Category Archives: Community

Big Island, Community, Education, Science, Tomatoes

Kids Learn How to Create a Tomato

By Leslie Lang 

Richard recently contributed tomato flowers for Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day at the Pacific Basin Agriculture Research Center (PBARC) in Hilo.

The cocktail tomato flowers were for a hands-on demo where kids learned about putting a tomato flower in sterile culture and growing their own tomato. They practiced removing flower petals with their fingers, and then saw how the scientists prepare the flowers under sterile conditions using forceps to remove the petals. The scientists put the flowers into a tissue culture and let the kids take them home and observe them developing into green tomatoes and then ripening.

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It was the Ms. Foundation for Women (with support from foundation founder Gloria Steinem) who started “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day” back in 1992; it started out as “Take Our Daughters to Work Day.” Sons were added in 2003. More than 37 million people participate every year at more than 3.5 million workplaces in the U.S., and there are more participants in over 200 other countries. Pretty impressive numbers!

From the Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Foundation:

Exposing girls and boys to what a parent or mentor in their lives does during the work day is important, but showing them the value of their education, helping them discover the power and possibilities associated with a balanced work and family life, providing them an opportunity to share how they envision the future, and allowing them to begin steps toward their end goals in a hands-on and interactive environment is key to their achieving success.

PBARC participates once every three years, inviting employees to bring their children, nieces, nephews and grandchildren. Each child, too, can bring a friend.

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Scientists set up displays and demos, usually hands-on, to demonstrate aspects of research and agriculture. Some of this year’s sessions had kids learning how to extract purple pigment from “red” cabbage, how to detect whether papaya seeds were genetically modified for ring spot virus, and drafting hibiscus cuttings. There was a short “genomic number cruncher” session, too.

“For the most part they are very engaged,” said research horticulturalist Tracie Matsumoto. “We keep the displays short, less than 30 minutes, and hands-on. One year we had a dead baby pig that we set up outside three weeks before the event, so the kids got to see the maggots and decaying carcass. That same entomologist who did that also set up a colony of sweet potato weevils one year, where the kids could put their arms in and let them crawl on their arms. Another year, we were extracting banana DNA and the kids got to take home DNA in a test tube.”

Because the facility recognizes that not every child wants to be a scientist, they also show the kids around all the other PBARC departments, so they see the various jobs that keep the facility going. They hear what the duties are for employees in administration, computer networking, janitorial and landscaping, payroll and purchasing. They learn that it takes more than just scientists to keep that operation going.

“We know students over the course of their lives are going to have multiple jobs and bosses and maybe careers, too, so we like to expand their expectations of what careers could be,” said Suzanne Sanxter, a biological laboratory technician and coordinator of the Daughters and Sons program.

Over the years, about 175 children between the ages of 7 and 18 have attended a PBARC Daughters and Sons event. This year there were 20 more, and all were asked to fill out surveys at the end of the day. PBARC must have really done something right, because each demo was listed as more than one students’ favorite, and reviews were glowing. A sampling:

How was your day at PBARC?

  • Awesome and super fun, because we got to do a lot of things.
  • It was the best and I wish there was more but I can’t wait for the next time I get to go.
  • Amazing!

What did you like the best?

  • I liked all of it, it was really fun the one that I liked the most was the tomatoe one and the calerpiler.
  • All the subjects
  • Going upstairs to see the wires.

What did you like the least?

  • I loved all of it.  All of them was really fun. I do not have any dislikes.
  • Nothing
  • Nothing

What experiment would you like to do next year?

  • The experiment that I would want to do is the calipilier one, the tomatoe and the planting one in the patiow.
  • Anything.
  • Looking in the microscope.

What would you like to learn more about – plants or insects?

  • What I would want to learn more is witch plant or fruit and inscect is the most endangered.
  • How many years does a lemitoad (nematode ?!) stay alive.
  • Insects.

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Big Island, Community, Hawaiian Role Models, History, Science, Sustainability, Travel, Where We Live

Around The World on a Wa’a

1 Comment

Richard Ha writes:

The Polynesian voyaging canoes Hokule‘a and Hikianalia departed Hilo a couple days ago, headed for Tahiti on the first leg of an around-the-world voyage. Kalepa Babayan is captain of the Hokule‘a, and he melds ancient ways with modern technology and education. He is one of the most solidly grounded person I know. 

