Hawaii Agriculture Posts – Page 6

August 3, 2021 Uncategorized Post a Comment

Court Limits A&B East Maui Stream Diversion

A Hawaii judge has ordered Alexander & Baldwin to significantly reduce the amount of water it diverts from East Maui streams for agricultural, domestic and industrial purposes.

Judge Jeffrey Crabtree of Hawaii’s Environmental Courts said in a written order Friday that A&B — a major real estate company in Hawaii — and subsidiary East Maui Irrigation Co. must limit diversion of the water to no more than 25 million gallons per day.

“This should be more than enough water to allow all users the water they require, while hopefully reducing apparent or potential waste,” Crabtree wrote.

A&B did not respond to a request for comment. The Sierra Club of Hawaii, which has long challenged A&B’s state-approved permits to divert the water, called Crabtree’s ruling “a big deal.”

“We are very pleased that the court reviewed all of the evidence and made a thoughtful determination that serves the legitimate water needs of the community and protects the health of these streams,” David Kimo Frankel, attorney for the Sierra Club, said in a press release Monday.

“This is a fair and balanced decision, a true win-win-win all the way around,” he added.

The Land Board authorized A&B to divert up to 45 million gallons daily. The environmental group said that the figure of 25 million gallons more closely matches actual water used based on reports to the Board of Land and Natural Resources. Correction: An earlier version of this article said that the Sierra Club estimated the water use figure of 45 million gallons, and not the BLNR.

Much of the water, the club estimated, was wasted due to system losses, seepage and evaporation.

Crabtree cited the Sierra Club in his ruling, stating that “it was the only party which offered the court concrete and specific options and support for how to modify the defective permits and not leave a vacuum until BLNR conducts a contested case hearing.”

The land board in November authorized A&B and Mahi Pono — a Maui farming business seeking to transform 41,000 acres of A&B’s former sugar cane land into diversified agriculture — to continue diverting water from dozens of streams via EMI. A&B sold the land to Mahi Pono for $262 million in 2018.

Mahi Pono declined to comment.

A Longstanding Issue
The state’s Environment Courts were established by the Legislature in 2014, making Hawaii at the time only the second state after Vermont to have a statewide environmental court.

The courts, according to the state judiciary, have “broad jurisdiction, covering water, forests, streams, beaches, air, and mountains, along with terrestrial and marine life.”

The battle over water rights involves various state agencies, several prominent businesses, conservationists and Native Hawaiian taro farmers in East Maui who need lots of water for the crop. The origins of the water diversion extend back to the plantation era of the 19th century, when sugar was the Hawaiian Kingdom’s top export.

For now, environmentalists and farmers are claiming victory.

“Just as upcountry Maui residents are being asked to conserve water right now, the court recognized that Mahi Pono also must do all that it can to reduce waste in its own water usage,” said Marti Townsend, director for the Sierra Club of Hawaii, in the press release.

Crabtree is the same judge who in April sided with BLNR and Alexander & Baldwin in a case challenging temporary water permits issued in 2018 and 2019, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.

The judge ruled at that time that the board acted properly when it allowed the diversion of stream water in those permits, “saying Hawaii’s public-trust doctrine imposes a dual mandate on the state to both protect water resources and make maximum reasonable beneficial use of those resources.”

In his latest order, Crabtree made clear that the matter should ultimately be resolved by other parties: “The court repeats its prior statements that it does not want to be in charge of the specifics of east Maui water distribution. That role should be filled by others with more expertise and experience. But the court will not risk a vacuum which causes hardship to those on Maui who rely on the water at issue.”

That ruling was hailed as a victory by the DLNR and A&B.

But the fight over water is not over. The BLNR is expected to take up the matter of A&B’s long-term water permits later this month.

Lucienne de Naie, a resident of Huelo in East Maui, was pleased with Crabtree’s ruling.

“These streams often run dry in sections, putrid puddles breed mosquitoes, old pipes and other debris litter the stream banks, and the native stream species do not have enough water to thrive in,” de Naie was quoted as saying in the press release. “And all of us who live in East Maui rely on this water as well for our own homes and farms in East Maui.”

