Author: Brian Lieberman

July 26, 2021 Agriculture Grants, Farm to Table, General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Charter school receives $48,000 grant for farm-to-school program

Hawaii Tribune-Herald
By KELSEY WALLING

Connections Public Charter School in Hilo will grow its farm-to-school programs with the help of federal grant.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently awarded $12 million in Farm to School grants to 176 recipients.

Connections Public Charter School and Community Based Education Support Services, the school’s board, received $48,253.

With the grant, Connections, whose main campus is in downtown Hilo, will develop learning and food production experiences for kindergarten through 12th-grade students on leased property located off Edita Street in Hilo’s Kaumana community.

“It is great to get that kind of support and recognition for the work we’ve been doing and the plans we have articulated,” said new Principal Romeo Garcia. “This gives us an opportunity to demonstrate what we can do with that support.”

Connections currently uses the Kaumana property to foster different class projects, usually involving upperclassmen. But with the grant, Garcia said he hopes to expand what the school can do on the land and involve students from every grade.

“Students, mostly juniors and seniors, this semester will continue foundational work with the gardens and keep on expanding on the land,” he said. “The ultimate goal is to have all grades up here with younger kids starting class gardens. Teachers will also be able to have their own class projects up here as much as possible.”

Although school is not in session, teachers and classes currently are running a number of projects, including experiments with hydroponics, growing plants in a nutrient solution rather than in soil, and catching beetles that have been perpetrating rapid ohia death.

“As a school, we’ve always been focused on project-based learning. Anyone can learn theory, but greater, long-lasting learning comes from applying knowledge,” Garcia said. “We’re focused on making sure information students are getting is relevant to their lives.”

Connections has designed career and technical courses based around the property, such as land management and planning, horticulture, and animal husbandry, he said. Students also will have opportunities to use different methods for growing food, to work with the horse and goats on the property, and learn land management.

“There are so many parts of farming that can be learned,” Garcia said. “There may be students who find they are naturally inclined to work outdoors and others may decide that’s not the route they want to take.”

Since the grant is for farm-to-school programs, Connections will be growing food that can be used in the school’s kitchen. Last week, property manager Danny McDaniel brought dozens of large eggplants down to the school that were grown on the Kaumana property.

“We want students to have that moment of pride and achievement after growing something that can be eaten,” Garcia said. “With the grant, we’ll be able to involve more students and show them that they can grow things here that we can use right away in our kitchen at school.”

Students also will have more chances learn about the history of the land and “canoe plants,” which were cultivated in ancient Hawaii.

“We have always taught students about how Hawaii used to be self-sustaining and now in the modern era, we have to import nearly everything,” Garcia said. “When COVID hit, things closed down and there was a fear that we wouldn’t get what we need.

“We want to teach students that when this happens again, instead of jumping into panic mode, we have processes and ways of living off the land.”

July 25, 2021 General Ag News and Notes, Globel Warming, Sustainable Agriculture Post a Comment

Why Capturing Renewable Natural Gas Has Legs in the Climate Conversation

RealClear Energy
By Mike Butler

When many people think of renewable energy, they think of modern wind, solar and hydropower resources. When they think of natural gas, they think of it as a traditional, finite source of energy – something that’s used and then gone.

But there’s another form of renewable energy that many have overlooked as an option to help meet some states’ emission reduction goals in regulatory actions like New Jersey’s Energy Master Plan and the Garden State’s larger climate conversation. It’s called Renewable Natural Gas or RNG inside the energy world.

RNG combines the strength and benefits of two forms of energy – renewable energy and natural gas – and it turns out it’s been around for as long as humans have been farming. Some might even refer to it as biogas, a byproduct of organic materials mixing with oxygen. RNG in this case comes from multiple sources of organic leftovers and waste.