Hokule‘a crew member Na‘alehu Anthony blogged about leaving Hilo in It Takes a Community to Launch a Canoe:

Literally thousands of members of our ʻohana waʻa (canoe family) have come to see the canoes.  School groups by the busloads have come to share mele (songs) and hoʻokupu (offerings) to the canoes and crew. But if one looks a little closer, they can start to really notice how well this community still understands the sense of aloha. Every day for the past 10 days this community has come out to feed the crew three meals a day.  Cars have been dropped off to help with last minute runs to the store. People have come without any expectation of personal gain to give of their time to just help us prepare for this 47,000 mile journey. Just this morning after sunrise, one of the uncles from nearby came to drop off a dozen or so lei, that he personally strung together with flowers from his yard, just to “Aloha” the canoes.  He didn’t even ask to come aboard, rather, he left them in the care of one of our watch captains to bless the canoes with the sweet fragrance that reminds us all of Hilo.

We did our small part by supplying bananas and tomatoes, and feel very privileged to be able to support Hawai‘i's voyagers, along with hundreds of others. We learned, early on, that the voyaging crews like fresh fruit, especially longer into the trip, so we do this as much as we can on the voyages out of Hilo. We do our best to stage the ripening at different times, and try to see how far into the voyage we can get the bananas to last. We once got a batch to last until the crew reached the equator. 

Keaukaha was the host community for the wa‘a and their crews, and its president, Patrick Kahawaiola'a, was in charge of coordinating. June and I went to Palekai to see the canoes the other day.

As we walked down to the water, we ran into Bruce Blankenfeld, the captain of Hikianalia. I knew he had lots on his mind, so I introduced myself by saying we had supplied bananas on previous trips, and that they should "try keep the bananas separated so they no all go off at one time." He knew exactly what I meant. I gave him the thumbs up and we kept on going. 

To me, the voyage of the Hokule‘a and the Hikianalia represents hope for mankind. It is about the spirit of aloha. It is about using the resources available, modern and ancient, in a smart way. But mostly it's about attitude. There are a thousand reasons why no can. We need just one reason why, CAN.

From www.hokulea.com:

Island Wisdom, Ocean Connections, Global Lessons

Hōkūle‘a and Hikianalia, our Polynesian voyaging canoes, are sailing across Earth’s oceans to join and grow the global movement toward a more sustainable world. Covering 47,000 nautical miles, 85 ports, and 26 countries, the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage will highlight diverse cultural and natural treasures and the importance of working together to protect them. The Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage began in 2013 with a Mālama Hawaiʻi sail around our archipelago, and will continue through 2017 when our new generation of navigators take the helm and guide Hōkūle‘a and Hikianalia back to Polynesia after circumnavigating the globe.

The Hawaiian name for this voyage, Mālama Honua, means “to care for our Earth.” Living on an island chain teaches us that our natural world is a gift with limits and that we must carefully steward this gift if we are to survive together. As we work to protect cultural and environmental resources for our children’s future, our Pacific voyaging traditions teach us to venture beyond the horizon to connect and learn with others. The Worldwide Voyage is a means by which we now engage all of Island Earth—practicing how to live sustainably, while sharing, learning, creating global relationships, and discovering the wonders of this precious place we all call home.

Community

Big Island: Risk Management Programs in Ag

Richard Ha writes:

There are some interesting programs coming up on the Big Island from the UH College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, specifically from its Risk Management program.

These are the kind of programs that the CARET people were advocating for when we got together in Washington, D.C. recently to support federal funding for Agriculture: Research, Extension and Teaching.

  • Monday, March 17, 2014 – Spray Equipment Calibration and Spray Calculation Workshop and Field Day; 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm, KCES
  • Wednesday, March 19, 2014 – CBB IPM with Focus on Field Sanitation, Sampling, Monitoring and Early Season Spraying; 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm, KCES
  • Thursday, March 20 & Tuesday, March 25, 2014; Tea 101 workshops; 8:30 am – 3:30 pm, Mealani Research Station; (Note: Registration for both sessions are CLOSED. Please contact Didi at 887-6183 or email mddiaz@hawaii.edu for more information and to get on the waiting list)
  • Thursday, March 27, 2014; Alien Invaders of the Worst Kind – A Systems Approach to Pest Management; 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm; Waimea Civic Center conference room
  • Friday, March 28, 2014; Lychee Pest Management: Fruit Bagging and Fruit Fly Control Field Day; 10:00 am – 11:30 am; Kawika Tropical Fruit Orchards – Hakalau; Limited to 25 persons. An RSVP is required; please call Gina at 322-4892 to RSVP or by email at ginab@hawaii.edu by Mar. 27, 2014.
Articles, Big Island, Blog, Community, Food and Drink

Michelle Galimba & What Truth Tastes Like

2 Comments

Richard Ha writes:

Michelle Galimba is a rancher (at her family’s Kuahiwi Ranch, in Na‘alehu) and a member of the Board of Agriculture.

