All posts by Richard Ha

Community, Schools, Tomatoes

Tomatoes for Education

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I’ve been reflecting on what it means to participate at the Kino‘ole Street Farmers Market.

The most touching and rewarding moments have been when teachers I’ve never met have come up and thanked us for giving them Hamakua Springs tomatoes.

It was especially meaningful to them, I think, at a time when newspapers were reporting that this or that school was in danger of restructuring under the No-Child-Left-Behind federal program. We knew morale was at a low point, and that was exactly when we wanted to make clear that we thought they were the greatest!

The gift was not much monetarily, but we felt the gesture was important. We feel strongly that teaching is the most important profession. And we wanted to tell each teacher that we support them 100 percent.

I am really partial toward elementary school teachers. The most impressionable time of my life was when I was between 8 and eleven years old. That’s when my belief system was formed and it has lasted all my life.

This is what motivated us to do the Adopt-a-Class project at Keaukaha Elementary School, and it’s why we support teachers like Karyl Ah Hee at Kaumana Elementary School.

Education really is the great equalizer.

On the east side of the Big Island we have disproportionately more than the state’s average of low income families.

Hawai‘i Community College Chancellor Rockne Freitas explains it best: He says that the best predictor of children’s success is the family’s household income. And the best predictor of a higher household income is education.

Hawai‘i Community College is one of the most important institutions of higher learning here in East Hawai‘i, because it has “open enrollment.” In other words, there isn’t an entrance exam to keep students out. Also, class credits are transferrable to the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo.

This is the pathway to higher education for students who might not otherwise have qualified.

HCC was ranked thirteenth in the nation at bringing higher education to its students. This in spite of having the most dilapidated classrooms and structures in the entire community college system.

This is an extremely big deal, and Chancellor Freitas and his staff deserve a big round of applause. These people are doers, not talkers. We respect that!

History

Kaupakuea Plantation

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I got this email from my grandson Kapono today:

I was doing some research today in Hawaiian History for a project that we’re doing on Sugar Plantation Days and I found some really interesting info about where our farm is and the history behind it. I hope you find it as interesting as I did.

I did. Here’s the information, which is from Sugar Islands – The 165-year Story of Sugar in Hawaii, by William H. Dorrance and Francis S. Morgan. (Mutual Publishing, Honolulu, Hawaii –
2000):

Kaupakuea Plantation
Sometime between 1857 and 1861, the highly successful Honolulu businessman Chun Afong (1825-1906) acquired the Kaupakuea Sugar Plantation and Mill. It consisted of 1,500 acres ten miles north of Hilo. In addition, in 1879 he acquired Makahaula Plantation on 7,600 acres at the southern border of Kaupakuea Plantation. By 1882 Afong had combined the two into Pepe`ekeo Sugar Mill and Plantation Company.

Chun Afong came to Hawaii from China in 1849 to work in his uncle’s store. He soon became a successful merchant on his own and also invested in sugar and coffee plantations. His stature increased to the point that in 1879 King Kalakaua appointed him a noble of the Kingdom. But a decade later, in 1889, the weary and aging Afong returned to his homeland, leaving his family in Honolulu and his affairs in the hands of his friend Samuel M. Damon (1845-1924), son of the pioneer preacher Samuel C. Damon.

Pepe`ekeo Sugar Company
By 1890, Samuel M. Damon had incorporated Afong’s plantation as Pepe`ekeo Sugar Company and retained 27 percent of the shares for Afong, with Hackfeld and Company holding most of the rest, along with the plantation’s agency contract. In 1893 Hackfeld sold the agency agreement to Theo H. Davies and Afong’s shares were sold to Davies’ associate Alexander Young (1832-1910). In 1904 C. Brewer and Company purchased controlling shares from Young and took over the agency agreement.