August 3, 2021 Climate Change, General Ag News and Notes, Globel Warming Post a Comment

Record wildfire burns at least 40,000 acres on Hawaii’s Big Island, sets up mudslide danger

Washington Post
By Paulina Firozi

A brush fire that scorched at least 40,000 acres on Hawaii’s Big Island is the largest ever on the island, officials said, and the area burned may pose a risk for mudslides if there are heavy downpours in coming months.

Mandatory evacuations forced residents in three communities out of their homes over the weekend, but the orders were lifted late Sunday as conditions stabilized.

Cyrus Johnasen, a spokesperson for the Hawaii County mayor’s office, said Tuesday that the confirmed area burned remained around 40,000 acres. Johnasen told The Washington Post that the fire was 75 percent contained, and that officials expect the blaze to be 85 to 90 percent contained by the end of Tuesday, local time. Officials say that the fire is no longer a threat to residences or homes but that there is concern about an effect on forest reserves and species habitats.

He also warned of “after effects” even when the flames are curbed. For the next two or three months, heavy rains could cause mudslides, he said.

“All the areas that have burned, the soil no longer has roots to hold it in place,” he said. “ … So that 40,000 acres of burned soil could translate to mudslides anywhere along the west side of the island, resulting in potential road closure or hazardous conditions.”

He said residents should be cautious on roads if those heavy rains arrive.

Maui residents rail against spike in tourism during water shortage: ‘Stop coming’ to Hawaii

The fire ignited amid recent drought conditions in parts of the state of Hawaii. Nearly 60 percent of the state is experiencing at least moderate drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Much of the Big Island is abnormally dry or experiencing moderate drought.

A National Weather Service forecast from early July warned of “increasing drought conditions” in parts of the state during the summer.

“It’s important to note that by no means are we out of this drought,” Johnasen said. “The threat of this particular fire is over, but folks should keep in mind who live in those dry areas that more forest fires and brush fires could spark over the course of the summer. We want folks to remain cautious and remain alert and have an evacuation plan in the event something becomes more of a threat to homes.”

Exceptional heat and drought also have created tinderbox conditions elsewhere, fueling wildfires across the western United States this year. The National Interagency Fire Center lists 97 active large fires burning in the country, mostly in Western states.

Clay Trauernicht, part of the extension faculty in ecosystems and fire at University of Hawaii at Manoa, said fires in Hawaii are fueled by widespread tropical grasses.

“That’s what drives our fire risk here,” Trauernicht told The Post.

“We’ve been in pretty deep drought conditions, especially in that part of the Big Island,” he added. “The other thing that hammers us is we’ve had an especially wet wintertime.”

Wet winters with excess rainfall lead to more tropical grass growing, accumulating more fuels that later dry out and can increase the chance of fires.

“What we’re seeing is that perfect one-two punch,” Trauernicht said.

He said there’s also been a long-term trend of grasslands expanding, in part driven by a reduction in agriculture and ranching operations over the past two or three decades. With less land under production, grasses have further filled in.

Trauernicht said there are occasional lightning strike-sparked fires, brush fires and fires from active lava flows. In 2018, an eruption from the Kilauea volcano on the Big Island devastated surrounding areas. Fissures opened up, spewing lava into residential roads and destroying structures in its path.

But a large majority of fires are started by people, Trauernicht said. “Human ignitions coupled with an increasing amount of nonnative, fire-prone grasses and shrubs and a warming, drying climate have greatly increased the wildfire problem,” notes the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization website.

Roth pointed fingers at the drought as firefighters fought the record blaze in Hawaii County.

“With the drought conditions that we’ve had, it is of concern,” the mayor said, according to the Associated Press. “You see something like this where you’re putting thousands of homes in danger, it’s very concerning.”

August 2, 2021 Agriculture Grants, General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

DLNR News Release: Apply Now For Wildland Mitigation And Landscape Scale Restoration Funding

The DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) is seeking applicants for two new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service competitive grant programs: wildland-urban interface and landscape scale restoration grants.

Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) grants provide funds to mitigate risk from wildland fire. Funds are awarded through a competitive process with emphasis on hazard fuel reduction, information and education, assessment and planning, and monitoring through community and landowner action.

DOFAW is looking for other non-federal landowners, agencies and organizations interested in collaborating on joint projects across land ownership and management boundaries for both programs.

