General Ag News and Notes – Page 6

July 29, 2021 Agribusiness Development Corporation, General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Ways and Means Committee visits Kaua‘i

Earlier this month, the state Senate’s Ways and Means Committee visited several sites on Kaua‘i, identifying issues, resource needs and potential solutions to address regional and statewide economic development, develop curriculum and career technical education pathways for a local workforce, analyze efficient space utilization of State facilities, and leverage critical private partnerships to decrease State resource dependence and liability.

“I want to thank Chair Dela Cruz and members of the Ways and Means Committee for coming to Kaua‘i to visit with the various government agencies and community partners that are doing great work here on the Garden Isle,” Senate President Ronald Kouchi (District 8) said.

While on Kaua‘i, the committee convened briefings at the following sites:

Kaua‘i Adolescent Treatment Center for Healing
Kaua‘i Complex Area Alternative Learning Program is preparing to relocate after waiting for many months to move into the Kaua‘i Adolescent Treatment Center for Healing, as the County of Kaua‘i prepares to release the facility to Grove Farm Company.

Kaua‘i State Office Building & Annex

Department of Labor and Industrial Relations has agreed to abide to a 2019 agreement to clear out unoccupied office spaces, creating access for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to move into the office spaces.

Department of Accounting and General Services is working with the University of Hawai’i Community Design Center to develop a regional site plan and construction for a new facility to completely rid Kaua‘i of the 16,000 square footage of leased spaces, with potential savings of $540,000.

Alternative Learning Centers at Kaua‘i High School, Kapa’a High School and Waimea High School

Kaua‘i Department of Education High Schools have reported tremendous student success with its new Alternative Learning Centers. Data provided by the schools indicated that the students who were enrolled at the ALC’s in school year 20-21, 63% of whom are Native Hawaiian, have experienced academic gains and the average attendance rates increased by 11%.

Dramatic improvements in behavior are being realized. At Kapa’a High School, ALC students decreasing from 307 Chapter 19 (student misconduct) offenses to zero, Kaua‘i High School ALC students decreasing from 391 offenses to zero and Waimea High School ALC students decreasing from 292 offenses to 3.

Beck’s Hybrid

With the closure of Beck’s Hybrid, a corn seed research and development company in Kekaha, the DOE shared a plan to assume Beck’s lease with the Agribusiness Development Corporation to launch agriculture and value-added product production pathways into select Kaua‘i public schools.

Coupled with the agriculture and entrepreneurship courses, the vacated Beck’s Hybrid site will help to fast track the re-opening of the facility for students to engage in agricultural and value-add production, processing, and distribution and activating surrounding lands for farming.

Green Energy Team LLC and the Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative

As Hawai’i strives to generate 100% clean energy by 2045, Kaua‘i energy producers Green Energy Team LLC, and the Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative provided an impressive overview of their clean energy regional work.

The two clean energy producers shared with WAM members and stakeholders from HECO, HEI, State Energy Office, PUC and IBEW 1260, DOE and Kaua‘i Community College how Green Energy Team’s Biomass facility contributes 11% of the island of Kaua‘i’s entire energy portfolio and over 16% of the county’s renewable energy portfolio.

KIUC reported that it had grown its renewable energy production from just 9% of its overall consumption in 2009 to 67% as of 2020. The KIUC projects will be able to achieve 90% renewable energy by 2025, with a portfolio that consists of solar, hydro, and biomass.

The WAM committee assembled the Kaua‘i energy companies and statewide energy stakeholders to discuss a statewide plan and timeline to meeting Hawai’i’s 2045 goal. WAM members called for a comprehensive statewide energy plan that will evaluate regional energy assets and needs, integrate existing and emerging technologies, collaboration with K-12 and post-high institutions to develop a green workforce, coordinated retraining efforts with the union to ensure continuity of employment as energy workforce requirements shift and lastly, align legislation and resources to the agreed-upon strategies and timeline.

Pacific Missile Range Facility

The Hawai’i Air National Guard and Koa Lani, a PMRF civilian contracting company, expressed its desire and willingness to work with the local Kaua‘i middle and high schools and Kaua‘i Community College to develop a pipeline of qualified workers. Between the two, the companies employ over 700 workers on the military base.