The plantation had been profitable under Afong. Much to his credit, the first pioneering vacuum pan used in the sugar-making process was introduced at Kaupakuea mill in 1861. Afong also led the way in providing amenities and good housing for his workers and their families. C. Brewer and Company, Ltd. perpetuated this by improving the housing and providing a model hospital that became a standard for other plantations. Production was 400 tons in 1867, increased to 500 tons in 1872, and to 1,259 tons in 1880.

The lands, however, were acidic and required liming for neutralization. Longtime manager (1905-1936) James Webster and C. Brewer and Company, Ltd. met this challenge in a very unusual way. In 1914 over 20,000 tons of O`ahu’s Wai`anae Coast coral sands were taken by the O.R.&L. railroad to the Honolulu docks, then via the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company to the Hilo docks, and onward with the Hawaii Consolidated Railway Company to Pepe`ekeo. There the sand was bagged and hauled into the fields by mules to be spread. This remarkable effort turned the acidic soil into a hospitable host for sugarcane and the machinery used to cultivate it.

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. Until 1913 product was shipped from a landing near the mill. From 1913 until 1946 sugar went by railroad to the Hilo docks. After the tsunami of 1946, all shipments went by truck.

In 1946, production rose to 25,055 tons when C. Brewer merged Pepee`keo’s fields with the neighboring Honomu Sugar Company. Almost two decades later, in 1962, C. Brewer and Company Ltd. further increased the acreage by merging Hakalau Plantation in to the surviving Pepe`ekeo Sugar Company, Ltd. and reaped the economies of scale. In 1973, C. Brewer and Company, Ltd. merged Pepe`ekeo Sugar Company into Mauna Kea Sugar Company, and the original name was no longer used.

Mauna Kea Sugar Company
In 1972, Mauna Kea Sugar Company and the new United Cane Planters’ Cooperative, representing almost 400 independent farmers, formed a non-profit corporation, the Hilo Coast Processing Company (HCPC), to harvest and grind sugarcane on shares. A year later, in 1973, C. Brewer and Company, Ltd. merged Pepe`ekeo Sugar Company with Mauna Kea Sugar Company, thus combining under one corporate name what had once been five separate plantations: Honomu Sugar Company, Hakalau Sugar Company, Pepe`ekeo Sugar Company, Onomea Sugar Company, and Hilo Sugar Company. For a time the three mills at Pepe`ekeo, Papaikou, and Wainaku were operated by the HCPC, but by 1979 only the large, improved mill at Pepe`ekeo survived.

Even with these consolidations, sugar operations in the wet Hilo Coast area were unprofitable. The number of independent farms dwindled to 22. In 1992, C. Brewer and Co. announced that Hilo Coast Processing Company, and its now-named Mauna Kea Agribusiness Company (formerly Mauna Kea Sugar Company), would shut down after grinding the 1994 harvest. More than 450 jobs were affected. After a run of over 150 years, sugarcane permanently left the Hilo area.

Shortly after, I went to see John Cross, who managed C. Brewer’s lands, to ask about leasing the land for bananas. He let me use 20 acres free of charge for a year, and we started planting bananas.

That was the start of Mauna Kea Banana Company.

Company News, Our Employees, Peak Oil, Renewable Energy Sources

What We’re Doing

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Oil went over $119 per barrel yesterday. Everyone knows that this is not good. We have to take action now.

Here’s what we’re doing at the farm: I have written before about the hydroelectric project that we will soon start construction on. This will stabilize our electricity costs, which are now more than $13,000 per month. In addition, we have talked about making biodiesel from french fry grease.  In two years we will be energy self-sufficient!

We plan to let our workers charge their plug-in hybrids as a benefit of working for us.

And we will continue to offer our workers fruits and vegetables to supplement their diet. Because of rising oil costs and their effect on food prices, we feel a heightened urgency to provide our people with food to supplement their families’ diet.

I mentioned here before that I was very concerned because a couple of our workers were asking to borrow money from me for gas to come to work. When we announced that we were winding down our banana operations, I told the people about to lose their jobs that they were still welcome to come to the farm every Thursday and pick up fruits and vegetables with the rest of our workers.

