Author: bigwave

June 5, 2012 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Conflict crops up over rural district boundaries

WAILUKU – More than a handful of residents and property owners of Anuhea Place near the Kulamalu Town Center in Pukalani asked County Council committee members Monday to place their land in a rural growth boundary so that they could freely put up homes for themselves and their children.

But representatives of both the Makawao and Kula community associations as well as other Upcountry residents were concerned about changing any existing Upcountry agricultural subdivisions to the higher-density rural designation. They were concerned that the lots could possibly be subdivided into smaller lots that would result in more homes, significant infrastructure impacts and additional costs to taxpayers.

Changing the designation of agricultural subdivisions to rural could “establish a precedent” that could be a “detriment to the county,” said Mike Foley, vice president of the Makawao Community Association and a former Maui County planning director.

But Tom Foster, a resident of Anuhea Place who also has a landscaping business on his property, said it makes sense to put Anuhea Place into a rural growth boundary because the area is adjacent to the town center and Kamehameha Schools Maui.

One of 10 people testifying in favor the change, Foster added that there is a gulch on both sides of the subdivision, so growth will not impact surrounding areas.

The Hale O Kaula Church also is in the subdivision and many members of the church testified Monday that the rural designation would make it easier to expand the church if needed. The church has faced numerous governmental hurdles because of its land designation and has even engaged in legal action.

Nearly 50 people testified before the Maui County Council’s General Plan Committee

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June 4, 2012 Agriculture Grants, General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Farmers, lawmakers braced for cuts in subsidies

A program that puts billions of dollars in the pockets of farmers whether or not they plant a crop may disappear with hardly a protest from farm groups and the politicians who look out for their interests.

The Senate is expected to begin debate this week on a five-year farm and food aid bill that would save $9.3 billion by ending direct payments to farmers and replacing them with subsidized insurance programs for when the weather turns bad or prices go south.

The details have yet to be worked out. But there’s rare agreement that fixed annual subsidies of $5 billion a year for farmers are no longer feasible when budgets are tight and farmers in general are enjoying record prosperity.

About 80 percent of the bill’s half-trillion-dollar cost over the next five years represents nutrition programs, primarily food stamps that go to some 46 million people. About $100 billion would be devoted to crop subsidies and other farm programs.

The Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee last month approved a bill that would save $23 billion over the next decade by ending direct payments and consolidating other programs. The bill would strengthen the subsidized crop insurance program and create a program to compensate farmers for smaller, or “shallow,” revenue losses, based on a five-year average, for acres actually planted.

Getting a bill to the president’s desk will be a challenge. Most of the bill’s spending is on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, at an annual cost now of about $75 billion. The Republican-led House is looking for greater cuts to this program than the Democratic Senate will accept.

The House also is more sympathetic to Southern rice and peanut farmers who say that the shallow-loss program would hurt them.

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June 4, 2012 Ag Tourism, General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Upcountry Ag & Farm Fair

The 32nd Upcountry 4-H Ag & Farm Fair, a weekend of music, ‘ono food, games, exhibits, a rodeo–and the makings of great memories–will be held on Saturday and Sunday, June 9 and 10, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Oskie Rice Field & Arena on Olinda Road above Makawao. This year, the fair will honor Maui’s paniolo with a “Keeping the Spirit Alive” theme.

In partnership with Upcountry Fair, the Maui 4-H Livestock Association, a nonprofit organization specializing in youth and agriculture, will present its 2012 4-H Livestock Show & Auction beginning at 8 a.m., on Saturday, when 4-H members will show their goats, lambs, market hogs and beef steers. The auction begins at 1 p.m.

4-H projects and activities help youth develop life skills through livestock projects in which they take on the responsibilities of feeding, managing and exhibiting their animals. Students acquire knowledge and skills in selection, production, processing and marketing, which will help them establish future careers.

4-H members’ efforts culminate in the Maui 4-H Livestock Show, which provides opportunities for them to gain experience in showmanship and judging of an animal while practicing leadership and program planning skills.