One day, on a plane, I looked across the aisle and saw her reading a newspaper. I did a doubletake when I realized the newspaper was in Chinese.

Michelle is a rancher with a PhD in comparative literature from U.C. Berkeley who knows Chinese. She’s a very interesting, gifted, thinking person. You can click into her blog Ehulepo on the right side of this blog anytime. It’s worth reading.

Here’s an article she wrote at the She Grows Food blog called What Does Truth Taste Like.

What does truth taste like? What does justice taste like?

These might sound like terribly pompous questions to ask. But they are worth asking as we learn, un-learn, re-learn the question: “What is food?”

What is food?

Food – we speak of it as good or bad, as healthy or indulgent, pretty or ugly, tasty or yucky, clever or boring,strange or familiar, pure or tainted.

What is it that we eat? It was there before each of us, like the air we breathe, and yet more complexly given to us by each other – cultural, social, ecological. It is what we have absorbed already before we became conscious; it is what we are formed from. It is what our first thoughts were bent upon, what our bodies cried out for before there were words. Food is a feeling, an interchange with the world, a necessary blessing.

Food can be beautiful and good. It should be so. Because it is the flower of the entirety of our knowledge, because it is the will of the community to nourish and sustain, to embody itself, animate itself. Because it is the form and medium of our conversation with the web of life, in which humans are but one node.

The pathway of food should be known by all – its path from earth to belly and back to earth. What knowledge is more necessary?

Truth might have a taste. Would we know it when we tasted it? …

Read the rest

Aquaponics, Big Island, Community, Eating Locally, Family of Farms, Food Security, History, How It All Started, Hydroelectric, Lowering Electric Rates, Peak Oil, Renewable Energy Sources, Sustainability, The New Ahupua‘a, Watercress

The New Ahupuaa, Revisited

Richard Ha writes:

This is a post I wrote back in 2007. I recently reread it and realized it's the same story as what's happening today. It's six years later, and people still don't realize we don't have time to fool around.

I'm going to rerun the post here.

***

October 10, 2007

I spoke at the Hawai‘i Island Food Summit this past weekend, which was attended by Hawaiian cultural people, policy makers, university researchers, farmers, ranchers, and others.

The two-day conference asked the question, “How Can Hawai‘i Feed Itself?”

I felt like a small kid in class with his hand raised: “Call me! Call me!”

I sat on one of the panels, and said that our sustainability philosophy has to do with taking a long-term view of things. We are always moving so we’ll be in the proper position for the environment we anticipate five, 10 and 20 years from now.

I told them I had a nightmare that there would be a big meeting down by the pier one day, where they announce that food supplies were short because the oil supply was short and so we would have to send thousands of people out to discover new land.

I was afraid that they would send all the people with white hair out on the boats to find new land—all the Grandmas and Grandpas and me, but maybe not June.

Grandmas and Grandpas hobbled onto the boats with their canes and their wheelchairs, clutching all their medicines, and everybody gave all of us flower leis, and everyone was saying, “Aloha, Aloha, call us when you find land! Aloha!”

I spoke about where we want to be in five, 10 or 20 years. We know that energy-related costs will be high then. And that we need to provide food for Hawai‘i’s people.

We call our plan “The New Ahupua‘a.”

In old Hawai‘i, the ahupua‘a was a land division that stretched from the uplands to the sea, and it contained the resources necessary to support its human population—from fish and salt to fertile land for farming and, high up, wood for building, as well as much more.

Our “New Ahupua‘a” uses old knowledge along with modern technology to make the best use of our own land system and resources. We will move forward by looking backward.

• We plan to decouple ourselves from fossil fuel costs by developing a hydroelectric plant, which will allow us to grow various crops not normally grown at our location.