Only two of the original workers did not come back to see about available work. But I am very happy to see that one of those two still comes by to pick up fruits and vegetables.

When Chef Alan Wong came by recently to do a kalua pig cookout on our farm, and we could not bring all of our workers to the cookout, Kimo made sure that we made a container of kalua pig for every one of our workers who could not attend. 

Kimo and I talk about the effects of rising gas, electricity, water and food prices on our workers. If we could, we would raise our prices so we could give all our workers raises. But in this day and age, retailers do not want to raise prices at all. So we are caught between high farming costs and sales prices that are not keeping up.

We have decided to raise pigs on the farm so we can make smoke meat and kalua pig to help supplement our workers’ diets. We will use our banana and tomato waste as pig feed.

Soon enough, we will also be raising fish and shrimp.

In addition to the banana, tomato, cucumber, lettuce, bell peppers and other odds and ends, we will be able to give our workers fish and shrimp within the year.

It is definitely not business as usual and it is important that we take care of each other.

The basic idea is that as oil prices rise by “x” percent, we need to figure out how to lower our cost of living by “x” percent. Sometimes it takes a bit of innovation, but it’s what we have to do. I think our workers hope that we can figure out a solution. We don’t want to let them down. 

Government, Peak Oil, Renewable Energy Sources

Where We’re At

An editorial in yesterday’s Hawaii Tribune-Herald reads:

Bill is Bad for Business, Bad for All Hawaii:

House Bill 2974, informally known as the “card check” bill, would have permitted labor unions to automatically be recognized whenever a majority of workers at a small business sign authorization cards. The bill also would mandate timelines for collective bargaining and impose binding arbitration in labor negotiations.

No secret ballot would be required, and there would be no independent supervision of the card check process.

Existing law requires a secret ballot election if 30 percent of the workers sign cards. The election, which is monitored by the government, determines whether the union is recognized.

When I first heard about this I was shocked to see that this bill targeted agriculture. Why in the world would our legislators want to target small papaya farmers and foliage growers? I am curious to see if the legislators choose to override the governor’s veto.

I’ve been writing in this blog that in the face of coming economic hardships, we need to make more friends and become closer to our families and community. We will need to help each other. This bill is disappointing because it will cause divisiveness, rather than togetherness.

It was another week of steadily rising oil prices, with crude moving from a low of $109 a barrel on Monday to a new high, over $117 a barrel, by Friday. By now the reasons for the continued climb are familiar – stagnant production, shrinking exports, increasing demand, a falling dollar, the flight to safety in commodities, declining U.S. stockpiles, and, of all things, the perception of an improving U.S. economy.

This week, several new factors contributed to the increase. Reports that Russian oil production slipped during the first quarter for the first time in a decade, coupled with assertions by senior Russian oilmen that Moscow’s production is not going higher, were troublesome.

Here is a link to a weekly report on the world oil situation. It is significant because it says that Saudi Arabia will be limiting its production of oil in order to save oil for future generations, which has serious long-term implications for oil importers. During the week the Saudis said they had trimmed output from 9.2 million barrels/day to 9 million.

We must be aware that their own middle class is growing and will want to use more of that oil internally, within their own country. So less and less will be available for export!

We need to move more decisively toward alternate energy. Geothermal comes to mind. HELCO needs to figure out how CAN. Not, “No can!”

Recycling

Learning to Recycle

Today I drove down to the recycling center at the Hilo dump to learn how to recycle. This is a big, behavior-changing deal for me.

Many things converged to make me do this. Charlotte Romo’s girls Sydney and Hana are dedicated recyclers. I watched them separating bottles and cans at last year’s Alan Wong cookout and they are not yet 12 years old.

Roberta Chu told me that her family recycles their trash.

