All posts by Richard Ha

Malama ‘Aina Festival

May 30, 2008 Richard Ha 2 Comments

I have been asked to co-chair an event that, for the last three years, has been called the Ag & Energy Expo and held in the Prince Kuhio Mall. Steve Shropshire has chaired this event from the beginning.

Steve decided to take it outside this year and expand it to a two-day event. He was thinking of calling it the Lono Festival and have it celebrate the Makahiki.

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked if I would help and co-chair the event. After the first meeting, I ran the idea of the Lono Festival and the Makahiki by Kale Gumapac, Alakai of the Kanaka Council. It became apparent to me that there were serious religious implications, and I suggested to the Chamber of Commerce committee that we change the name.

So we renamed it the Malama ‘Aina Festival. We envision an event that will show sustainability in its widest application – from local-grown food to alternate energy and from cultural activities to recycling. In a sense, it will demonstrate the vision of the Sustainability 2050 plan, chaired by Senator Russell Kokubun.

It will take place on Nov 7th and 8th. Friday the 7th in downtown Hilo is Black and White Night, which is sponsored by the Downtown Improvement Association (DIA). Plans for our festival are not complete yet, but we are picturing people walking around sampling dishes made with locally produced food, and maybe even wine tasting. Is that possible?

On Saturday, events will take place in tents under the trees at Mo‘oheau Park and bandstand. We plan to team up with the Hilo Farmers Market and have booths displaying all kinds of sustainability projects.

We are still brainstorming. But here are some of the people we have contacted:

Guy Toyama has agreed to demonstrate his hydrogen-powered scooter. The hydrogen is developed from water and energy derived from a hydro plant at Hakalau.

Gene Kelley, who has just signed a contract with the Natural Energy Lab of Hawaii Authority (NELHA), has invented what he calls the WindWing. It works like when you are riding in a car, stick your arm out the window and feel the wind pushing against your arm. In the same way, his device generates electricity by capturing wind energy using something like a venetian blind. He says that a windmill is approximately six percent efficient, while his WindWing is 40 to 60 percent efficient. He is game to demonstrate his invention at the festival.

Bernie Kratky has agreed to demonstrate his non-circulatory hydroponics.

Mike Tanabe, Professor at the University of Hawai‘i College of Agricultlure, is game to demonstrate tissue-cultured taro in its various tissue-culture growth stages.

The Hawai‘i Seal of Quality program will participate.

Hamakua Springs Country Farms will have a booth and demonstrate hydroponic methods of growing food.

We are looking for people who can demonstrate various kinds of composting.

We hope to have the Master Gardeners, the Hawai‘i Organic Farmers Association, HELCO and Puna Geothermal Ventures.

We are also asking people to accommodate tours of their actual operation during that week. Puna Geothermal has agreed to do an excursion to the Puna Geothermal well site, and Hamakua Springs will offer a farm tour. Guy Toyama has agreed to show how his people generate electricity from running water and then make hydrogen for use in running equipment.We have extended an invitation to Pacific Bio diesel and its partners, who will be growing and selling jatropha plants for biodiesel oil use.

This is just the beginning. More and more people are asking to participate. The Malama ‘Aina festival is very appropriate for the changing times ahead and we think that this is going to be lots of fun.

Adopt-a-Class

Kindergarten and Second Grade

May 28, 2008 Richard Ha

The kindergarten and second grade classes from Keaukaha Elementary School came to visit us at the farm last week. It was the second excursion each class took this year.

Everybody gets one banana. But you can have another one after you’re done.

The excursion was only possible because of the generous contributions of the following people: John and Linda Tolmie, Virginia Goldstein, Leslie Lang and Macario, Dan Nakasone, Kama‘aina Backroads-Roland Torres, Kee Han and Vivienne Seaver Ha and the managers at Alan Wongs Restaurant.

