Kai Market’s “living wall” of herbs and spices is so popular that chefs at other Sheraton Waikiki restaurants have been known to pinch from it when in need.
The living wall is a vertical grid of mint, basil, rosemary and other plants growing under warm lights and hydrated by a hidden watering system. Kai Market has three living walls — one by the restaurant’s entrance and two by the buffet line.
The walls, created by Greg and Terry Lee of First Look Exteriors in Waipio Gentry, have helped make Kai Market a popular draw since it opened Aug. 7. The breakfasts are attracting 600 patrons a day, while dinners bring in about 100.
Sheraton General Manager Kelly Sanders got the idea for Kai Market after a visit to Hawaii’s Plantation Village in Waipahu. Trips to the Bishop Museum and Maui sugar cane fields followed.
Working with the Hawaii Farm Bureau and Armstrong Produce, Sheraton helped persuade the state Legislature to enact Act 9 this year. The law established a Department of Agriculture pilot program to encourage farmers to form ag cooperatives with hotels and restaurants and to develop a safe food-certification process.
Sanders said only 10 percent of Hawaii’s approximately 300 farmers are certified for farm-to-plate sales. A $140,000 appropriation in Act 9 will help other farmers get certification.
Farmers outraged » Honolulu Weekly
A meeting at the State Capitol last Thursday drew testimony from dozens of people concerned about how planned layoffs of more than 50 state agricultural inspectors will impact Hawaii’s export industry.
A few testimonies came from specialists and elected officials–Hilo Mayor Billy Kenoi called the move a “serious mistake.” Most comments came from small-business owners from the neighbor islands who, in language ranging from anger to desperation, expressed alarm about what the cuts will do to their livelihoods.
East Bay Express – Shoddy Science
Shoddy Science
A national panel criticizes the USDA’s scientific research on the light brown apple moth but affirms the agency’s power to start another round of aerial spraying.
As expected, a panel from the National Academy of Sciences said on Monday that the government has the legal authority to embark on a massive new eradication effort against the light brown apple moth, thereby opening the door for another round of aerial pesticide spraying. But the panel also criticized the United States Department of Agriculture for engaging in shoddy science to substantiate its war on the moth.
The 21-page report came in response to petitions submitted by opponents of the government’s extermination plans. They had asked the USDA to reclassify the light brown apple moth from being a major pest to one that could be easily controlled by farmers. Such a move would have prohibited aerial spraying or other major eradication efforts that the government is now planning.
Opponents believe the USDA and state officials have severely overstated the threats posed by the moth, and have noted that it has lived for more than one hundred years in Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii without causing serious, sustained damage to crops or native plants and trees. The USDA, nonetheless, believes the moth will destroy large swaths of cropland throughout California and much of the southern United States. The agency also considers it a serious threat to native redwood and pine forests.
The efforts to produce Macadamia Nuts in Brazil
by Dan Vallada – FoodBizDaily.com Sao Paulo
The macadamia nut has been cultivated in Brazil for four decades. Researchers are trying to increase its productivity and resistance.
The commercial cultivation of macadamia nuts in Brazil is recent, started only 40 years ago and productivity is still low. The country, the seventh in world production (2,400 tonnes in 7 thousand hectares), has about 250 producers, 160 of them in the State of Sao Paulo. The biggest Brazilian harvest happened in 2006, with 3,500 tons. Therefore, technicians and researchers are joining forces to study its varieties, nutrition, genetic improvement and phytosanitary control.
Lawrence Berkeley Lab gets $1.8M for government energy efficiency – San Francisco Business Times
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will help the federal government save energy with expert help paid for by $1.8 million in stimulus funding.
The grants — most of them from the Department of Energy’s Federal Energy Management Program — will be spent on advice and assistance to various federal agencies about how to use energy-efficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning.
The Department of Defense chipped in $445,000 of the $1.8 million.
Arun Majumdar, who runs the lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division, said the money will be spent on “advanced energy assessment tools” to help the agencies improve energy use “for years to come.”
Specifically, this money will pay for help to:
- Federal data centers for the DOE, the U.S. Marine Corps and the military’s Pacific Command in Hawaii.
Pacific Rim Summit to Highlight Biotechnology Tools for the Green Economy | Reuters
WASHINGTON–(Business Wire)– Developing and developed countries across the Pacific Rim are adopting biotech solutions to cut greenhouse gas emissions, efficiently utilize resources, and jumpstart economic growth. The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) today announced the sessions and speaker presentations to be delivered at the 2009 Pacific Rim Summit on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy, to be held Nov. 8-11, 2009 in Honolulu.