• We are moving toward a “village” concept of farming, and starting to include farmers from the area, who grow things we don’t, to farm with us. This way, the people who work on our farm come from the area around our farm. We will help them with food safety, pest control issues and distribution.

• We are developing a farmers market at our property on the highway, where the farmers who work with us can market their products.

• We will utilize as much of our own resources for fertilizer as possible, by developing a system of aquaponics, etc.

This “New Ahupua‘a” is our general framework for the future. It will allow us to produce more food than we can produce by ourselves. It is a safe strategy, in case the worst scenario happens; if it doesn’t, this plan will not hurt us.

It is a simple strategy. And we are committed to it.

My assessment of how we came to be here and where we need to be in the future is this: In the beginning, one hundred percent of the energy for food came from the sun. The mastodons ate leaves, the saber tooth tiger ate the mastodon and we ate the tiger and everything else.

The earth’s population was related to the amount of food we could gather or catch. And sometimes the food caught and ate us. So there were only so many of us roaming around.

Then some of us started to use horses and mules to help us grow food. As well as the sun, now animals provided some of the energy for cultivating food. We were able to grow more food, and so there were more of us.

About 150 years ago, we discovered oil. With oil we could utilize millions of horsepower to grow food—and we didn’t even need horses. Oil was plentiful and cheap; only about $3/barrel. We used oil to manufacture fertilizer, chemicals and for packaging and transportation.

Food became very, very plentiful and we started going to supermarkets to harvest and hunt for our food. Hunting for our food at the supermarkets was very good—the food did not eat us and now there are many, many, many of us.

But now we are approaching another change to the status quo—a situation being called “Peak Oil.” That’s when half of all the oil in existence is used up. Half the oil will still be left, but it will be increasingly hard to tap. At some point, the demand for oil—by billions and billions of people who cannot wait to get in their car and drive to McDonalds—will exceed the ability to pump that oil.

Food was cheap in the past because oil was cheap. Five years ago, oil was $30/barrel but now it’s over $80/barrel. Now that oil is becoming more and more expensive, food is also going to become much more expensive.

In the beginning the sun provided a hundred percent of the energy and it was free. Today oil is becoming very expensive, but sun energy is still free.  The wind, the waves, the water—they are all free here in Hawaii. It’s the oil that is expensive.

For Hamakua Springs, the situation is not complicated at all. We need to use an alternate form of energy to help us grow food!

With alternate energy, we should be able to continue growing food—and maybe local food can be grown cheaper than food that is shipped here from far away.

I told the Food Summit attendees that we farmers need to grow plenty of food so that others can do what they do and so we continue to have a vibrant society. If we don’t plan ahead to provide enough food, and as a consequence every family has to return to farming to feed themselves, it would be a much more limited society. People would not be able to pursue the arts, write books, explore space. We would have way fewer choices – maybe only, “What color malo should I wear today?”

There was a feeling going through the Food Summit’s crowd that we were a part of something very important and very special. What I found different about this conference is that people left feeling that this was just the beginning.

We are going to take action.

***

Big Island, Community, Current Affairs, Food Security, Government, Peak Oil, Science, Sustainability

Big Island’s Bill 113 (Anti-GMO) Passes

1 Comment

Richard Ha writes:

There are strong signals all around us that the era of cheap oil is over and we will soon face enormous social consequences – but we choose, instead, to focus on banning biotech solutions to our farming challenges. Where is our common sense?

We say that the Monsantos of the world are evil, and then we turn around and beat up our own small farmers.

Where is King Kamehameha when we need him?

I keep saying it because it’s true and it’s important: If the farmer makes money, the farmer will farm. Bill 113 will, without a doubt, make Big Island farmers less competitive. Bill 113 will make the future of farming even more difficult than it is today.

It is going to have a huge, very negative, impact on our island’s agriculture industry.

People are angry at Monsanto and are willing to punish their own, local, small farmers – their family, friends and neighbors. It’s hard to understand.

I am very disappointed that Bill 113 passed. And I am truly concerned about what it says for our society that people have come to distrust and even fear science.

But coming out of the council room after the vote, I felt so much better when two ladies I had never met told me they respected our point of view, and that we all need to work together.

I told them how much I appreciated them reaching out to say that. The most important thing we will need for an uncertain future is our spirit of aloha.

