ah man - no more Maui Gold's

[Bullwinkle]

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/articl...production

Truly the end of an age. And now for that untouched coastline...... what is next?

[Kelena]

Hawaii is simply not doing enough to save agriculture. Education, agriculture and public safety and security need to be the state's priorities.

[JerryCarr]

Sorry to hear about yet another Hawaii agricultural icon going away. I agree with Glen that the State is not doing enough to encourage sensible, sustainable agriculture.

There will still be Maui Gold pineapples around, though. I have quite a stock planted from tops I bought under the soon to be defunct label, and they should be ready next summer. I also will have production of Maui Whites. When I started this project, I was a bit worried that soil differences might influence the flavor of the pineapples. (Sweet onions are known for this issue.) The test crop that I harvested this summer tasted just like the Maui grown ones, though, so no worries. I will hopefully be selling them next year at the HPP Swap Meet.

[mella l]

Education, agriculture and public safety and security need to be the state's priorities. I so agree. Instead it seems citizens of the state of Hawaii are all second class status and the the Tourist is royalty. I understand that to a point as it is financially necessary, however there needs to be a happy medium if the state is to persevere. That just seems so obvious to me yet here we are every day reading about this and that absurdity, from children tearing each other up in school, to 14 DUI's, and inadequate healthcare? please. If tourists had a small idea of what goes on behind the scenes of the lovely resort life, I'm sure they would be horrified and perhaps even repelled.

What can we do to help it seems triage is called for to wake up the Hawaiian government, state, local and regional!

On a pleasant note I have purchased many Maui Gold pineapples and planted them along the way like Johnny Appleseed! LOL

mella l

[Devany]

You are so right, agriculture is the key to sustainability and is essential to us all for a good life. I actually place it above education in many realms. The sad footnote to this story is that just like in many American industries, we are undercut by cheap imports once again. There are still many pineapple farmers on a much smaller scale here on the big island and probably on the others as well. Support your local farmers by shopping at farmer's markets and grocery stores that do not feature local papayas, pineapples, tomatoes, taro, sweet potatoes, lettuces, avocados and other produce that is grown here in abundance. Speak with your wallets and tell the produce managers why. Do you know that there are more varieties of avocados here than any other place in the world? And yet most of them go to pig food and compost because our own stores do not buy them. Instead they buy Mexican and California Haas which are hugely inferior to most local Avos.

Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany

www.myhawaiianhome.blogspot.com
www.eastbaypotters.blogspot.com

[asly]

Devany, what is the rational behind why hawaii-based stores would buy and have shipped Mexican or California Haas avos? I just don't understand it. When we were there the local ones were soooo yummy. And no shipping involved - even better!

[Bullwinkle]

But have you tried the white pineapple in season at hilo products ...

slice dice and cube freeze em and snack for weeks have a dozen started over by the greenhouse myself

Ya know there is going to be an opening for a premium mail order product, if they shut that down ... any one besides me thinking high end mail order Puna pine apple co-op?....

Id even be open to a competitive pine apple products if they dont

... my thoughts have long been focused on tea, pine apples,, small private branded premium items is where we need to focus as individuals as well as sustainability. A good co op structure required for fulfillment.

Ill pop for the website, online store and web ranking placement if you let me play - now all we need is the pine apples and packaging and a ups truck and for maui land and pine apple to get out of the way



Punawinkles pineapple has a good ring - big grin

edit = a little more thought out

[Devany]

Asly, read my article on Ken Love in the Edible Hawaiian Islands Magazine (current issue). The rationale is missing.

Island Naturals and Abundant Life do sell the avos from here, as well as many other local products. Big chains want everything in perfect size, shape and type, picked green and shipped under refrigeration (which is not good for most produce flavors.) There are so many varieties of local avos and they are all over the island, not farmed like they are in CA & Mexico on huge corporate farms, but still there are tons going to waste because there is no market for them. I don't even understand why people buy the grocery store Haas. Clearly when a farmer has a several cases of avos he should be able to sell them to the chain stores, but most of them will not take them even though they are cheaper and better and LOCAL!

KTA and Sack n Save do sell some local produce, just not avos and nothing in comparison to what we have here in such abundance. You may see Hamakua Tomatoes and some lettuce. Safeway is a mainland company and buys very little if anything locally and this also includes seafood. Does that make sense? They ship EVERYTHING here from warehouses in the SF Bay area. They also buy a LOT of things from China. Safeway is headquartered in the town next to where we lived in CA and some of the VP's and Presidents were our neighbors. One guy's entire job was to source things from China!

Hawaiian Farmers are also in a catch 22 regarding exporting, just about the only way Hawaiian produce makes it to the mainland (other than Kona Coffee, Mac Nuts and the afore mentioned Maui Gold) is in "after market products", Jams, Jellies, Salad Dressings etc.

So sad!

quote:

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Originally posted by asly

Devany, what is the rational behind why hawaii-based stores would buy and have shipped Mexican or California Haas avos? I just don't understand it. When we were there the local ones were soooo yummy. And no shipping involved - even better!

---

Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany

www.myhawaiianhome.blogspot.com
www.eastbaypotters.blogspot.com

[PaulW]

Agriculture is more important than education? I can't agree with that one.

Farming is influenced by market forces and the simple fact is that there are many, many places in the world where it's cheaper to grow stuff than it is in Hawaii, even if you add in the shipping costs. The only way to circumvent this is to have subsidies (= higher taxes) or have people prepared to pay a premium for local produce.

[Devany]

Paul,

Living on an island, agriculture is our only key to sustainability and not being dependent on the ships coming in for food. It is also the best thing for our economy, keeping our dollars here. We will only be sustainable way when we learn to support the farmers without going through the middle men (huge corporate grocers & produce brokers.) It would not take subsidies or taxes to support agriculture, it takes PEOPLE. There is no way produce is cheaper at our grocery stores than it is in farmer's markets. And all of that is not even comparing the importance of eating locally raised food. It is fresher, better for you and supports the farms HERE, not big corporate farms in China or Mexico or even California. And the carbon footprint of say an orange from Belize or a pineapple from China is absurd for the global ecology when we can and should be growing those things right here. We all need food to eat, but almost everything we need can be grown here. We should be demanding local produce, dairy and meats from our grocers. Stores like Island Naturals are already focused on the local and organic how much harder would it be for a larger store chain? They could have fresh shipments daily instead of waiting on the ship to get here from the mainland.

I am totally flabbergasted when I see nothing but mainland eggs for instance at any of our local chain grocers. We have lots of people raising chickens for eggs on a small level, if there was a demand more people would do it. The Spam, tinned corn beef etc. I understand... but EGGS?

Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany

www.myhawaiianhome.blogspot.com
www.eastbaypotters.blogspot.com