for family purposes.

Anyway, that is one thing moving forawrd to try to keep Puna a rural, agricultural district. It was brought froth in the Land Use Working Group which I was part of. I'm sure James Weatherford, who was on the Agriculture Working Group, will have more input for you too.

Punaweb moderator

[Kelena]

Two words: Buy local --even if it hurts.

There are no longer any dairies on Oahu. The only dairies are on Hawai'i Island. Buy local milk. Buy local fruit. Grow and sell local fruit.

[Rob Tucker]

I'm buying some cows and chickens, and planting an orchard and digging a pond.

[james weatherford]

Rob pointed to PCDP as a reference; and I reckon that's not a bad idea.
Menehune, have a look at the Agriculture Working Group report and other reports at http://www.hcrc.info/community-planning/...s/reports/

There are some useful ideas to read there. Your feedback would be very much welcome -- PCDP is (supposedly) in the final stretch.

'Buy local' is certainly necessary, but not sufficient.

Our family buys local by intent and with an effort; and we don't buy some items because they are not local. It is not always easy to find some 'local' items (e.g., tofu from Island-grown soybeans, sausage from island-grown pigs, fresh-squeezed island-grown orange or grapefruit juice at any local restaurrant).

'Produce local' and 'Market local' is also necessary.

Simple, right? No.
Doable? Yes.

Some, but not all, key ingredients:
Land and People suited to producing for local markets.
Economic/institutional/regulatory environment conducive to, and not biased against, local production, marketing, and purchase.


btw Rob: about those cows and chickens, not, right?

James Weatherford, Ph.D.
15-1888 Hialoa
Hawaiian Paradise Park

[Guest]

Did you know that:

People in Hawaii spent an average of $609 per person at fast-food restaurants in 2002, more than the residents of any other state.

According to This Link

So maybe if we started eating at home instead of at Fast Food restaraunts that purchase there supplies from the mainland could be a start.

-----------------
Coming home soon!

[JerryCarr]

Agriculture can be done on any number of levels and scales. A thousand people with quarter acre gardens could more than equal a 250 acre farm, depending on how intensively those quarter acres are cultivated. In some cultures the norm for agriculture is a tiny plot that is used to its maximum potential productivity. The agribusiness model of the mainland USA has economies of scale, but it is energy intensive (petroleum, mostly) and not the most productive model for most areas of the planet. I suspect that something in between these two extremes would work best in Hawaii.

Meanwhile, there's nothing more local than eating what literally comes out of one's own back yard. Bear and I happily raise 90%+ of our own vegetables and have surplus to share and swap. (I have been an abject failure at tomatoes and bulb onions, alas.) Our fruit orchard is coming on line much sooner than we expected, so we will be self-sufficient in that category soon. We got the nice palms across the front of our property in trade for collard greens and turnips, and got a electrical problem fixed for a bushel of lilikoi.

I support agriculture in Hawaii every day by digging in the dirt in HPP. Somebody smarter than me will have to figure out how to make it work as a full-on business here.

Cheers,
Jerry

[Anagami]

Hey Rob, nice way of thinking about it.

When I was growing up a neighbor and my father ha a nice bit of land that was split by our many invisible property lines. They decided to ignore it and laid down a shared garden which ended up giving a bunch of food to a bunch of people.

So maybe a stronger idea is a communal garden. Are there any in operation in Puna? Or is the individualistic spirit too strong here? []

Do not follow a life of evil; do not live heedlessly; do not have false views; do not value worldly things. In this way one can get rid of suffering. - The Dhammapada

[Rob Tucker]

There seems to be a very lovely and pastoral community garden at the Catholic Church in Pahoa. I've always appreciated the sense of health and growth on those acres when I drive past. Frankly, I don't know enough about it.

I don't think there is any shortage of ag land - large parcel or small. There is a shortage of farmers... but they have been an abandoned and diminishing breed in America for the past 30 years or more.

I consider myself very fortunate to have a number of years under my belt on our family dairy farm in Connecticut. I learned a lot, did a lot and enjoyed most every minute.

Our family was mildly ridiculed for years for not following the dictates of the Department of Agriculture. Instead of converting to no-till, Roundup and cows that never left concrete we stuck with pasturing, manure and harrows. Late in the game there was one farm left on our mountain where there were once fifteen. The rest went bankrupt. Then the state decided that our farmland was worth preserving because of it's pristine "organic" quality. They gave us $500,000 for the development rights. So those acres will not be developed ever.

In a way I had to laugh. My grandparents didn't have the word organic in their vocabulary. They were just old school, off the boat, turn of the century farmers.

We may wish we had many more of them about.

[Carey]

Damon, followed your link to the data source. The business census data that was used in that article is based on sales per capita. In a state that has a relatively small population base versus tourist, it would make sense that this state has a much higher per capita restaurant sales - same for Nevada (the sales receipts were divided by the population of the state in 2002, no matter if they were generated by vistors or residents) the census map link from the article is:
http://quarterhorse.dsd.census.gov/TheDataWeb_HotReport/servlet/HotReportEngineServlet?emailname=bh@boc&filename=sal1.hrml&20071127090603.Var.NAICS2002=722

Oh, that $609 is the data for limited service restuarants, full service were even higher... the data map I have referred to is all food & drink establishments (couldn't figure how to separate the eating from the drinking.... )