Big Island, Community, Food Security, Government, Science

Bill Walter on Bill 113

3 Comments

Richard Ha writes:

In this letter to the Hawai‘i County Council, Bill Walter of W.H. Shipman expresses very well what we farmers are trying to articulate.

Councilwoman Wille points to a stack of testimony, taller than the stack opposing Bill 113, and says, "The people have spoken."

If we used "tonnage of food produced on the Big Island" as a means to compare, though, the stack representing the folks opposed to Bill 113 would be 10 times taller.

But they did not bother to listen to the farmers.

Click to listen to what the farmers producing food on this island think.

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Community, Family of Farms, Government

We Need Cool Heads

Richard Ha writes:

Kaua‘i is having discussions about large corporate seed companies, GMOs, fear about the safety of our food supply, etc. It’s very similar to the discussions we are having on the Big Island.

Jerry Ornellas wrote a good article for the Kaua‘i newspaper about treating each other with respect—after all, we live on an island!

Jerry is president of the Kaua‘i County Farm Bureau and a good
friend of mine. I’ve known him, as a fellow banana farmer, for more than 30 years.

I listened to the anti-GMO testimony at the Hawai‘i County Council a few days ago. It is very apparent that most of the animosity was directed at the large seed companies, particularly Monsanto. In the heated discussion, small farmers and their families, including their small children, were getting caught in the crossfire.

We all need to take a deep breath and think about what we are trying to accomplish. I think that the goal should be to move the Big Island toward food self-sufficiency.  For this, we need all our farmers. We must try to help all farmers make money. We must not cannibalize from one group to benefit another group.

One huge piece missing from this discussion is the part that finite resources play in this discussion. We do have indigenous resources that could give Hawai‘i a competitive advantage to the rest of the world. We have curtailed throwaway electricity, which could help us all. But we need to have a strategic vision of where we want to go.

Right now, the Council is stumbling from amendment to amendment. It is responding to fear. There is no strategic direction to what we are trying to do.

Our political leaders need to be responsible and lead!

Big Island, Community, Food Security, Sustainability, Where We Live

Guest Post: Our Adventures at Kawanui Farm

Richard Ha writes:

Nancy Redfeather is an organic farmer and good friend of mine. She heads the School Garden Network and is a perfect example of someone who walks the talk.

We know ancient Hawaiians grew their food primarily around the valley/plains where nutrients were funneled down from the uplands. Some examples are Waipi‘o Valley, lots of places on Kaua‘i and Waikiki. Then they did field systems like upslope ones in Kona and Kohala.

As a farmer myself, I know this took a lot of planning and effort. Upslope farming is not easy at all.

I think the ancient Hawaiians would understand and greatly admire what Nancy folks have done!

By Nancy Redfeather

I have been a home gardener for 40 years, and my husband Gerry, too. We love growing food, herbs, flowers and medicines, and working with the soil. It has always been an interest and passion of mine, and my husband feels the same way. I think that is one of the reason we fell in love.

It’s hard to explain why we feel that way we do. We love the land and enjoy forming a partnership with it. When I started growing gardens, as a young teacher in 1973, I really didn’t know what I was doing, so I read books, took classes and learned from the excellent gardeners around me. I continue to do all those things 40 years later!

We live at Kawanui Farm in the ahupua‘a of Kawanui, nestled between Honalo and Kainaliu in mauka Kona. My neighbors’ families have all lived here for as long as anyone can remember

Kawanui, according to the Hawaiian Dictionary, means “the great jumping off place.” And so it has been that for Gerry and me. The 1.2 acres of land have afforded us the experience of a lifetime – to work with a raw piece of land, create a relationship with it and build soil fertility by recycling nutrients into the soil

When we arrived, most of the piece was in Guinea Grass. We carefully removed the clumps with a small tractor and built an enormous compost pile, returning the finished compost back to the land. So began the great horticultural adventure at Kawanui Farm.

Now it is 15 years later. The quarter-acre kitchen garden, half-acre production garden and half acre of orchard and coffee continues to grow and change with the seasons and the year.

All organic matter is recycled back into the land, the wood becomes firewood for our morning fires and the ash is cycled back into the garden beds. Everything else is composted or used as mulch. We always try to keep the ground covered, as uncovered soil will want to germinate something to cover it, moisture is lost and organic matter is burned up. Besides applying compost, bones are burned and crushed, basalt rock dust is spread, seaweed is composted, but above everything is the compost. Gerry calls it, “The heart and soul of the garden.”