Projects that DO NOT qualify include suppression capacity building, such as the purchase of fire department equipment. Applications must describe how the project connects with the goals of the Hawai’i Forest Action Plan and an existing Community Wildfire Protection Plan. See 2022 WUI Grant Criteria and Instructions for more information.

Landscape Scale Restoration (LSR) grants address priority landscapes and/or issues identified in the Hawai’i Forest Action Plan and encourage collaborative, science-based restoration projects that encompass a diversity of ownerships at a scale that can address the restoration objectives identified in the project.

Eligible activities following priorities outlined in the Hawaii Forest Action Plan include:

Water Quality and Quantity
Forest Health: Invasive Species, Insects, and Disease
Wildfirev
Urban and Community Forestry
Climate Change and Sea Level Rise
Conservation of Native Biodiversity
Hunting, Nature-Based Recreation, and Tourism
Forest Products and Carbon Sequestration
S. Tropical Island State and Territorial Issues

Ineligible activities include but are not limited to purchasing of land, purchasing of technical equipment greater than $5,000 without prior approval by United States Forest Service (USFS), work on federal land, construction (e.g. new buildings or roads), and research-related activities.

See the FY 2022 LSR National Overview and Western Guidance document for more information.

DEADLINES

WUI and LSR grant applications for 2021 will be accepted by DOFAW via email only until 12:00 PM (HST) September 30th, 2021.

Email WUI applications* to Michael Walker (State Fire Protection Forester) using subject header “WUI Request for Interest”

Email LSR applications* to Tanya Rubenstein (Cooperative Resource Management Forester) using subject header “LSR Request for Interest”

*All submitted responses must be on the appropriate application form, linked above, and must be editable (i.e. in fillable pdf or MS Word format only). Use English only, and provide all financial information in U.S. dollars. All applications are reviewed and prioritized by DOFAW who will load selected proposals into the relevant online system for submission for the competitive western region review/scoring process.

Non-federal landowners, agencies and organizations interested in applying to either grant program are encouraged to register their organization by September 5th, 2021 providing a contact name, address, phone number, and email address to the relevant DOFAW point of contact above, otherwise you will not receive notification of any changes or addendums.

# # #

RESOURCES

Hawai’i Forest Action Plan: https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/forestry/info/fap/

Community Wildfire Protection Plan: https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/forestry/fire/community-risk-reduction/community-wildfire-protection-plans/

2022 WUI Grant Criteria and Instructions: https://www.westernforesters.org/sites/default/files/FY_2021%20WSFM%20WUI%20Grant%20Instructions%20to%20States_Web.pdf

FY 2022 LSR National Overview and Western Guidance:
https://www.thewflc.org/landscape-scale-restoration-competitive-grant-program/fy-2022-landscape-scale-restoration

RFI is posted at: https://hands.ehawaii.gov/hands/opportunities/opportunity-details/20443

August 2, 2021 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Golden opportunity: Beekeepers turn hobby into a honey-maker

West Hawaii Today
By Colleen Schrappen St. Louis Post-Dispatch (TNS)

DES PERES, Mo. — A vegetable garden was first on Tom Millis’ to-do list when he bought his home in the St. Louis suburb of Des Peres a decade ago. Then he and his now-wife, Elsa Stuart, added native flowers to their 2-acre property.

Bees were next. They’d help pollinate the plants and make a little honey, maybe even enough to give to friends.

Last summer, the couple harvested 1,600 pounds.

“What are we going to do with all this honey?” Stuart asked Millis.

They decided to form a bee corporation.

In October, the couple launched Millis Meadows, joining the ranks of hobbyists-turned-entrepreneurs whose fascination with the communal insects blossomed into side businesses selling hive products. In the United States, honeybees have bounced back since colony collapse disorder was identified in the mid-2000s, increasing awareness of the pollinators’ plight. Honey consumption has almost doubled over the past 50 years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, even as the use of other caloric sweeteners has dropped.

Most backyard beekeepers start small after learning about the practice from a family member or on social media. Millis and Stuart, both veterinarians, dove into research on the invertebrates and converted their garage into a workspace before they added any flying tenants to their garden. At least six apiarist organizations in the region offer mentoring and workshops to help “newbees” establish colonies, mitigate setbacks and minimize the inevitable stings.

