February 2015

Over 60 varieties of dry land kalo have been cultivated by farmers on the Big Island.

By Rory Akau.

TaroWhile kalo (taro; Colocasia esculenta) is a common staple crop found throughout the South Pacific, Hawaiians were the only Pacific Islanders to produce pa‘i‘ai, or poi, from the kalo corm. Rather than spoil, poi ferments and was sometimes stashed alongside trails for hungry travelers.

To make poi traditionally, steamed or boiled taro corms are pounded between papa ku‘ i‘ai (wood board) and ku‘ i‘ai pohaku (poi pounder) with a small amount of water until the mixture forms a thick paste. This pulverizing action removes most of the air from the starch to extend shelf life.

There are over 4,000 species of aphids and they often travel by wind or as a stow away on other plants and animals.

By Malaika Ross.

A cluster of dark aphids on a green leaf.
Aphids. Photo by Tricia Hogbin.

While working with my Sustainable Agriculture team on our garden plot, we encountered small black insects, which clustered on the leaves of the garden’s citrus plant. With a little investigative work we learned our citrus tree was experiencing an aphid (Aphidoidea) infestation. Since no one in the group had encountered aphids outside of our weekly gardening sessions, we were hoping aphids would be benign, but we quickly learned aphids cause substantial damage to plants.

The baseline data this project will generate will be useful for decision makers and farmers as the state moves agriculture forward.

Aerial map of North Kohala with an overlay of graphics showing various farm crops color coded by commodity.
North Kohala Crop Land Summary from the Hawai‘i County Food Self-Sufficiency Baseline Study 2012. HDOA and UH Hilo are now surveying all agricultural lands throughout the state. Click to enlarge.
Jeff Melrose
Jeff Melrose

The Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture (HDOA) is collaborating with the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo on a statewide agricultural survey to provide a digital depiction of the 2015 agricultural footprint of the state. The project will include mapping current agricultural activity statewide, as well as water systems and irrigation options available to farmers and ranchers.

“The product is intended as a baseline depiction of our current agricultural use and will help to measure progress in the expansion of all agriculture, and particularly local food production, across the state,” says Jeff Melrose, a land planner and longtime agricultural land manager who is serving at HDOA as project manager of the survey.

UH Hilo is the only campus of the 10-campus UH System that serves 65 percent locally produced food.

By Kara Nelson, Senior, English, Communication.

Reid Kusano and Bridget Awong
(l-r) Reid Kusano, who does catering and retail for UH Hilo Dining Services, and Bridget Awong, general manager. Kusano is holding a tray of local greens, and Awong local sweet potato. Courtesy photo.

If farm-fresh vegetables with locally grass-fed beef or fresh-caught fish is your idea of the perfect meal, then the Dining Services at University of Hawai‘i at Hilo is where you’ll want to eat. Each day, 65 percent of the food served is from local sources, increasing five percent since 2012. Once a month, the daily menu is 100 percent locally grown food.

This is the result of “Local First,” a program started in 2006 by Bridget Awong, general manager of Sodexo Dining Services at UH Hilo. Awong is a down-to-earth local foodie and chef who is passionate about helping local farmers while providing quality food and services to the UH Hilo community.

At the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resource Management at UH Hilo, we are concerned with food production and sustainability, and we value and promote all effective agricultural systems.

By Michael Shintaku, Professor of Plant Pathology.

Michael Shintaku
Michael Shintaku

We have some very serious plant disease problems in Hawai‘i, and plant disease issues keep farmers and conservationists awake at night, as disease-causing pathogens too often take everything away.

A good example of technology used for plant disease management is right in our own back yard. Papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) arrived in Puna in 1992 and rapidly spread through Puna and Kea‘au, killing every papaya tree it infected. The industry and almost every backyard papaya tree would be long gone if not for the transgenic solution provided by Dr. Dennis Gonsalves’s research team, who developed transgenic papaya plants (now widely planted) with PRSV resistance.

BRF tek is a fast method of growing your own mushrooms, with the whole process taking just two to three months.

By Matthew Roderick.

Book cover "Mushrooms," with photo of mushrooms.
Mushrooms: Cultivation, Nutritional Value, Medicinal Effect, and Environmental Impact (2004) by Philip G. Miles and Shu-Ting Chang is a good source for information on growing your own edible mushrooms.