Virginia Goldstein adopted the kindergarden class. At the end of the tour, they all yelled, “Thank you, Aunty Virginia!”

I wish everyone could have heard how grateful the teachers and students are to have such generous sponsors.

I was so impressed with the teachers. They have the most important job there is. We all owe them a lot.

“Line up behind me!”

Tracy, on the finer points of growing bananas.

All kids love standing around in the cooler after a trek around the farm:

I told the kids they can do anything they wanted to. I told them the story about my dad telling us stories when I was their age. We were poor and had a picnic bench for a dinner table. He would say, “Not, ‘No Can.’ ‘CAN!’” Anything was possible.

Before the kids left, I told them “Not, ‘No Can.’” They all yelled back in unison “CAN!!”

It was a good day.

Sustainability

Hawaii Island Energy Forum

May 26, 2008 Richard Ha

If you attend one forum this year, I highly recommend it be this one.

We’ve been positioning our farm for the future for a while now, and we know that things are moving fast on the energy front. What is the future likely to be? This forum will give valuable information so you can plan for the future.

Gail Tverberg, the featured speaker, is extremely knowledgeable and highly credible. She is in the top tier of writers about energy issues.

Her professional job is as an actuary. She advises insurance companies on risk and rewards. She speaks the language of business in a clear and common sense way. Of all the energy writers out there, I find her approach to be the most balanced.

Here’s the forum information:

Hawaii Island Energy Forum
Business Challenges, Business Opportunities, and the New Energy Reality
9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. ∙ June 6, 2008 ∙ Hilo Hawaiian Hotel

Individual consumers and local businesses are feeling the “crunch” of rising fuel costs. For some of us, our employees are telling us that they can barely afford the gas money to come to work. What do we have to know and what can we do to preserve prosperity in the face of rapidly changing circumstances?

At the request of private and public sector leaders, The Kohala Center has designed this one-day session to explore critical business issues with energy experts and economists, as we all confront the new energy reality. This session is designed specifically for the Hawaii Island business community and is co-sponsored by the Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce, the Kona Kohala Chamber of Commerce, and the Hawaii Island Economic Development Board. Members of each of our organizations are invited to attend.

Talks and panel discussions with national and local experts will cover the following topics:

9:30 am – Welcome, opening speakers Mayor Harry Kim and County Council Chairman Pete Hoffman

10 am – Economic implications of the rising prices and diminishing supplies of liquid fossil fuel: Gail Tverberg, Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries

10:45 am – Economic implications for Hawaii: Makena Coffman, Ph.D., Department of Economics, UH Manoa

11:30 am – Technical challenges and opportunities for increasing renewable energy resource use on Hawaii Island; the importance of acting quickly and collaboratively: Maurice Kaya, former Chief Technology Officer at DBEDT and Jay Ignacio, CEO of Hawaii Electric Light Company (HELCO)

1 pm – Regulatory barriers and potential solutions to deploying renewable energy: Jim Lazar, Regulatory Assistance Project; Carl Freedman, Haiku Analysis and Design

2:15 pm – Transport challenges and opportunities in the public and private sectors: Tom Brown, County of Hawaii Transit Agency; and Maria Tome, Energy Engineer at DBEDT

3:30 pm – Business opportunities and investments to take advantage of the new energy reality: Miles Kubo, Energy Industries, and Riley Saito, SunPower Corporation.

4:30 pm – Wrap-up with Maurice Kaya and Richard Ha, Hamakua Springs Country Farms

Additional speakers are confirming their participation. For more information and to register for this forum, please contact The Kohala Center at 808.887.6411 or email assist@kohalacenter.org. A registration form is available for download at www.kohalacenter.org. The cost is $60.

Peak Oil

Changes

May 21, 2008 Richard Ha 3 Comments

We had two fertilizer shocks this past week.

First, we were told that we could not get any Monopotassium Phosphate coming out of China because of a 135 percent tariff that China has imposed. It’s not surprising that with so many people to feed, they need the fertilizer material themselves.