My friend Jim Murray told me how he recycles his recyclables. But he goes one step better. He composts green waste and grows vegetables at his townhouse. I have to go see his operation. He tells me that he grows in bins, and there are holes in the container to insure that he cannot overwater. There is also a plastic barrier that prevents weeds from growing. I can see how it could work and I want to talk to Jim more about this. Sounds like the perfect answer for busy people. I can see how composting can be very rewarding.

I read that Councilman Bob Jacobson has put forth a recycling proposal that requires residents to recycle 85 percent of the waste stream. I have decided to start recycling so I can see what works and what doesn’t. I want to see how reasonable 85 percent recycling might be.

I’m also doing it to assess the problem of non-recyclable plastic packaging. I’ve been wanting to reduce the plastic packaging on our tomatoes as a way of reducing costs. I can see how it would be frustrating to people who want to recycle as much as possible.

My plan is to separate the cans, glass and newspaper and recycle those. I’ve set banana boxes outside for each category. I would like to eventually start composting and then make a garden outside the house.

It’s true that one could consider us as already having a 600-acre garden, at the farm where the soil is so deep one could bury a giant bulldozer and not find one stone. But it’s also true that we live in Panaewa where there is no soil—just pahoehoe lava. The average rainfall in Panaewa, though, is 120 inches. It would be a good challenge to turn this into a highly productive, food-producing property.

I looked around outside, evaluating the situation. If I want to grow anything here I will need to bring in soil or some other appropriate media. Here we go!

Family News

On My Own

June left for the mainland yesterday to visit our son Brian, his wife Kris and their two boys. Brian is a Apache helicopter pilot and is stationed at Ft. Hood, Texas.

Papa’s buddy Gunner is now a little over two years old and can’t stop chattering. (I’m Papa.) Gunner’s new brother Hunter is two months old and having some health issues. June went up to help Kris as they work through this. Kris’s parents, Ron and Etsuko, took the first shift—they were there for Hunter’s birth and just came home a week ago.

This is the first day that June’s been gone and I am having to adjust to her absence. I can remember the first time she was away from home for any length of time. I wanted to prove that I could take care of everything and my strategy was very simple: Don’t use too many dishes. Keep things simple.  Only one utensil out at a time.

Once I got the first couple of days under my belt I looked around and decided I could handle the house plants, too. So I put one of the hanging baskets in the sink and turned on the water, because I remember June watering the plants that way. When I got ready to hang it back up, something didn’t look quite right. I looked closer and discovered it was a plastic plant!

I remember telling that story to my old friend Bill Stearns a few years back. We were on the same flight to Honolulu a few years ago and he told me stories of the old days of cropdusting in Hawai‘i. He was the original cropduster and the first to use an airplane to spray and fertilize sugar cane. His company was called Murray Air.

What he was doing was so new and so unique that the Ka‘u sugar plantation boss gave him a cottage next to the Catholic priest. Bill told me how he would get himself all slicked up and travel the long way from Ka‘u to Hilo in order to meet the Hawaiian girl who would later become his wife.

They were married for more than 50 years, and she had just passed away. Sitting next to him on that flight to Honolulu, I knew he was having a hard time adjusting. So I told him my story about watering the plastic plant as a way of illustrating how we sometimes take them for granted. He could really relate; he laughed so loud that he choked.

Bill and I really liked each other. When we first got into the banana business we used his company to spray our crops. When we got behind in payment, June and I worked out a repayment schedule with him and paid back every penny on time. And when I was sponsored to join the Rotary Club more than 20 years ago, Bill did not know about it in advance, but he stood up and told everybody loudly that he was vouching for my character. He did not have to do that and I never forgot the gesture.

Another time, at an annual meeting of the Farm Credit Association, I was nominated to the board of directors. When I found out it was for Bill’s seat, I withdrew my name. He will always be one of my all-time favorite people.

June will be gone for at least a month and maybe longer, so I’m keeping her in the loop at work by copying her in on all the emails.