Cooperative support from the business community and public agencies make these events possible. By purchasing an animal, your business can help a 4-H member meet the objectives of his or her livestock project and encourage him or her to become a responsible, productive individual.

The annual Upcountry Fair Ranch Play Day features the ‘Ohana Ranch Rodeo, which spotlights the ranching community’s paniolo heritage with two action-packed days of challenging events and competition that combine ranch skills, horsemanship and family games

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June 4, 2012 Aquaculture, General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Blue Ocean Mariculture buys kampachi farm

The acquisition of Kona Blue Water Farms’ Kampachi hatchery and offshore assets has been completed by Blue Ocean Mariculture, which operates along the Kona coast of Hawaii island.

Blue Ocean had bought Kona Blue’s offshore mariculture lease in early 2010, its hatchery was acquired in January of 2011 and that May, Blue Ocean finished its first larval run of fish that are now full-grown and being harvested and sold throughout the U.S., according to a statement.

Kona Blue dissolved in November of 2011.

Blue Ocean Mariculture buys kampachi farm – Hawaii News – Honolulu Star-Advertiser

May 30, 2012 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Barents Crabs Suffer From Soviet Legacy

Soviet botanist Ivan Machurin’s immortal phrase “We cannot wait for favors from nature. To take them from it — that is our task” could be the all-encompassing slogan by which Russia’s resource-driven economy now lives.

Even though the early 20th-century scientist was primarily referring to creating plant hybrids, his philosophy underpinned many of the Soviet Union’s ambitious experiments with nature — from reversing river flows to the Kamchatka crabs that were transplanted to the Barents Sea in the 1960s in an effort to increase the productivity of the northern sea.

Half a century later, the spiny giants are the region’s most lucrative catch — but this experiment with biodiversity has had a string of economic, environmental and social effects on the fishing communities of the Barents Sea.
No Accidental Tourist

With a life span of up to 30 years and growing up to 2 meters across, the Kamchatka crab — also called the red king crab — is a hardy native of the North Pacific, taking its name from the peninsula where Russians first encountered it.

Between 1961 and 1969, scientists seeking to boost the commercial productivity of Russia’s Arctic Sea released 13,000 of the creatures and 1.6 million larvae into Kolafjord in the east Barents Sea — thousands of miles from their Pacific home.

The results of the experiment were at first disappointing. Although Norwegian fishermen soon began to find Kamchatka crabs in their nets with increasing regularity — the crabs appear to have marched toward Norway against the warm Gulf Stream current soon after being introduced — at first their presence in Soviet waters was negligible.

But the crustaceans were only biding their time.

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May 27, 2012 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Plans for Waikamoi flume unveiled

MAKAWAO – The leaking, redwood Waikamoi flume would be replaced with an aluminum channel supported by an aluminum truss along its entire 1.1-mile length, retaining precious surface water for drought-plagued Upcountry residents and providing a safe working platform for employees of the Department of Water Supply.

The flume channels water from the Haipuaena Stream to the vicinity of Waikamoi Stream and eventually into the water department’s upper Kula system, which supplies water to residents of Kula, Waiakoa, Keokea, Ulupalakua and Kanaio.

The $10 million to $15 million flume replacement project, which is pending necessary approvals, is expected to begin in the last quarter of this year and take about two years go complete, according to plans submitted to the state Office of Environmental Quality Control.

The office published the department’s draft environmental assessment and anticipated finding of no significant impact last week in its current issue of The Environmental Notice. It is available online at oeqc.doh.hawaii.gov/Shared%Documents/Environmental_Notice/current_issue.pdf.

Public comments are due June 22.

Maui County Council Member Joe Pontanilla, chairman of the council’s Budget and Finance Committee, said Saturday that more than $10 million has been appropriated for the flume replacement project in the current county budget.

Located in the Koolau Forest Reserve, the flume was originally built in the 1930s out of redwood timbers and rock and concrete masonry foundations, according to the draft environmental assessment. In 1974 and 1975, the flume box was replaced with redwood planking, although portions of the timber bridges that were built in the 1930s were kept in place.

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