Farmer: “I’m Tired of Defending My Life’s Work”

Richard Ha writes:

Yesterday I testified before the Hawai‘i County Council. I was testifying against Act 79, which would prohibit GMOs not already growing on the Big Island.

Note: We do not grow any GMO on our farm.

But the point I was wanting to make is that farming used to be an honorable profession where you could make a living. Now farmers are losing money right and left, wondering whether they will continue to farm, and they are not encouraging their children to do so.

If we farmers are going to survive, we are going to need access to the most modern techniques and technologies. This Act would cut off our ability to use modified crops that are resistent to disease, if needed. It would mean foregoing potential help, like when the banana industry faced a virus 15 years ago. At that time, they started working on genetically modified techniques that would have helped the banana industry greatly, though ultimately it didn’t happen.

Genetic modification also saved the papaya industry here in Hawai‘i; without the Rainbow papaya, we would no longer have a papaya industry at all.

Jason Moniz also testified yesterday. He was representing the Hamakua Farm Bureau and requested the bill be killed, saying it threatens the “well-being” of farmers and ranchers.

“Frankly, I’m sick and tired of having to defend my life’s work,” he said.

This feeling is increasingly being discussed at dinner tables in the farming community. They are asking themselves, “Is it worth it” to continue farming?

What will happen when all our farmers get out of the business?

My testimony:

My name is Richard Ha, and I’m representing Hamakua Springs
Country Farms. 

Hamakua Springs Country Farms is a 600-acre, fee simple,
diversified Ag farm. We have produced multi-millions of pounds of fruits and vegetables over the years. We have 70 workers who work with us and have more than 30 years of experience in producing food 

1. Farmers are being pitted against each other. This is not good. We need all farmers to help provide food for an uncertain future.

2. Farmers have been losing ground, not gaining ground. Even if you give farmers free rent, it is not guaranteed that they will make money. A UHERO report shows that ag, as a percentage of GDP, has been steadily declining. Food security depends on farmers farming. If the farmers made money, they would farm.

3. Farmers are right now making plans to quit and sell their lands. They cannot tell their children with a clear conscience to carry on, when all they see is conflict and no support. 

Here is a solution. Cheaper electricity can give us a competitive edge. The mainland uses oil for only two percent of its electricity
generation. We use it for more than 70 percent. That is why farmers have a hard time doing value-added. Any food manufactured on the mainland with electricity embedded in it has a competitive edge over us. 

Seventy nine percent of the students at the Pahoa School complex take advantage of the free/reduced lunch program, and qualification is determined by family income. That means the Pahoa area has the lowest family income in the state! Pahoa is number one in the state. Ka‘u is second, and Kea‘au is third.

Our electricity rates have been higher than Oahu’s for as long as anyone can remember. That means less of our education dollar is going to actually teaching Big Island students. Yet, education is the best predictor of family income.

If we could lower and stabilize our electricity cost, farmers,
distributors and retailers would have lower refrigeration costs. Food costs would go down. Farmers could manufacture value-added food products and increase their income stream. Lower cost electricity means people would have extra spending money to support local farmers. More of our education dollar would go to kids’ education, thereby increasing his/her chance of gaining a higher family income. 

Two-thirds of the economy is made of consumer spending. If the people had extra money, they would spend it. Businesses would benefit and there would be more jobs.

There is no free lunch. Let’s concentrate on finding out where we can give ourselves a competitive advantage and go do it. We need to look at the bigger picture. Not “no can.” CAN!

2 thoughts on “Farmer: “I’m Tired of Defending My Life’s Work””

  1. People should know by now that viruses, bacteria and fungus are evolving at rates thousands of times greater than macro-level life. We humans have been trying to fight back with chemicals, pesticides and poisons but it’s true “That which does not kill you makes you stronger”. Their evolution rate is outpacing traditional methods. The big problem on Hawaii island are the number of people that don’t understand the science and end up demonizing that which they do not understand. GMO is now a demonized acronym, when all it stands for is Genetically Modified Organism. Genetic modification is occurring all the time, we know them as mutations. Random mutations are mostly unsuccessful and results in defects. We are at the level now that we have a deep understanding of the mechanisms of mutation and have quite a bit of control, not 100% but getting there. The papaya GMO was just a modification to the skin of the papaya, making the skin more resistant to the ring virus. Don’t know anybody that eats the skins of papayas. These genetic scientists are working very hard to combat emerging bacteria, virus and fungus from naturally occurring genetic modification. This superstitious fear of human-engineered GMO is rapidly going to drop by the wayside if naturally occurring GMO spirals beyond traditional treatment methods, like what is happening to coffee and citrus in other places now. There is something seriously wrong with the education system on this island, especially in the Puna area, when so many people seem to be so scientifically illiterate and totally disinterested in further learning.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/us/disease-threatens-floridas-citrus-industry.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
    Citrus Disease With No Cure Is Ravaging Florida Groves

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/04/17/f-roya-coffee-fungus-reddekopp.html
    Coffee fungus killing crops, jobs from Mexico to Peru

Comments are closed.