I’m fortunate that now I can work with schools, children, youth and teachers all around Hawai‘i Island and reintroduce children to the garden, as over the past 30 years fewer and fewer people have been growing food for their families. In the 1970s and earlier in Hawai‘i, it was common to have a backyard garden to help feed the family, along with hunting, fishing and trading the foods and fruits of the land with your friends and neighbors. Most schools had large gardens and the food grown was incorporated into the lunch meal for the children. Today that is illegal.

Renewing our connection with the garden, our food and the land will help to also reconnect us to the values of Aloha ‘Aina, Malama ‘Aina and ‘Aina Momona: Love for the land, caring for the land, and the abundance that comes from the land.

On May 4, 2011, after an entire year of rain in the mauka area, there was a “weather event” of biblical proportions. A cold system from the north collided with a warm system from the south right over the area between Honalo to Kealakekua.

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Lightning bolts were hitting the ground and setting electrical poles on fire. The thunder was deafening. The rain was torrential, and as I sat, working at my desk and looking out the window, I began to see streams of water shooting through the stone wall pukas behind our house. And then the water broke down the wall and came toward the house in a river. For four hours it continued to flow, about a foot deep or so, over the entire land.

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It never entered my home, but carried 12 years of compost from the gardens down the hill. The water broke down the wall at the bottom of the land and went straight for the ocean, carrying a great deal of fertility with it. There was nothing to do but watch and pray.

IMG_2722

We had eight inches of rain that day, and later NRCS told me they estimate that 340 million gallons of water came down the hill that
afternoon. I have no doubt this was a global warming event. More rain and more drought. As you can imagine the place was a mess. Floods bring more than water. Glass, plastic, weed seeds and diseases we had never seen in our plants before.

For one year following, we rebuilt walls, hauled soil back up to the gardens and continued composting and giving special teas to heal the land. One year later, everything was back to where it was. The land had recovered and we had also. I think the underlying humus, organic matter, and years of composting and mulching helped the land to heal itself. Now, two years later, there is not a trace of disease. Flood? What flood?

We feel very blessed to live at Kawanui and be able to grow our food and form a deep partnership with nature. We are fortunate to live in a place where food can be grown year round – and such biodiversity! Whether it is a small pot of herbs on your windowsill or a 10×10 garden in your backyard, growing something you eat reconnects you with the cycles of life and puts a smile on your face.

Try it. Experiment-experiment-experiment. Garden with a friend, a loved one, or a garden pal; you will enjoy it so much more.

Bananas, Community, Eating Locally

Will Home-Grown Bananas Become a Memory?

Richard Ha writes:

Incidents of Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV) have been increasing in this past year.

Fortunately, the Department of Agriculture has filled the slot that became open when Kyle Onuma retired. Kyle did an incredible job with the resources he had.

Now Kamran Fujimoto has been placed in Kyle’s slot. He is good! It’s been just a few weeks since Kamran came on board, and he’s already treated 14 BBTV sites in the Hilo area, consisting of 38 banana clumps and 167 infected plants.

This video describes the disease, and the method of control.

“Three Minutes on Banana Bunch Top Virus: What You Need to Know”

Once the Hilo area is done, Kamran will turn his attention to the Kea‘au/Puna area. The BIBGA will help Kamran do a survey of the subdivisions. We will be sure to notify the community associations to coordinate.

Also, the Big Island Banana Growers is planning an education
program about the virus. It will consist of printed materials, social media, County Fair info and working with people who supply or sell banana plants. If you see an infected plant, call the Department of Agriculture at 974-4145.

People seeking banana keiki should make sure that the source
is not infected. Be especially careful when sourcing from the Kea‘au/Puna area. We are finding that many new infected plantings are originating from there.

Our approach is a collaborative one, and we are very grateful to homeowners who have been willing to help us. This is not only beneficial to commercial growers – if we work hard at eradication, homeowners will be able to continue raising bananas. If not, bananas will become very hard to grow at home.

O‘ahu is a good example of runaway BBTV in neighborhoods. Commercial growers are still growing bananas there, but for some homeowners, growing their own bananas is becoming only a memory.

This video, “Bananas at Risk in Kea‘au, Hawai‘i,” was taken just a short time ago, but the land has been bulldozed since.

The plants there must be eradicated, though, or the land will continue to serve as a reservoir from which BBTV can be spread.