The groups shared the difficulty in hiring local residents due to most applicant’s lack of specialized skills required for Department of Defense work. High demand and hard-to-fill job vacancies remain and include electrical engineering, cybersecurity and radio antenna repair and maintenance positions. With the continuous need for skilled IT-related workers on island, we have an incredible opportunity to fill them with homegrown talent from Kaua‘i.

“The Pacific Missile Range Center can serve as a community resource for students on Kaua‘i who are looking to explore pathways in STEM and other related fields,” noted Senate Vice President Michelle Kidani (District 18), and chair of the Senate Committee on Education. “By working together with the DOE and Kaua‘i Community College, these potential partnerships will allow students to attain the necessary certifications and educational degrees needed to become job ready and have the opportunity to live, learn, work and thrive in their home communities.”

July 28, 2021 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Community Policing Meeting to Address Agricultural Theft in Honomū

Big Island Gazette

UPDATE: A community meeting focusing on agricultural theft in the Honomū area scheduled for Monday, August, 9, 2021, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., will take place online via Zoom instead of in person at the Honomū Gym as previously announced.

Officers from Hawai‘i Police Department’s Hilo Community Policing Section will provide updates on the department’s efforts to mitigate these crimes as well as ag theft prevention tips.

Those interested in attending can join the Zoom meeting using the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86770661312. For questions about accessing the meeting, contact council member Heather Kimball at (808) 961-8828, or by email at heather.kimball@hawaiicounty.gov.

ORIGINAL POST: Hawai‘i Police Department’s Hilo Community Policing Section invites the public to a community meeting on Monday, August, 9, 2021, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Honomū Gym, 28-1641 Old Mamalahoa Highway, in Honomū.

The event, hosted by Hawaii County Council Member Heather Kimball, will provide area residents an opportunity to ask questions, as well as share and discuss community concerns. One of the main topics of discussion will be agricultural theft. Officers will provide updates on the department’s efforts to mitigate these crimes as well as ag theft prevention tips.

Those unable to attend in person can contact the police department’s Community Policing Section at (808) 961-2350, or by email at william.derr@hawaiicounty.gov or contact council member Heather Kimball at (808) 961-8828, or by email at heather.kimball@hawaiicounty.gov.

July 28, 2021 Employment/Jobs, General Ag News and Notes, Hawaii Agricultural Employment, Hawaii Agriculture Jobs Post a Comment

USAJOBS Daily Saved Search Results for Agriculture jobs in Hawaii for 7/28/2021

Program Support Assistant –
Department: Department of Agriculture –
Agency: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service –
Number of Job Opportunities & Location(s): 1 vacancy – Kahului, Hawaii
Salary: $36,363.00 to $47,274.00 / PA
Series and Grade: GS-0303-5
Open Period: 2021-07-28 to 2021-08-03
Position Information: Permanent – Full-time
Who May Apply: Career transition (CTAP, ICTAP, RPL), Open to the public

July 28, 2021 General Ag News and Notes, Ranching Post a Comment

Can solar and farming co-exist? Dutch trial hopes to prove a perfect match

Renew Economy
by Sophie Vorrath

Swedish multinational power company Vattenfall has unveiled plans to carry out a four-year pilot project in the Netherlands, looking at how a specially designed solar farm can be combined with Dutch strip farming practices.

The trial was announced by Vattenfall last week, off the back of the news that the company had received permission to test a combination of solar panels and organic crop cultivation at a site in Almere, east of Amsterdam, at a scale of around 700kW of PV capacity.

Vattenfall said it was working on the project with “other parties,” and with the backing of the Dutch government, to show how a combination of smart solar and farming practices could maintain land for food production – even improve it, ecologically – and deliver another income source for farmers.

The company said that findings of the so-called Symbizon project were particularly important to the Netherlands, where society “had reservations” about losing valuable agricultural land to solar generation – a concern that is starting to arise more often even in land-rich Australia.

“In the solar farm we alternate rows of panels with strips where various crops are grown for organic farming. This means that far fewer solar panels are being installed per hectare than is usual,” said Annemarie Schouten, Vattenfall’s head of solar development in the Netherlands.

“To ensure sufficient light yield, we use double-sided solar panels. They catch the reflected light from the soil, the crops and the adjacent rows and use it to produce solar energy. The panels also rotate with the sun to maximise yield.”

As part of the project, Vattenfall said a bespoke solar tracking algorithm was being developed by Dutch innovation outfit TNO, to track crop and energy yields and the effects of herb strips, weather forecasts, energy prices and soil conditions.