I should have guessed that and stocked up when I saw the press release from Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan last month. That’s the largest fertilizer company in the world, and they announced that China did not get the full amount of potassium that they needed. They only got one million tons.

Potassium and Phosphorous prices are rising faster that any of us had imagined. It turns out that we can get fertilizer. But the price has doubled.

Then we were visited by a sales manager from Yara, one of the largest nitrogen distributors in the world.

He said there is a shortage of nitrogen manufacturing plants compared to demand and so the price is going through the roof. He said to grab it if you can get it, because no one can be assured that there will be a continuous, unbroken source of supply. It will be like this for at least three years, he said, which is the time required to bring a new fertilizer production plant on line.

I tried to protest that Hawai‘i is very vulnerable, sitting here in the middle of the Pacific. The reality of it is that no one cares!

I wrote to Dr. Steiner, Dean of the College of Agriculture at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, in order to inform him of this. His response: “This is happening faster than I thought it would!” My exact thoughts, too.

The world is changing faster than we expect.

Hydroponics

Earth Box

May 18, 2008 Richard Ha

This is my friend Jim Murray’s garden.

Jim lives in a condominium and has a limited amount of ground area to work with. Earth Box is the simplest method of growing vegetables that I know of, and I was happy to see it in action at Jim’s house. The farming principles are sound, and it’s what I will use to grow stuff for myself.

From the Earth Box website:

The patented EarthBox was developed by commercial farmers and proven in the lab and on the farm. Our maintenance-free, award-winning, high-tech growing system controls soil conditions, eliminates guesswork and more than doubles the yield of a conventional garden-with less fertilizer, less water and virtually no effort.

I see this method of gardening as useful to someone with a limited space to plant. It is also good for someone who has a full time job and not enough time. Another plus – you do not need machinery for ground preparation.

Certainly there are other systems of gardening that might be more appropriate for feeding larger groups of people. But this system works well for a small family.

This system is meant to lower maintenance time. The light film on top prevents weeds from growing by preventing light from hitting the soil. If the black side is up, it retains heat. If the silver side is up, it keeps the media cool. The silver side is probably best for Hawai‘i.

There is a pipe that one fills with water. Since there is a drain hole about two inches from bottom of the box, it self-drains. At the time of planting, low-release fertilizer is buried about an inch in the growing media. One application is enough for the life time of the plant.

To change the subject for just a moment – When we toured Taiwan many years ago we observed that their water table is extremely shallow. So shallow, in fact, that sometimes the plants grew on the top of the row of mounds while the walkways were under water. This observation led Dr. Bernie Kratky of the UH Manoa Extension, and others, to realize that the top part of the roots were taking in oxygen while the bottom part took in water and nutrients.

This is the basis of the theory of non-circulating hydroponics – that is, that plants need to have a portion of their roots exposed to air or they drown. The Earth Box takes care of this problem with holes in the bottom of the containers, so drainage is assured. And it uses soil, instead of water, because soil is more forgiving as a growing medium.

A roma tomato plant and a regular beef tomato.

Note that the container is elevated to discourage slugs and make it difficult for ants to carry aphids around. One could also put the chair legs in water to accomplish that. Rosemary, basil and other aromatic herbs are said to repel insects, too.

One can plant many different types of crops this way. Here are some strawberries and eggplants.

When my friend Jim told me how his system worked, I realized right then that it was sound practice. So much so, that I will use this method to grow plants for myself.

Food and Drink

Aloha Luigi

May 14, 2008 Richard Ha

Since June is away in Texas for a few weeks, I’ve decided to visit lunch places outside my normal routine. Aloha Luigi, the small restaurant on Keawe Street in downtown Hilo, qualified.

The back entrance, from the very convenient back parking lot.

The main dining area.

I’ve actually tried several different places. But Aloha Luigi is one I can already write about now, without even trying anything else off its menu.