“You can’t just master it in a year,” said John Pashia of Affton. “There’s very much an art to the science.”

Pashia joined the Eastern Missouri Beekeepers Association 15 years ago after a friend got him interested in the practice. At the time, about a dozen people were regulars at meetings. Now the club claims hundreds of members.

“People are becoming more connected to nature and wanting to know where their food comes from,” Pashia said. “As a hobby, it’s extremely interesting. You’re overwhelmed by Mother Nature.”

Bee colonies are complex ecosystems, and their care requires time and money. Most backyard hives resemble a chest of drawers, with 10-inch-tall wooden boxes called “deeps” on the bottom and shallower “supers” stacked on top. Inside are eight to 10 frames into which worker bees construct honeycomb. The hexagonal wax cells can hold eggs, pollen and nectar — which the workers dehydrate by fanning it with their translucent wings until it thickens into honey.

Honey is collected from the supers — a barrier called an excluder keeps the queen from laying eggs in them — usually in the summer or fall. Extracting equipment can cost thousands of dollars. The process takes days to complete.

Jeremy Idleman of Ballwin was prodded into beekeeping a few years ago by an uncle, after Idleman returned from an Army deployment to Iraq.

“I had some anger issues,” he said.

He learned that beekeeping had been recommended for World War I veterans to help them recover from shell shock.

“I found that I was much more calm when I was working the bees,” Idleman said. “There’s a lot of therapeutic qualities to them.”

The constant hum of the hive is soothing, like white noise. Success is measurable. Every couple of days, he checks on his growing brood. He slides out the frames, each one heavy with bees, and drips of nectar glisten in the sunlight.

At harvest time, Idleman uses a hot knife to slice the caps off the comb, the wax falling away in a long curl. A centrifuge spins the honey out of the frames. It slides down the wall of the steel drum and out a spigot, like a golden ribbon.

“It all forces you to be present,” Idleman said. “I figured if it worked for me, it would work for others.”

In 2016, he formed BeeFound for veterans and first responders with post-traumatic stress disorder. In addition to the five hives he keeps, he manages a “foster apiary” for the nonprofit’s Bees for Bravery program applicants. He’s given away 20 hives this year and more than a dozen people are on the waiting list.

Idleman bottled 200 pounds of his own honey last year. He sells it online, for $13 a jar, to help fund BeeFound.

Beyond clover

Like beer and olive oil, honey varieties have proliferated in recent years amid a growing appreciation for flavor and style nuances. Clover is the most common of the more than 300 types in the United States, which vary based on local flowers.

Pat Jackson of Hazelwood, Mo., an all-day tea drinker, says she can taste the changing of the seasons when she stirs in her honey.

“In the spring, it’s a very delicate flavor,” she said. “Fall honey is a darker color. The flavor is deeper.”

Jackson gets her sweet fix from Tinker’s Bees and Pure Raw Honey, owned by Guy and Tracy Tinker of Florissant, Mo.

“What the bees are foraging on makes the honey completely different,” said Guy Tinker, a computer technician.

The Tinkers started tending bees in 2014. In their second year, they collected enough honey to give to friends. By the fourth year, they were ready to form an LLC. They sell primarily online and at a few local shops.

Rob Kravitz of south St. Louis pops a teaspoon of Tinker’s each day with his dose of vitamins. “It helps me wake up in the morning,” he said.

Honey, which contains vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, enjoys a healthy reputation that eludes many other sweeteners. Its sugars have been partly broken down by bees, making them easier for some people to digest. Honey can work as a cough suppressant or a salve for wounds.

Many consumers swear by local honey as an allergy remedy, though clinical studies have not borne that out; the Mayo Clinic refers to it as a “sweet placebo.”

For Ann Shields of Des Peres, buying local honey is more about promoting environmental health, anyway.

“Those bees live happy lives, and it feels good for me to support that,” she said.

She uses Millis Meadows’ $8 wildflower honey in marinades for her barbecue, spread on toast and as a throat-soother when she strains her voice from teaching.

It’s delicious, and it’s easy, Shields said: “I get the benefit without the buzzing.”