This algorithm would then be optimised, where possible, in cooperation with Vattenfall and Aeres University of Applied Sciences, a leading university of applied sciences for agribusiness and entrepreneurship in the Netherlands.

The impact of the solar tracking system on crop yield, diseases, and its ease of use for the farmer would be monitored by Aeres Hogeschool, ERF, a private organic farm in the Netherlands, and Hemus, an agricultural innovation outfit – both of which had extensive experience in strip farming.

Vattenfall’s Schouten said gaining approval for the pilot scheme by the Dutch government was a big step forward for the project, and that Vattenfall would now make a decision by the end of the year on its plans, with a possible start date in early 2022.

The trial coincides with the announcement of a much bigger “agrisolar” (or “agroenergy”) project in Europe – a plan to install 660MW of solar panels over 700 hectares of land in Serbia’s Vojvodina province, divided into seven zones for various organic crops.

The joint venture behind that project, Fintel Energija and agribusiness MK Group, say the project would install solar panels on around one-third of the total land area to generate about 832GWh a year, enough to supply 20,000 households, according to Balkan Green Energy News.

According to Fintel Energija and MK Group, combining solar panels with agricultural production creates a microclimate that increases the productivity of the crops and the efficiency of the energy production, while also further reducing emissions and water consumption for irrigation.

In Australia, the Clean Energy Council has called on the solar industry to work with Australian farmers to help solve the growing problem of grid access for new large-scale solar farms, as part of a recent paper published in promotion of agrisolar.

The push from the industry body comes as an increasing number of large-scale solar projects proposed for construction around the country meet opposition from locals over the loss of land previously used for farming or grazing.

The issue has become so prominent in Australia’s regional communities that the Country Women’s Association of Australia recently voted to call on governments to prevent solar farms from being developed in prime agricultural areas.

Like Vattenfall, the CEC paper argues that solar farms can improve both grazing and crop land, while allowing solar farms to be built in areas where the electricity network is strong, providing a win-win for both solar developers and farmers.

As RenewEconomy reported in March, the combination of solar farms with agriculture currently accounts for a small portion of Australia’s large-scale solar capacity: The CEC has identified 15 existing agrisolar projects totalling 1.1GW of capacity across Queensland, NSW and Victoria; the largest a 250MW project at Finley in southern NSW.

All of those projects, however, are “solar grazing”, the simplest form of agrisolar, which involves mixing mostly ground-mounted solar array with livestock – mostly sheep – grazing.

July 28, 2021 General Ag News and Notes, Plant Pests and Diseases Post a Comment

Farmers tackle new threat to island coffee trees

The Garden Island
By Scott Yunker

The most-destructive disease known to the coffee plant has arrived on Kaua‘i, putting local growers on high alert.

Less than one year after the state’s first reported case of coffee leaf rust occurred in Maui, the blight’s presence has now been established on all major Hawaiian islands.

Coffee leaf rust, which is caused by the fungus Hemileia vastatrix, can lead to defoliation, reduced fruit size and plant death. Local grower Ben Fitt of Outpost Coffee was the first to report the disease on Kaua‘i while tending to his one-acre orchard on the North Shore in late June.

ADVERTISING

“I came across some interesting markings on some of the leaves and had a look, and I was pretty certain it was coffee leaf rust,” Fitt said.

Fitt immediately contacted the state Department of Agriculture, which sent a field agent to collect laboratory samples. The results came back as CLR on July 9. However, the fungus had been on Kaua‘i for at least six months prior to Fitt’s discovery, according to a department announcement released last week.

No one will ever know how the rust took hold in Fitt’s orchard, which follows stringent protocols intended to mitigate the risk of infection. In addition, the state has restricted the movement of affected islands’ coffee plants and other potential hosts since CLR’s first appearance in Hawai‘i last October.

Coffee leaf rust was first documented in Africa in 1861, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which claims it was next spotted in Sri Lanka six years later, where it ruined that country’s coffee production within a decade. The disease has since been found in all major coffee-producing countries.

“I can only speculate as to how it got over. We took every step we can to prevent it. It’s just so contagious,” said Fitt, who hopes to destigmatize growers dealing with rust and other agricultural ills.

“There’s been a lot of farmers that haven’t reached out about it on the other islands, because they were scared of the repercussions from others,” Fitt explained. “I’d rather create an environment of, ‘The more we let people know and the departments know earlier on, it’s not a reflection on you as a bad person for having it.’”