As for me, I have to fend for myself. I am taking this opportunity to eat at every single lunch place in Hilo. And I’m looking forward to cooking small meals for myself. Not as a chore, but as an opportunity to try different things.

Bananas, Company News

Bananas

Kimo had a meeting with our banana workers who were to be the first laid off because of our plan to shut down our banana operation. Our next step was to talk to the workers in order to see who was interested in another job at the farm.

But the workers surprised us at that second meeting by initiating a conversation about whether it was possible to keep part of the banana farm in operation.

Our main problem had been that we could not get enough workers to keep the essential jobs on schedule. Under those conditions, and coupled with rising fertilizer and other costs, our results were low yields and poor production. But it became apparent that—with the people who were interested in keeping the farm going—we could keep a certain amount of the Williams bananas in efficient operation.

Kimo told me what took place at that second meeting and I immediately told him that if the workers were interested, we could close the apple banana fields and keep the best of the Williams banana fields in operation. Everybody agreed.

So now we are planning to continue some of our banana production in a new, streamlined mode. I cannot describe how impressed I am that the workers are interested in doing this. We’ll do all we can to make it work.

Renewable Energy Sources

Wheelabrator

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The Houston-based company Wheelabrator recently gave a presentation about its “Waste-to-Energy” facilities to representatives of the Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce, Japanese Chamber, Portuguese Chamber and the Hawaii Island Economic Development Board.

By my calculations, 86,000 tons/year of trash replaces 86,000 barrels of oil at $100/barrel. (86,000 divided by 365 equals 235 tons/day.) This equates to $8.6 million in oil cost savings per year, and even more as oil prices rise. And we all know that they will.

Wheelabrator convinced me that it has a technology that is proven. The most important thing is that their contract has several instances along the way where the County could terminate the contract at no cost. It has an escape clause so we would not be stuck with a bad project.

The objective of pushing this forward is to enable a quote from HELCO so we can get more information. There is no risk to moving forward at this point.

There are new, “miracle” proposals out there that are said to be faster and cheaper, but we have found over the years that it’s asking for trouble to buy first generation products. You end up being the guinea pig. Believe me, this is the voice of experience speaking!

Bananas, Company News

Big Changes at the Farm

There are some big changes around here that we’d like to tell you about. The following is a press release we just sent out:

Mauna Kea Banana Company Ends Banana Production

Pepe‘ekeo, Big Island, Hawai‘i – April 4, 2008 – After more than 30 years in the banana business, Mauna Kea Banana Company—which started out as Kea‘au Bananas—has announced it is closing down its banana operation.

The company will, however, continue to produce its Hamakua Springs Country Farms brand of hydroponic vegetables.

“We’ve had to make some hard decisions due to rising costs,” says President Richard Ha. “Everything has gone up, especially fertilizer.”

“The major thing on my mind right now is our workers,” he says. Nine workers are being let go immediately, and another 20 will see their jobs end in a few months when the final banana harvest is completed.

“To the extent we have other jobs available that they are suited for,” he says, “we will try to transfer them so they can stay at the farm. We are also talking to other banana growers to see if they have openings, and I am talking to the Department of Labor to see if they can help.”

“You know, we’re always trying to see where we need to be five and 10 years down the road,” he says, “and always concerned about the greater good. It’s painful, of course, but for the benefit of the larger amount of people, this is the way we need to do it.”

He plans to lease the former banana land to area farmers. “Part of our overall plan is to become more diversified in food products,” he says. “We anticipate supplying the local community, and the more different stuff we/they grow the better we can serve the community.”

He emphasizes they want to work with farmers who live in or near Pepe‘ekeo and can walk or travel a very short distance to work, so their travel costs are minimal as energy costs continue to rise. “We definitely want to be community-based,” he says. They can also help farmers market their products, though that is optional.

Farmers interested in leasing land can call Farm Manager Kimo Pa at 960-1058. “They’ll need to come and sit down with us and tell us their plans,” says Ha, “and we’ll see if it fits into our program. They will need to fit into our criteria of sustainability.”