I ordered the spicy ono served on linguini with lots of garlic and capers, to take out.

This is where you place orders. You walk straight through to the back parking lot.

While waiting for my order, I wandered out back to look around. An old bathtub with a decorative purple crawling taro growing in it caught my attention. I noticed some guppies swimming around – for mosquito control, I thought to myself.

A friendly guy with a slight New York accent asked me if I was admiring the fish. I told him I liked the potential of the place and he said he was Luigi, the owner.

Nearly 30 years ago he built the restaurant in Hilo that eventually became Pescatore. He moved back to New York, and then back to Waimea where he opened the original Aloha Luigi. He said he returned to Hilo four years ago, because Waimea was getting too built up.

This is a multi-function mail box. Local artists’ works hang on all the walls.

Four months ago, Luigi purchased the land where the present Aloha Luigi now stands, just down the street from Garden Exchange on Keawe Street. And now he is building the place up. He told me he’s going to open up second floor dining as well as an outside, open air dining area.

Two tables and the view from under the outside canopy. Looking toward Keawe Street, where there will be more outside seating.

Look carefully and you can see the outline of his vision. He has a gem of a location. The back parking lot is so unbelievably convenient.

Outdoor dining in Hilo. Who would have thought? But if you look closely, you can see that too. Upstairs and downstairs dining? I love that.

The spicy ono linguini was so good that I went back later to order a Sicilian slice of pizza. It’s square. As toppings I had jalapeno, spinach and garlic. I’ll be back often!

Renewable Energy Sources

Starting on Our Hydroelectric Plant

May 12, 2008 Richard Ha

It’s really true: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

We are now starting to construct our hydroelectric plant, which everyone thinks is a wonderfully new, fresh idea.

But Kapono uncovered this interesting bit of history that we posted here recently, in which we learned for the first time that people were evidently doing the same thing here more than 70 years ago.

Pepe`ekeo’s mill was located at the shore to make use of fluming to transport the harvested cane. For many years before 1935 the hydraulic head of mountain ground water (spring water) drove a hydroelectric plant that supplied all of the mill’s needs and also supplied power for housing.

We are making an access to the flume head so we can begin laying the pipe.

The rest we will do by hand because we don’t want to do anything that compromises the river.

If you look carefully, you can see the old concrete work. This flume source is a permitted use, according to the Water Resource Commission. Its personnel came by to look at the site and said we can proceed as long as we do not affect the river in any way. We’re being very careful.

Hamakua Coast, Where We Live

Stopping the Glottal Shift

May 8, 2008 Richard Ha 1 Comment

It’s always been interesting to me, and a little sad, that the rich history of Hawaiian words gets more and more diluted, overlooked, and even changed as time goes on and so many of us without an intimate knowledge of the language and culture inadvertently make errors.

Such as that which seems to have been made with the name of the place where the farm sits.

“Kaupakuea” is located in Pepe‘ekeo, north of Hilo, and a few years ago the county put up a street sign off Highway 19.

It read like this: “Kaupakue‘a Homestead Rd.”

We recently wrote about some of the history of Kaupakuea (without the ‘okina, or glottal stop), where the farm is located.

The name Kaupakuea is mentioned in an 1860 Hawaiian language newspaper, and the area even had its own Kaupakuea post office from 1858-1869.

Suzanne Romaine, writing in the Society for Linguistic Anthropology, says that the place name seems to be composed of two words: kaupaku (ridgepole, highest point) + ea (to rise).

Though there are different meanings for “ea,” this linguist for whom the Hawaiian language is an area of concentration says that “rising ridgepole” is most consistent with other recorded place names of that type, and also the morphology and semantics of the 4,000 place names analyzed by Pukui, Elbert and Mookini in their respected work “Place Names of Hawai‘i.”