July 31, 2021 General Ag News and Notes, Sustainable Agriculture Post a Comment

How This Group Hopes To Change Hawaii’s Agricultural Landscape

Forbes
by Esha Chhabra

“Hawaii’s food system is broken,” says Constanze Niedermaier of Common Ground, a new platform to find regeneratively grown Hawaiian foods.

The islands export 80% of their crop, and import 90% of their food products, despite being a fertile land which has the potential to grow an abundance of its own needs.

John Parziale has been a farmer in Kauai for over 20 years, growing crops like ginger and turmeric. He’s seen the farming challenges first-hand: an emphasis on monocropping, high land costs that prevent young (and new) farmers from getting into the profession, and the emphasis on exports instead of self-sufficiency.

That’s why Niedermaier, Parziale, and others have come together, backed by a group of like-minded eco-forward investors, to create a hub for local food entrepreneurs: The Common Ground is a physical space in Kauai that serves as a base for a new food community focused on regenerative agriculture on the islands. With an accelerator and an incubator, Common Ground wants to support small and medium size food businesses who are trying to deviate from the conventional model of agriculture.

They include enterprises such as Maui Nui, which makes a venison jerky bar with wild-caught Axis deer, which have become an invasive species in Hawaii, explains Niedermaier, and yet are a nutritional meat. There’s Vintage Vinegars which produces a raw pineapple vinegar made from excess fruit and otherwise waste, at a pineapple processing unit (one of Hawaii’s most popular exports). Or ulu-based products that have provided an alternative to traditional grains and wheat-centric pastas; ulu, or breadfruit, is grown widely in the tropics and plays a pivotal role in agroforestry on the islands, says Parziale.

While the physical space set on an 83-acre agricultural campus once home to Kilauea Sugar Plantation and Guava Kai Plantation will serve as a meeting place for these entrepreneurs, allowing them to convene, share, ideas, and cross-collaborate, Common Ground has also launched an online marketplace to reach consumers beyond the islands. “We want people across America to discover these stories and products,” he says.

For Parziale who is a passionate advocate for a healthier food system and now operates a 5-acre farm which serves as a model and testing ground for those looking to convert to permaculture or regenerative practices, this is a heart-felt mission. “Agriculture has become one of the most destructive human activities on earth. Either we change, and model our agricultural systems after ecosystems, or regenerative agriculture is going to sprout from the ashes of our civilization.”

Agroforestry plays a huge role in this transformation for Hawaii. Unlike mainland farms that can rely on vast open spaces to have rows of planted crops, in Hawaii, its tree fruits, such as breadfruit, nuts, coffee, cacao, and more, can help produce a more regenerative system, Parziale says. The trees not only help keep carbon in the soils, but provide shade, help retain water, and allow for intercropping.

The last two decades, he says, have seen a massive consolidation in how we produce and consume food. “That has to change. Those destructive and extractive agricultural products have to be reckoned with.”

Common Ground’s campus will open in 2022. But till then, the online marketplace is available for consumers around the U.S. to discover some of these new innovative food companies, and get a taste of the islands, through a regenerative lens.

July 31, 2021 Cannabis Post a Comment

Hemp is legal again. Congress should make it easier to farm

Los Angeles Times
By DOUG FINE

Climate change got personal for my family in 2013, when a refugee bear fleeing a nearby wildfire scaled my goat-corral fence and killed most of the herd in front of our eyes. Milk providers, yoga partners and friends Natalie Merchant, Bette Midler and Stevie Nicks were lost that day (we name our goats after singers we like). Baby Taylor Swift survived and slept inside with my human kids for a while.

Since that day, I’ve been consciously sequestering carbon — trying to reduce carbon miles by eating and buying locally, avoiding petroleum-based plastics in favor of compostable materials and furthering both of these goals by planting hemp and milking goats. It’s my day job: farming so my grandkids have a habitable planet.

And it’s not just me. America’s 21,496 hemp farmers are buying humanity some time by growing a superfood, wellness and fiber crop whose roots not incidentally help sequester a lot of carbon. I plant a small field of it — experimenting with various cultivars, providing some to other farmers and researchers, eating some — at our Funky Butte Ranch in New Mexico. On a larger scale, I’m part of a team assisting a Rosebud Sioux tribal enterprise growing 125 acres of organic hemp. More hemp acreage is better for all of us.