Mauna Kea Banana Company is also expanding its hydroponics operation, which operates under the brand name Hamakua Springs Country Farms. Ha says they are in the process of adding 20 new planting houses for tomatoes and other produce. Hamakua Springs produces tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, green onions and other hydroponically grown vegetables, which are sold to Hawai‘i supermarkets and restaurants.

He explains that, by necessity, the company is adapting to the changing environment. “That is what is driving us, and it has to do with rising energy prices,” he says. Among other changes, they are currently in the process of developing hydroelectric power at the farm. “People that don’t adapt, well, others will replace them who will adapt. If we don’t change, we will be history.”

“I worry about our workers,” he says. “It’s the major thing on my mind. The only consolation is that the economy is still good. Jobs are available right now. If we waited too long, they’d go into a jobless market and that would be even worse.”

A founding member of the Hawaii Seal of Quality program, the award-winning Mauna Kea Banana Company (formerly Kea‘au Bananas) has been in business on the Big Island for more than 30 years. Through its Hamakua Springs Country Farms brand, the farm produces hydroponic tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, watercress, onions and more for Hawai‘i supermarkets and top hotels and restaurants. Mauna Kea Banana Company was the first banana farm in the world to be certified “Eco-OK” by the Rainforest Alliance. The farm was also one of six national finalists for the Patrick Madden award, a sustainable farming commendation given by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Current Affairs, Peak Oil

Sobering Price Increases

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Aloha Airlines—which has flown all of us between the Hawaiian Islands since 1946—terminates their passenger service today, after filing for bankruptcy protection 10 days ago. We knew the airline was in trouble, but we never expected it would come to this.

Talk about coming to grips with reality. Kimo and I had a meeting with our fertilizer distributor a few days ago, who told us that fertilizer prices have gone up again. Just by itself this fact would not be especially worrisome. But nitrogen fertilizer prices are related to energy prices, and energy prices are likely to keep rising as far into the future as we can see.

The distributor told us some farmers are actually dipping into their savings to buy fertilizer. Not only nitrogen fertilizer, but potassium fertilizer is also rising in price.

It rains a lot here on the east side of the Big Island; maybe 140 inches in an average year. Quite often the fertilizers we surface apply are washed away. With fertilizer prices continuing to rise, it’s just a matter of time before we will not be able to afford broadcasting fertilizer in this manner.

Then he told us that Roundup, the main herbicide we use for our banana operation, has doubled in price. We use Roundup to control the weeds in more than 400 acres of bananas.

Have you noticed there are less abandoned cars now than there used to be? I’m told that tow truck operators are finding that scrap metal prices make it worth their while to haul abandoned vehicles away. Someone told me that one catalytic converter is worth $125.

That’s the other side of the phone call that I got last week asking if I wanted to order more growing houses, because steel prices are going up.

Weyerhaeuser, the corrugated box manufacturing company on O‘ahu, closed a couple of weeks ago. More than half of Hawaii’s agricultural products were packed in Weyerhaeuser boxes. WE used their boxes for many years.

Last week I saw in the paper last week that O’Keefe Bakery here in Hilo is being badly affected by this record increase in electricity costs.

Most of the electricity here on the Big Island is generated using oil. I was told that rising plastic plate costs are hurting Mom & Pop plate lunch places, which cannot raise their prices enough to cover the increase. Plastic is, of course, a byproduct of petroleum.

And medical costs are rising as well. HMSA, which provides health insurance to more than half of Hawai‘i’s population, just announced a substantial price hike in its rates.

It is very sobering to see these cost increases going on all around us.

Most worrisome to me is that farmers cannot control their prices. We are told all the time that farmers are not price makers—they are price takers. In other words, they merely take the price that wholesalers or retailers give them.

We know what is happening. We live in a finite world, and resources are limited. Do we just sit in the pot and wach ourselves cook?