The general manager of Kaua‘i Coffee Company, the largest coffee-grower in the U.S., appreciates Fitt’s transparency: to be forewarned is to be forearmed.

“We knew it was just a question of time,” Fred Cowell said, drawing a parallel between leaf rust and the arrival of the coffee berry borer, a pestilential beetle, in September. But it took the berry borer a decade to penetrate Kaua‘i following its discovery on Kona in 2010. In contrast, CLR has blown through Hawai‘i Island, Maui, O‘ahu, Lana‘i, Moloka‘i and Kaua‘i in eight months.

Cowell’s team has yet to find rust within Kaua‘i Coffee Company’s approximately 3,000-acre orchard. If it’s discovered, farm-workers will document the findings with a smartphone app connected to a centralized database that allows users to monitor problem areas with pinpoint accuracy. The company, which already utilizes mechanization throughout its operation, may even deploy drones to spray infected coffee trees.

“I don’t need to spray the entire orchard. I just need to spray wherever the hotspot is, either rust or CBB. We can send a tractor out and just do that area,” Cowell said. “But, potentially, in the future, we could launch a drone and it could go from spot to spot to spot and be done.”

Different approaches to fighting disease

Fitt, meanwhile, has taken a more-hands-on approach: He’s hired help to assist him in removing infected trees, and has adopted new pruning techniques. These efforts will increase airflow and sunlight in the orchard, thereby reducing the hot and moist conditions preferred by CLR. He is open to spraying fungicide, but only as a last resort.

“We don’t want to be spraying systemic chemicals on our farm,” Fitt said. “We would rather take a lot of other steps first to make sure that we do everything we can in our power to limit the spread with less-harmful techniques.”

Fitt estimates 3% to 5% of his coffee trees are showing relatively minor signs of rust.

“One of the key factors to how the tree responds to the pest is how healthy it is,” he said. “It’s kind of like humans getting sick: If you’re unhealthy before, you’re going to be affected worse.”

Fortunately for Fitt, that’s not the case here.

“We’re in a lucky position that our trees are super healthy. Our soil is very healthy, too,” Fitt continued. “Even though we are seeing signs of it, the trees aren’t really being affected that much.”

Cowell agrees: Soil affects everything, from the trees’ hardiness to the quality of consumers’ morning brew. Nurturing Kaua‘i Coffee Company’s land with cover crops, compost and other sustainable techniques will go a long way toward mitigating damage caused by rust.

CLR hasn’t gotten to Kaua‘i Coffee, yet

“With leaf rust showing up now and us having begun, five years ago, a journey toward better soil health and better sustainability, I think we’re going to have a pretty good chance of fighting it,” Cowell said. “There will be challenges, we don’t doubt it. It’s not here yet, but I have to assume that it will show up.”

CLR does not pose an existential threat to the Hawaiian coffee industry, according to Cowell, who said the product won’t disappear from supermarket shelves. However, it may bode ill for small orchards and hobbyists unable to invest the time, money and effort required to fight the disease.

“I think — for the state, anyway — it isn’t that CLR is going to chase them out of the business. It’s just a question of how much are they going to put up with?” Cowell said. “Exactly how difficult will it get before I finally just say, ‘You know what, I’m going to put in a few orange trees’ or ‘I’m just going to mow my field.’ That’s the long and short of it.”

Fitt is asking residents to report any suspected cases of coffee leaf rust to the state Department of Agriculture. Contact information and a CLR sampling form is available online at hdoa.hawaii.gov/pi/ppc/new-pest-advisories/.

“Coffee prices are going to go up because there’s a lot more labor involved in making sure this coffee leaf rust doesn’t destroy people’s trees,” Fitt said. “Production will go down with coffee leaf rust. I think the biggest thing that the average person can do to support their local farmers is to buy Hawaiian coffee.”

July 27, 2021 General Ag News and Notes, Hawaii Maritime Shipping, Jones Act Post a Comment

To Promote Competition, Deregulate

Project Syndicate
by ANNE O. KRUEGER

In a sweeping new executive order, US President Joe Biden has called on regulators to push for greater competition across a wide array of sectors and industries. But sometimes regulation itself is a big part of the problem.

