Farming MMJ may pay better than Bananas?

[Guest]

http://westhawaiitoday.com/news/local-ne...anana-farm

I always thought Mr Ha grew the best tomatoes and banana's around. Hope his green thumb continues for his employees sake that is.

[ericlp]

I found it interesting that he choose the close down because of oil. Hmmmm... Don't really know him and never eaten his bananas, I grow my own, and if when I do buy, I buy from local farms or if I'm in a rush and can't get to a farmer's market, I'll buy the candy apple brand usually target has em.

Anyway, oil is at the cheapest it has been in years, and he is somehow worried about oil spiking... I dunno, I thought about investing in oil now ... It's like around 30 bucks a barrel. back in 08 it peaked at 140 a barrel.

Maybe he knows something we don't? If that's the case, we should all be buying oil stocks now!

[Mtviewdude]

The answer is in the article only 15 lines in

Oil is now at its lowest point in 12 years, but Ha said that hasn’t translated into lower costs for its associated products, like fertilizer and plastics.

“Farmers can’t pass on the costs,” he said. That’s especially true for Hawaii farmers, who must import fertilizer from the mainland (even the boxes the bananas get packed in come from a plant in Seattle).”

Ha thinks in the long-term — at least 10 years out — and he knows oil prices will begin to rise at some point, again pushing up the cost of growing bananas. He’s also concerned about the cost of fighting bunchy top virus and little fire ants.

“So the question then becomes at one point, do we make the transition?” Ha said. “Because if we wait too long, we won’t have control over our transition out. There’s a lot of different things involved in a decision like this.”

[kalakoa]

Oil is now at its lowest point in 12 years, but Ha said that hasn't translated into lower costs

Oil price doesn't influence apparent costs unless you're actually in the first world.

[pahoated]

These are the pre-peak oil years. The chart where supply exceeds demand and that crossover point have been known for decades, it just kept shifting further forward in time. The pre-peak oil years started essentially the past year. Peak oil refers to maximum available production, when supply stops meeting demand. That will mean a crossover again of demand exceeding supply. That raises value, that raises commodity cost, as well as futures, which street slang calls "price". After demand crosses over peak production, then the existing speculation is oil price will go way up. This isn't taking into account that there may be many alternative energy options by then.

Richard probably doesn't want to raise the real can of worms that GET and mandatory benefits like health coverage is killing local business and favoring off islands businesses. The state would be far better off eliminating the GET and replacing it with a sales tax. A state sales tax instead of GET would mean all the tourists would be paying to keep up the state. Either way, health care benefits plus unemployment insurance plus rising minimum wage plus rising GET is going to cause a whole lot of shutdowns.

"Aloha also means goodbye. Aloha!"

[terracore]

Look at what I wrote about the future price of oil here at punaweb. I'm not going to say "I told you so" but $30 oil has arrived. My 2013 piece didn't take the China economic freefall into account, the $30 figure given then has been revised to $24, possibly even as low as bottoming out at $16 before springing back up:

http://www.punaweb.org/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=15733

[terracore]

"Oil is now at its lowest point in 12 years, but Ha said that hasn’t translated into lower costs for its associated products, like fertilizer and plastics."

Or airfare. In fact, airlines recently raised prices: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory...p-36107084

eta: formatting

[lavalava]

basically screw the consumer. what else is new?

[Guest]

Looks like this change of direction or attitude regarding MMJ could lead to local jobs in the area, if Puna could get on board that is?.

http://aesirlab.com/writings/vol1-7


I wonder if the 400 acres the Puna geothermal power plant is sitting on could be turned into a Richard HA type high grade MMJ farm? Maybe the expected massive amounts of waste from the MMJ could be used for things like oil,fuel, or electric? Could it have the potential of bringing tourists to Puna or raise home values around the current geothermal plant?

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Could it (high grade MMJ farm) have the potential of bringing tourists to Puna

Yes, but getting a Med Marijuana Card could be too lengthy a process for the average tourist. Would you recommend a speedy approval process, or perhaps a Medical Marijuana Tourist Card, good for 10 days?

a high grade MMJ farm... could lead to local jobs in the area

Do you see a net increase in jobs by replacing geothermal with marijuana, or about the same number of jobs?

I wonder if the 400 acres the Puna geothermal power plant is sitting on could be turned into a Richard HA type high grade MMJ farm?

Yes, it could. But do you think the billions of pounds of medical grade marijuana grown inside 400 acres of warehouses would be enough to supply the east side of the Big Island? Also, how would you power such an energy intensive enterprise? I believe if you look around the answer is obvious. They would need to have their own direct energy source, perhaps a Geothermal Plant that happens to already be right on the property!