In 2018, Congress restored hemp, a low-THC member of the cannabis family, to full legality after 80 years of classification as a controlled substance. (THC is the psychoactive component of cannabis.) In the three years since relegalization, the commercial crop crossed the billion-dollar valuation mark.

Two reasons we ought to celebrate this milestone: A lucrative crop builds struggling farming economies. And hemp is a regenerative agriculture star.

As a cash crop or a cover crop, hemp’s substantial taproots are absolutely stunning at creating the conditions that build soil’s carbon capture qualities. And cover crops, in rotation with traditional crops, can sequester an average of 425 to 1,584 pounds of atmospheric carbon per acre per year, according to a University of South Carolina study.

Along the way, hemp cleans soils of toxins. I’m proud to report that New Mexico State University researchers are seeing success in uranium uptake from contaminated mining soil planted with a hemp variety that I’ve been developing for five seasons.

Besides your patronage, those of us who farm hemp ask one thing: Please loudly help us change the federal guideline for how much THC is allowable in commercial hemp.

The 2018 relegalization law set hemp’s limit at 0.3% THC. (Psychoactive cannabis typically contains at least 15% and usually more.) For a lot of reasons, including local soil conditions, between 20% and 30% of the hemp crop has been testing mildly “hot” — above the 0.3% level. Nearly all the tests come in somewhere south of the still very low level of 1% THC, but any hot result means the crop can be destroyed, along with the farmer’s revenue.

The 0.3% level is arbitrary as well as unworkable. Most parts of a hemp plant’s valuable architecture — the seed, fiber and roots — contain no THC at all. The flowers register THC, but upping the limit for hemp to 1% won’t make it psychoactive. No one is smoking 1% flower to get high.

From a policy perspective, hemp is about the last crop a wise society would restrict in any way. Before it got outlawed in the 1930s, it was cultivated as an essential crop all the way back to the founders. George Washington grew hemp at Mount Vernon. When George H. W. Bush had to escape his burning bomber in World War II, the cord he pulled to open the parachute was made of hemp.

Commercial hemp fiber is made into textiles, ink, paper, construction materials and biodegradable plastics. The flowers go into sleep aids and pain relievers, low in THC but high in cannabinoids such as CBD or CBG. Hemp seeds can be eaten whole or de-hulled, or they can be crushed into oil. My goats love the hemp meal byproduct of oil pressing.

I eat the seeds every day in yogurt and shakes — they’re a balanced source of all three Omega fatty acids, high in protein, packed with minerals. Early results from a study, led by Qing X. Li of the University of Hawaii, indicate that a diet rich in hemp seeds might even help inhibit the expansion of lipid cells in humans. In other words, hemp could help reverse the obesity epidemic.

Right now, we’re at about 500,000 acres licensed for hemp growing nationwide. Compare that with 89 million acres of corn, though. There’s lots of room for growth, especially if we make hemp as risk-free for farmers as other crops.

Other nations, including Switzerland, Ecuador and Thailand, have adopted the 1% “definition” of hemp. Two major farm advocacy groups, the National Farmer’s Union and the Farm Bureau, are in favor of the change in the U.S. And you can help the effort by signing the online petition at the Vote Hemp website (Vote Hemp is an advocacy group). A call to your representative and senators couldn’t hurt either.

In the meantime, when you buy hemp seed, fiber or flower products, please support local farmer-owned enterprises, especially organic ones. You’ll be investing in sustainable rural communities and sustainable agriculture, while helping mitigate climate change.

I’m just in from my own hemp field, my fingers dirty with carbon-sequestering soil. Pollinators were dive-bombing me as I checked on the crop. Let me tell you, in a multitasking life, dodging butterflies in a fragrant hemp field is about the most fun you can have making a living.

And there’s another payoff: With the seeds forming on the Funky Butte Ranch hemp crop, I like the feeling of knowing that no matter what happens, my human kids and my goat kids will both eat high-protein superfood this winter.

Doug Fine is the author of six books, including “American Hemp Farmer: Adventures and Misadventures in the Cannabis Trade.”