The “rising ridgepole” translation also fits the topography of the ahupua‘a, the land division, whose high ridge culminates in Pu‘u Ka‘uku, a prominent feature of the landscape that is visible from afar.

“Since the greatest number of Hawaiian place names (21 percent) refer to geographical features, it is not unreasonable to suppose this is an appropriate etymology for Kaupakuea,” she writes.

The gravel road fronting the farm’s banana packing house, which joins Kaupakuea Homestead Road, sits exactly on the ridgeline. Part of the hydroponic houses sit on the Hamakua slope, and the other part sits on the Hilo-side slope.

Romaine finds nothing that allows the spelling “Kaupakue‘a” to make sense, and suggests it is a county misspelling on the sign.

She also details a long story wherein back in 1996, the president of the Kaupakuea Homestead Association learned an ‘okina had been inserted into the name’s spelling (Kaupaku‘ea), and tried to get it removed.

One person at the county assured that the ‘okina would be removed, and then the county council voted to keep it – and yet when the sign was printed, the ‘okina, still present, mysteriously moved to a different location. The street sign was printed with yet a third spelling (Kaupakue‘a).

It’s a long and involved story, and one that is undoubtedly still going on all around us as words evolve and morph.

All we can do is grasp onto the words that we do know, and their definition and cultural meanings, and pass them down to our keiki. Pronounce them correctly, teach the meanings we know, and let them live on.

Blog, Where We Live

Hilo Living

May 7, 2008 Richard Ha 1 Comment

I just knew that Hilo would soon be discovered by discerning people who value quality of life. This blog is the first, real-life proof that confirms my suspicions.

It lays out the thought processes of a former Silicon Valley citizen who moved to Hilo four months ago.

This person made a conscious decision to move where he can improve his quality of life in the face of world turmoil, caused by world oil supplies not keeping up with demand.

He chose Hilo.

Hilo is much more special than a lot of us realize. I read this person’s previous blog posts, too, and it was so reaffirming that we do, indeed, live in the most special place on earth.

I am very optimistic for our future. I notice that Café Pesto and Hilo Bay Café are full of people from away. I believe more and more people will discover Hilo. And they will bring in outside money.

I came to the same conclusion when I was in Houston last September, at the Association for the Study of Peak Oil.

I was the only one wearing shorts. I did not have the heart to tell the people I met that I was going to wear shorts right through the winter. I did not have the heart to tell them we would grow food all winter long.

And when I got off the plane in Hilo, I knew – just like the person who wrote this blog – that Hilo, Hawai‘i is the best place in the world to ride out this new period in human history. We just need to take care of each other.

Community, Education, Sustainability

Sustaining

April 30, 2008 Richard Ha

Yesterday was very interesting. I drove from Hilo to the Outrigger Hotel at Keauhou to give a thirty minute speech about sustainable agriculture at the third annual Kuleana Business Conference and Trade Show. It was part of the Kona Earth Festival, which has the slogan: “Island Self-Reliance Through Sustainable Living.”

A native Hawaiian speaker described us as floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on a little life raft. It is hopeful to see that people are coming together to find ways to make our lives here sustainable.

Right after my talk, I was interviewed for a video documentary about sustainable agriculture issues, then participated in a 30-minute talk-story session on the radio station Lava 105. It was all very interesting and promising.

The most interesting thing I did yesterday, though, was a talk-story session with the interns in the Keaholoa STEM program at UH Hilo, which I rushed back to Hilo for. The students are preparing for next week’s ho‘ike, where they will report on their research projects. Some of the projects: the study of coral health at Vacation Land; alternate insect pollinators, other than bees, of the Big Island; the cultivation of edible limu, and other interesting topics.

These are our best and brightest native Hawaiian students of Science, Tech, Engineering and Math. We had a short discussion about bio fuels, genetically modified organisms, hydro- and geothermal power. It doesn’t get better than talking with the students. It was very stimulating and I am left with an encouraging feeling that our future is in good hands.