US President Joe Biden recently issued an executive order calling on regulators to “further competition” in the shipping and rail industries, among others, because high and rising freight costs and delivery delays constitute a drag on economic activity by preventing businesses from obtaining timely inputs. But regulatory interventions won’t ameliorate that problem; deregulation will.

For over a century, US maritime transport has been regulated under the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 (the “Jones Act”) and the Foreign Dredge Act of 1906, both of which greatly restrict competition and raise costs. The Jones Act requires all shipping between domestic ports to be on vessels that are American-built (made with a majority of American-made parts), American-owned, American-operated, and manned by a crew that is at least 75% American.

The Case Against the Jones Act, a collection of essays edited by Colin Grabow and Inu Manak, details the many problems with this rule. For starters, the law both ignores and contributes to the fact that coastal cargo ships built in the United States cost six to eight times more than similar vessels built elsewhere. Moreover, labor costs are substantially higher for US ships, both because wages are relatively higher in the US and because the legally required size of coastal ship crews has remained unchanged, even as automation has enabled foreign shipping companies to reduce crew size and lower their costs. Restrictions on US dredging further exacerbate the problem.

The paradox of this protectionist rule is that it has led to a sustained decline in US shipbuilding, an increase in land-based transportation, unnecessary highway congestion, greater environmental damage, and an aging, smaller fleet that employs far fewer people than it once did.

Citing high and rising costs, Biden’s executive order aims to enhance US competitiveness and economic growth, improve occupational conditions for American workers, reduce environmental damage, safeguard national security, strengthen US infrastructure, and increase the number of “good” jobs.

It is rare to find a policy instrument that can achieve so much for so little. But that is exactly what repealing America’s damaging shipping regulations would do. Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico, in particular, would benefit immensely, because maritime shipping between them and the US mainland costs significantly more than it would without the Jones Act (which has even resulted in cattle being transported by air from Hawaii.)

The benefits of repeal would be far-reaching, starting with the effect on competitiveness and growth. High shipping costs raise the prices of imports used in manufacturing, which in turn raises the prices charged to consumers, making US businesses less competitive in foreign countries where other producers bear no such costs. An inefficient and costly transportation sector reduces the entire economy’s overall growth rate.

By unnecessarily increasing the cost of ships, the Jones Act deters US shipping companies from buying new vessels. Not surprisingly, at least half the US coastal shipping fleet is more than 30 years old, even though the ships’ economic life expectancy is about 20 years. It is estimated that there are only 99 active Jones Act ships, supporting 3,380 jobs at most. With deregulation, the industry could add more ships and thus more jobs. And the newer ships would be better for the environment and less accident-prone, providing a healthier workplace for more crew.

The environmental benefits would not end there. Freight carried by ship causes greenhouse-gas emissions that are 70% lower per ton-mile than freight carried by rail, and over 80% lower than freight carried by trucks. By allowing for much more freight to be shipped by water (at significantly reduced cost), repealing the Jones Act would relieve traffic congestion and delays on major US trucking routes. This also would further Biden’s infrastructure goals, by freeing up resources that otherwise would go to maintain the country’s over-burdened highways.

Since the Jones Act was enacted, the number of shipyards and ships built in the US has diminished greatly, except in the case of barges and related small vessels. As former US Maritime Commissioner Rob Quartel concludes in his contribution to The Case Against the Jones Act, the law’s restrictions “have led to the demise of American ships and shipbuilding and the subsequent loss of military support capacity, to the detriment of our national security.”

He also notes that the Jones Act has been suspended “for national emergencies…on the grounds that it was an impediment to national security.” More broadly, the national-security argument for requiring ships to employ American citizens makes little sense: foreign-flagged and foreign-manned ships enter US ports from overseas every day, and the airline industry may employ anyone who is authorized to work in the US.

In sum, the Jones Act has not served any of the purposes that its defenders cite. It has been detrimental to workers, the environment, and the overall economy, while benefiting only a very small group of people.

Fortunately, the law could easily be phased out over time, with offsets for any reduction in wages to seamen already in the industry. During the phase-out period, waivers could allow shipping to Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Alaska. These could also be granted in cases where Jones-eligible shipping is not available, or where the costs or delays of using it are unreasonably burdensome.

Not all regulation is bad, and not all regulation is good. There is no question about how to categorize the Jones Act. If the Biden administration is serious about promoting competition and economic growth, it should look at regulations that do far more harm than good.

Search Site

Category: General Ag News and Notes