Methane is the key molecule that makes up natural gas and found in the prolific energy basins across the country that we use to produce, transport and sell energy. Natural gas has many benefits, too. It’s clean, affordable and plentiful here in the U.S. Gas is able to be safely transported in pipelines and is used every day in our homes, businesses, transportation systems and power grid.

But traditional exploration for natural gas isn’t the only way to capture and harness methane – a chemical compound that occurs abundantly in nature does as well.

Besides being found underwater, in wetlands, and from naturally occurring seeps, methane is also released in landfills, water treatment plants, and in agriculture. The same methane that comes from oil and gas production also comes from four-legged creatures that dot the plains and fields of America’s farms and ranches – cows. There are an estimated 95 million cows in America and the small amounts of methane they release can really add up, and if uncaptured, that methane escapes into the atmosphere anyway where it has a significant impact on emissions.

If we effectively collect that waste, and process it, it can become a usable fuel that fits our existing infrastructure for power and home heating needs. And because this resource can be produced over and over, it makes for a great renewable source of energy from our livestock that also reduces harmful air emissions.

While the renewable gas utility market in Canada appears to have a more mature market, the U.S. is catching up quickly with California, New York, Colorado, Oregon and Hawaii all making strides to help utilities incorporate RNG into their energy mix.

For example, promising projects from agribusiness companies like Smithfield Foods will result in enough renewable natural gas to power more than 2,700 homes and business and brings the company closer to its goal of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 25 percent by 2025.

The traditional natural gas industry is also committed to capturing more methane – after all, that’s the primary fuel source they are trying to sell, and every molecule going into the atmosphere is a dollar lost. Since 2000, the industry has invested more than $108 billion in technologies to help capture these “fugitive emissions” which can escape during production and operations.

That money is in addition to the $151 billion the federal government has invested in research and development programs primarily run though the Department of Energy and Argonne National Labs. On top of that, satellites, airplanes and helicopter sensor technology are all helping to detect and reduce methane from entering our atmosphere.

While RNG only makes a small percentage of our energy make-up today, the opportunities are tremendous and should be a part of the clean energy future New Jersey is pursuing. The more solutions we have to meet both our energy needs and environmental goals the better. Plus, consider the significant benefits that will be achieved by removing waste from our agriculture operations and the benefits for rural America. Over time our best minds will continue to advance and refine technology to help costs come down for RNG – just look at the cost of solar panels 10 years ago to today.

So while it may be early, the idea of capturing renewable natural gas definitely has legs for New Jersey’s energy future energy solutions.

July 23, 2021 Agricultural Science, CEU, CTAHR, Edible Crops, General Ag News and Notes, Onions, Plant Pests and Diseases, Vegtables, Webinar Post a Comment

Pesticide Rotation on Onion Thrips and Onion Variety Trial in Bulb and Green Onion Crops Webinar

This free webinar is open to all growers in Hawaii

The webinar discussion will cover:

  • Pesticide rotations to control onion thrips: yield and pest pressure
  • Variety trials of green and bulb onions
When: Wednesday, July 27th, 2021, from 4:00 to 5:30 PM
Zoom information will be sent to registrants
Registration is required: RSVP to Rosemary by emailing to gr6@hawaii.edu

Speakers:

  • Rosemary Gutierrez-Coarite
  • Joshua Silva
  • Kylie Tavares

HDOA Continuing Education Credits:

  • CEUs 1.5 hours
  • Approved categories: Commercial 1a, 9, 10, and Private 1

DOWNLOAD the Webinar Flyer

Open to everyone without regard to race, age, sex, color, or disability. Educational activities are accessible for individuals with disabilities. For more information or to request an auxiliary aid or service (e.g., sign language interpreter, designated parking, or material in alternative format), contact Rosemary Gutierrez-Coarite at (808) 244-3242 or via email at gr6@hawaii.edu seven days before the activity/event.

