Agriculture can take us back to the future
This week I got an email from Sen. Brian Schatz announcing that Maka‘alae Farms in Hana was awarded $250,000 in U.S. Department of Agriculture funding to help with new product creation and marketing to boost its business.
At the same time, we are planning a virtual community meeting at 5 p.m. on March 15 to discuss the budget for the new county Department of Agriculture, approved by voters in the 2020 election. The new Ag Department will launch this July. Learn more at www.mauicounty.gov/ 144/Agriculture.
Initially, I was opposed to this ballot measure out of concern for redundancy with the state Department of Agriculture. My fears were eased after seeing the groundwork laid by the Agriculture Working Group, comprised of large and small farms, flower growers, ranchers, retailers and more. They developed this mission: “to support the development and continued management of a sustainable regional system for the county, to promote resident and ecosystem well-being and to create a thriving circular agro-economic system that can be a model for the rest of the world.”
It’s an ambitious, and I believe, achievable mission. It’s much bigger than growing fruits and vegetables. It also encompasses agroforestry, aquaculture, ranching and animal husbandry, high-value specialty crops like cacao, medical cannabis, hemp and traditional healing herbs.
Our new Ag Department will work alongside farmers on soil and crop management, water use, disease and pest management and more. This department will work with my Office of Economic Development to nurture new opportunities for farmers and food producers. We intend for agriculture to return to its traditional position as one of the county’s top economic engines. I expect emerging technology to reduce the need for low-wage labor and create more professional agricultural careers.
The pandemic taught us how crucial food security is to Hawaii’s people. Sudden unexpected supply chain disruptions meant sparse shelves in our grocery stores. Our islands have become far too dependent on food from overseas. More than a third of the nation’s vegetables and two-thirds of its fruits and nuts are grown in California, which is now suffering its worst drought in 1,200 years. With climate change, there’s no way to determine if, and when, historic rainfall patterns will return.
The people of Maui, Molokai and Lanai have long depended on local agriculture. Before western contact, Hawaiians cultivated taro in stream-irrigated lands and grew sweet potato, dryland taro, coconut, breadfruit and banana ,watered by rain, to supplement ocean foods. Peter Vitousek, a Hawaii-born Stanford professor, said that Hawaiian agricultural science was akin to their navigation mastery. For centuries, native agricultural systems supported nearly a million people entirely on local resources. It was a true sustainable system.
Maui's first western arrival, Captain La Perouse, came ashore in 1786 and by the mid-1800s, traditional agricultural practices mirrored western systems. In 1848, the California Gold Rush created demand for potatoes, which became Maui’s first exported crop. Later, the U.S. Civil War halted American sugar production and set the stage for Maui’s sugar industry to flourish. Later, the Baldwin family planted the first pineapples for cultivation in Haiku, which led to the start of Maui Pineapple Company and our plantation economy boomed.
During our plantation heyday, private companies built an extensive irrigation system that still carries much of our water supply today. They also built housing, medical clinics, stores, churches and recreational facilities for immigrant laborers of Chinese, Portuguese, Japanese, Puerto Rican, Filipino, Slavic and Scandinavian descent. These plantation villages incubated Hawaii’s multicultural society. Today, it’s not unusual to meet Maui-born kids with more than a dozen ethnic roots.
The 1960s ushered in Maui County’s modern tourism era. Over time, condos, timeshares, subdivisions and transient vacation rentals replaced plantation villages. In 2009, our pineapple industry ended and seven years later, Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., Maui’s last sugar operation, made its final harvest.
Now is the time for agriculture to return to its former place of prominence in our post-pandemic economy. The County of Maui stands ready to champion that cause.