Mushroom cultivation at home may be simpler than you think. As a hobby, for profit, or as a viable means for developing food security, growing mushrooms has become an increasingly popular practice for those who enjoy the healthy and flavorful benefits of mushrooms. These would be edible varieties such as shiitake, portobello, oyster, lions mane, and pioppino, to name just a few.

Mushrooms have been renowned for thousands of years for their therapeutic effects, medicinal nature, and highly nutritious quality. In addition to containing a good source of protein, many mushrooms, especially gourmet varieties, are shown to have antiviral, anticancer, antibiotic, and anti-inflammatory properties, as well as immune strengthening and cardio protective  compounds.

To learn about the Philippines, one has to learn about its agriculture, a huge part of the Filipino culture.

Rodney Jubilado
Rodney Jubilado

The Filipino Studies Certificate program at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo is perhaps the only Filipino studies program in the U.S. that integrates sustainable agriculture into its curriculum. Rodney Jubilado, assistant professor of Filipino and coordinator of the certificate program, stresses that in order to learn about the Philippines, one has to learn about its agriculture, which is a huge part of the Filipino culture.

“The focus here is the Philippines, which is an agricultural country” says Jubilado, whose family in the Philippines owns a farm that grows coffee, coconut and cacao.

Jubilado is a prolific writer and researcher and has shared his articles in numerous venues such as international conferences in various countries in Asia, Australia, and America. He is well published in international journals, edited academic journals, books, and manuscripts, supervised graduate and doctoral students, and is a member of professional organizations of his field and allied disciplines.

Farmers need to base their decisions on facts, rather than misleading or inaccurate information and activist dogma, for sustainable intensification of agriculture to achieve its potential.

By Bruce Mathews, Interim Dean of the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resource Management, University of Hawai‘i at Hilo.

Bruce Mathews
Bruce Mathews

There is presently a disconnect between the economic reality of Hawai‘i’s working farmers, educators, and the well-intentioned sustainability and food sovereignty idealism of governmental leaders, politicians, and community activists.

At most community agricultural meetings in Hawaiʻi, there are candid discussions regarding the growth and development constraints faced by the smallholder crop and livestock sectors. These discussions revolve around strong import competition from large continental-based operations, heavy dependence on imported energy and nutrient inputs for our farms, and a myriad of challenges associated with lease land, access to water and adequate infrastructure, labor constraints, lack of applied research and extension outreach, marketing, ability to comply with regulations, access to promising new cultivars, security, building equity, and sufficient financing.

Two Hawaiian language students create a video on beekeeping done entirely in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language).

Still from video of two student and bee hives.
Click image to view video on YouTube (no closed captions).

The Farm Laboratory of the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, located in Pana‘ewa just south of Hilo, is home to about 50 beehives with the total number of bees at an estimated 500,000. The apiary is maintained by students and is used for hands-on learning of beekeeping from hive to market to table.

Mele Adams, a senior at UH Hilo, helps take care of the bees on the farm. She manages the bee hives when beekeeping labs aren’t in session and helps to manage the honey products as well.

“I had friends who took the course and told me about it,” says Adams, referring to the UH Hilo course on introductory beekeeping. “I was able to volunteer at the bee farm all summer and ended up getting a job at the bee farm, so I decided to take the course.” Entomology 262 is taught by Professor Lorna Tsutsumi, an entomologist and expert in beekeeping whose contributions to bee awareness in the state has brought her and the program recognition by the State Senate.

A move to Organic and Organic Plus strategies in food production is how Hawai‘i food producers take back the power of the Hawai‘i brand.

By Joshua Willing, Student, AG100, Introduction to Agricultural Sciences.

Rows of lettuce.
A field of certified organic lettuce grows at Robb Farms in Waimea, Hawai‘i Island. Photo courtesy of The Kohala Center.

Food production in Hawai‘i sits in the middle of a great paradox, at once a lush natural paradise with a perfect climate for growing things, yet isolated, leading to inflated costs for Hawaii’s producers. The future of the Hawai‘i food industry will depend on producers’ ability to navigate a way that respects these inherent costs while utilizing the many benefits of the islands. Producers must decide on a model that best suits the economy.

My argument here is that this model already exists, and by using branding–in this case the brand of Hawai‘i itself–we will mitigate many unavoidable costs while at the same time enhancing the desirability of Hawai‘i’s food products. This will rely heavily on the Hawai‘i food industry as a whole moving toward an “Organic Plus” strategy (going beyond current organic standards), the goals of which coincide nicely with the natural boons of Hawai‘i’s food production.