Rosemary Gutierrez-Coarite Ph.D.
Assistant Extension Agent, Edible Crops
Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Science
UH CTAHR Maui Cooperative Extension Service
310 Kaahumanu Ave., Bldg. 214 Kahului, HI 96732
808-244-3242 ext. 232
gr6@hawaii.edu
" No task is too big when done together by all"

July 23, 2021 Agribusiness Development Corporation, General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

House Panel Subpoenas Land Fund, Agriculture Agency

Civil Beat
By Blaze Lovell

Both agencies were the targets of recent critical examinations by State Auditor Les Kondo.

A Hawaii House of Representatives investigation of the Agribusiness Development Corp. and a state land and development fund is starting to ramp up on the heels of audits critical of the two state agencies.

On Tuesday, a House investigative committee issued subpoenas to the ADC, the Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Department of Agriculture. The committee plans to start hearings with witnesses in September and a final report with recommendations is due in December, one month ahead of the 2022 legislative session.

The committee is seeking “any and all records, documents, materials, things and other evidence” from those agencies submitted to the state auditor as part of inquiries that led to the two audits, according to Rep. Della Au Belatti, the chair of the committee.

The committee is seeking two batches of documents from each agency. The first batch is due Aug. 9 and should include all the documents provided to the state auditor, which conducted the audits. A second batch of documents is due Aug. 23 and should include materials indicating how the agencies are responding to recommendations made in the audits.

Belatti, the House majority leader, said the agencies have already tentatively agreed to turn over those records.

State Auditor Les Kondo found that the Special Land and Development Fund is hindered by a lack of transparency and accountability. Kondo also found that the ADC has not done enough to reinvigorate former sugar and pineapple land.

As part of the audit of the land fund, Kondo’s office “examined contracts, leases, permits, financial records, annual reports, public meeting minutes, and other relevant documents.”

Kondo attempted to get financial records from the ADC but found that “ADC’s record-keeping was inconsistent, incomplete, and in many cases, non-existent.” The record keeping was so bad that a financial audit had to be suspended, according to the report.

The office requested documents related to land management policies, land acquisition guidelines, an inventory of landholdings and files on tenants. Instead, it got a four-page memo offering only general guidance on land management.

Rep. Amy Perruso, a critic of the ADC, asked that the subpoenas be expanded to include all documents that Kondo asked for, instead of only what was provided to the auditor.

Belatti said she is not inclined to expand the scope for the first batch of documents because the committee wants a quick turnaround.

Rep. Dale Kobayashi questioned why the committee needed the first batch of documents since the auditor already used those documents to develop the two reports.

“I don’t really see the point of what we’re doing here asking for this,” Kobayashi said. “And it is quite an ask.”

The documents are intended to get the committee ready before witnesses are called, according to Belatti.

Those hearings are expected to be held during the weeks of Sept. 13 and Sept. 20.

July 22, 2021 General Ag News and Notes, Plant Pests and Diseases, Ranching Post a Comment

Help is on the way: Funding to assist ranchers in battling two-lined spittlebug

West Hawaii Today –
By Laura Ruminski –

Help is on the way for Big Island ranchers fighting an invasive bug decimating pasture land in North and South Kona.

Franny Brewer of the Big Island Invasive Species Committee said the two-lined spittlebug (TLSB) could fit easily on a fingernail, looking innocuous and almost pretty with its orange-on-black stripes. But for Big Island ranchers, the sudden appearance of this insect in South Kona 2016 was anything but welcome. Since then, this tiny insect has spread prolifically, destroying more than 175,000 acres of pasture in the few short years since its arrival.

“The impact this little bug is having on pastures … is catastrophic,” said Mark Thorne, University of Hawaii Cooperative Extension Service State Range and Livestock Extension Specialist. Thorne and his team have been working since 2016 to find and track TLSB, all while searching for solutions. So far, they have found few strategies for mitigating the damage.

“We have seen the impact zone of this pest increase by about 35,000 acres per year, it’s spreading and it is very, very difficult to control,” Thorne said.

Already, affected ranchers have been forced to reduce herd sizes as the TLSB threatens Hawaii’s $65 million cattle industry. In response, the 2021 state Legislature approved $350,000 funding from the American Rescue Plan to support affected ranchers and fund ongoing research into mitigating the damage. The funds will be directed to the state Department of Agriculture to be used in responding to the invasive spittlebug.

“Hawaii’s food sustainability and resiliency depends on our ability to produce nutritious, affordable, healthy protein,” Hawaii Cattlemen’s Council Managing Director Nicole Galase said, adding that she hopes to work closely with the state Department of Agriculture to ensure the money has the greatest impact on the long-term sustainability of the ranching industry on Hawaii Island.

Keith Unger, who manages McCandless Ranch in South Kona, said the entity has yet to see the invasive bug in its pastureland.

“We’re not affected by it so far, but our next door neighbor is, so it’s just a matter of time,” he said. “It is a scary situation. The Legislature has definitely realized the potential devastation of this insect and that it could go further than just affecting the ranchers at the point that it affects watershed and erosion. If all of a sudden all these grasses disappear and you have nothing but bare ground or weeds, and all of a sudden you have flooding issues, you have soil retention issues.”

Even though the bug has been contained in the Kona region, Unger said the concern obviously is it spreading out of Kona and up into North and South Kohala, where Parker Ranch, one of the largest private owned ranches in the nation is located.

“The cattlemen there and on the other islands are definitely keeping an eye out on this and are participating in educational outreach just to make sure we can contain as best we can,” Unger said. “McCandless only has Guinea grass and akoa, and so far, spittlebug does not affect those feed sources. But anyone who has kikuyu or pangola in particular seems to be mostly affected.”

Roy Wall said Wall Ranch in Kealakekua was not so lucky.

“We started seeing the spittlebug back in 2016 around the same time that a few other Kona ranchers started seeing it,” said Wall. “By 2020, we had seen 100% of our kikuyu and pangola pastures decimated. Invasive weeds have moved in with no grass cover to hold them out.”

Wall said the ranch was forced to reduce its cow heard on those pastures by 50%.

“I feel like we are past the disaster phase and are moving in to the recovery and rebuild phase,” he said. “We have been working on trying to find resistant grasses — and some look promising — but its’ going to take years to recover. I’m hopeful that this bug will run through its initial explosion and find a balance.”

Brewer, with the Big Island Invasive Species Committee, said the team at the University of Hawaii’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources Cooperative Extension Service, CTAHR-CES, has been testing some TLSB-resistant grasses that could be used to reseed pastures. However, unlike the broad open plains where these grasses have been successfully deployed in North America and Brazil, Hawaii pastures range over thousands of feet in elevation and multiple climactic zones, all over diverse substrates, including lava rock, that make reseeding difficult.

“No single grass can solve the problem,” said Carolyn Wong Auweloa, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service State Rangeland Management Specialist.

More research is crucial, she insisted, to help ranch lands recover. She pointed out that TLSB has completely killed forage in the heavily infested areas, effectively reducing productivity to zero and leaving behind a desolate swath that quickly fills in with invasive, toxic, and unpalatable weeds that in turn threaten the native forests that border the pastures.

“These grazing lands will not recover their productive potential without significant inputs to suppress weeds and attempt to re-establish forage species that can withstand the bug,” Auweloa said. “A lot of people don’t realize the important role ranchers play in maintaining the health of our watersheds.”

According to the state Department of Agriculture’s Statewide Agricultural Land Use Baseline study, grazing lands occupy over 760,000 acres in Hawaii.

“Healthy grazing lands have healthy, deeply rooted plant communities that cover the soil and help rainwater infiltrate to recharge our aquifers,” Auweloa said. “The funding from the Legislature will help to make these lands productive again, so they can continue to provide valuable ecosystem and social services, while feeding our livestock, our people and our economy.”

McCandless Ranch’s Unger said the help from the department is appreciated, but biosecurity at airports and ports needs to be beefed up because it’s becoming “one infestation after another.”

“We can and should spend more money at out ports and airports to stop these (invasives) from coming in,” he said. “Here we are, now spending hundreds of thousands and into the millions fighting on the back end. If you are going to talk about more ag sustainability you are right back to biosecurity for the State of Hawaii. Hopefully we can kickstart it again.”

Big Island residents are being asked to be alert about their lawns and pastures. Patches of dead grass that cannot be explained by other environmental factors should be reported right away to the state by visiting www.643Pest.org, calling (808) 643-PEST (7378) or using the 643-PEST mobile application for iOS and Android. Residents must also practice extreme caution in not transporting the insect out of its known infestation area.

A short documentary aimed at highlighting the plight of the ranchers and the impacts of TLSB in the hopes of raising awareness about the extreme threat to Hawaii’s agriculture can be found at www.biisc.org/tlsb.

“This infestation is by far the worst thing I’ve seen in my 40-plus years of ranching in Kona but I’m confident that we will find a way to survive,” said Wall.

July 22, 2021 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Long-awaited water allocation for Molokai homesteads approved

Maui News

The state water commission unanimously approved a long-standing request to allocate more than half a million gallons of water per day to supply new and existing uses of Hawaiian homelands on Molokai.

The decision will increase the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands’ Hoolehua Water System pumping allocation to 595,000 gallons per day.

“This action will allow us to bring water to existing and new homesteaders while maintaining deliveries to critical island services that benefit all residents,” Hawaiian Homes Commission Chairman William Aila Jr. said in a news release Wednesday. “We thank the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the many beneficiaries for their supportive testimony. While long-awaited, this effort clears one of the many barriers the department has faced in developing new homestead lots on Molokai.”

In 1993, DHHL filed a water user permit application for half a million gallons of potable water from two wells. Earlier that same year, Molokai Irrigation System, Molokai Ranch and the Maui County Department of Water Supply had filed competing applications for water from the Kualapuu Aquifer System. Until the water commission’s decision on Tuesday, water rights for the aquifer had been in litigation for 30 years, according to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

“The commission previously reserved nearly 3 million gallons per day (2.905 mgd) to DHHL,” Commission on Water Resources Management Deputy Kaleo Manuel said in a news release Wednesday. “Portions of the water approved will be deducted from that reservation.”

DHHL is currently halfway through a two-year, $37 million capital improvement project to upgrade the 80-year-old Hoolehua Water System on Molokai. Work includes installation of a 200,000-gallon storage tank, upgrades to automation systems, a new warehouse and a new emergency generator diesel fuel tank. Other improvements involve new paved roads and fencing, along with the repair and replacement of existing tanks, pumps, transmission mains, laterals, valves and hydrants.

The Hoolehua Water System serves more than 2,400 customers, including about 500 homesteads in Hoolehua-Palaau, Kalamaula and Moomomi. Water from the system also provides service to the post office, schools and the airport.

DHHL asked the commission to approve conditions in its water use permit application to protect traditional and customary rights, including:

• Working to implement community-led efforts to replace invasive species with native species to try to improve the health of the coastal ecosystem.

• Supporting and encouraging efforts to reduce erosion and restore native vegetation in Kalamaula’s mauka areas.

• Making available certain community use designated areas as outdoor classrooms for schoolchildren, particularly for the perpetuation of traditional and customary groundwater dependent practices and resource management.

“The long delay in awarding water to DHHL has caused suffering among homesteaders on Molokai,” homesteader Glenn Teves said. “Yesterday’s vote is a meaningful step towards addressing that history.”

The commission will consider complete water use permit applications from the Maui County Department of Water Supply and Molokai Properties Ltd., aka Molokai Ranch, at a future meeting.