Category Archives: Peak Oil

Current Affairs, Peak Oil

Sobering Price Increases

2 Comments

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?

Current Affairs, Food Security, Government, Peak Oil, Renewable Energy Sources

In Support of Farmers

I testified in person last week at the Hawai‘i State Legislature in favor of Senate Bill 2467 and House Bill 2261. This bill, which I helped draft, helps address important issues of food security, high oil prices and economic development.

Hawai‘i has two very serious issues right now. The first is food security—we are very vulnerable out here in the middle of the ocean and must ensure we can produce enough food for our residents.

The second is our need to get off oil, which we depend upon both for transportation and for generating electricity. Prior to the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) conference in Houston four months ago, little was reported in the press about the consequences of what are tightening oil supplies. (I was the only Hawai‘i resident to attend that conference; the next one is in Sacramento in September). Since the conference, we are increasingly hearing in the media about oil demand exceeding supply.

The answer to this problem is to generate as much electricity as possible from natural sources here in Hawai‘i, and use as much electricity as possible (vs. oil) for transportation.

Here is my testimony in support of SB2467 and HB2261:

Aloha Chairpersons and fellow representatives:

I am in favor of HB 2261—the Hawai‘i Farm Renewable Sustainable Energy Loan Program. This is a bill that accomplishes three things:

1) It addresses our food security issue by encouraging farmers to farm. If farmers make money, they will farm. This bill will help farmers save money by using alternate energy sources as oil costs rise. If the utilities will buy power from farmers in the future, farmers will make money. Further, farmers can qualify for one hundred percent state income tax credits for alternate energy projects.

2) It helps to wean us from dependence on foreign oil. When farmers produce power, that will help us get off foreign oil.

3) It addresses an economic issue of balance of payments. A dollar saved from having to buy foreign oil is a dollar that can revolve in our local economy.

This bill is necessary because energy projects cost money and in many cases, the savings is in the future. In order for farmers starting energy projects to obtain a positive cash flow sooner rather than later, they must have a lower loan payback for doing energy products as compared to present electricity/power costs. A low down payment and long payback period helps to accomplish this.

Alternate energy projects qualify for one hundred percent state income tax benefits though Act 122. While it is true that investors in these projects can qualify for favorable tax treatment, investors require a return on their investment. If investors finance farmers’ alternate energy projects, the project’s value goes to the investors, not the farmers. If that’s the case, farmers will not waste their time starting alternate energy projects in the first place. That is the main reason this bill is so effective.

Aloha,
Richard Ha
President,
Hamakua Springs Country Farms

The reason this bill is so significant is because it positions farmers to sell electricity to the grid. Instead of sending all our money to foreign countries, why not have our own people generating electricity? It keeps our money circulating in our own economy. And it also aids in our efforts to make ourselves food secure—because if farmers can make money, by selling electricity along with their food products, farmers will farm.

I believe this bill will pass “as is,” along with an amendment that expands its scope and does not detract from the original intent. Because it will be incorporated into an existing Department of Agriculture loan program, there will no need to go through the Attorney General’s office for scrutiny. And since there is no request for funding at the present time, it also will not need to go through the House Finance committee or the Senate Ways and Means committee.

On another, related, topic, we are also working with the U.S. Department of Energy to develop alternate energy projects here on the Big Island.

Things are starting to move! I’ll write about those efforts in another post.

What I can tell you now is that it is all very encouraging.

Current Affairs, Government, Peak Oil, Renewable Energy Sources

Huge Energy News for Hawai’i

1 Comment

The U.S. Department of Energy and the State of Hawai‘i announced an unprecedented partnership Monday. The Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative is a brand new partnership between the state and federal governments that aims to have Hawai‘i producing 70 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030.

At this point everything is still conceptual, but the state has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Department of Energy and this is a major step in the right direction.

I am very much encouraged by this collaboration between the State of Hawai‘€˜i and the U.S. Department of Energy.

It was two years ago that I started noticing creeping price increases. Farmers are some of the first people to see the effects of rising oil prices. Fertilizer, chemicals, irrigation, cooling packaging and transportation costs are directly related to oil prices. A year ago, it started to be very worrisome and I knew there was something serious going on.

In October I was the only person from Hawai‘i at the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) conference in Houston, where I learned more about Peak Oil’s consequences than I ever wanted to know. Because Hawai‘€˜i is 90% dependent on foreign oil, I knew we were dangerously vulnerable.

I returned from that conference knowing that we in Hawai‘i needed to wean ourselves from fossil fuels or else would go into an unimaginable downward spiral. So I volunteered to sit on the Hawai‘€˜i County Energy Commission. I also volunteered to sit on the Kohala Center’€™s board, because of its good work in the alternate energy field.

Until Monday, though, when the Department of Energy announced its Memorandum of Agreement with the state regarding alternate energy, I really did not see how we could educate enough people in a short enough time to ensure political support for serious alternate energy projects.

This announcement is a very big deal.

I now feel we have enough momentum to start moving forward. In fact, I think we have enough momentum now to do what we need to do in order to protect ourselves from the consequences of Peak Oil.

Peak Oil, Renewable Energy Sources

$100 Oil

We have work to do here in Hawai‘i.

When I went to the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) conference in Houston a couple months ago, oil had just hit a new record high of $84 per barrel. We conference-goers all knew that oil would hit $100/barrel soon.

Which it did Sunday.

$100 oil!

Several months before that conference, I’d already started noticing that prices for fertilizer and most farming supplies were rising steadily. It seemed unusual. I felt like a frog slowly heating up in a pot on the stove.

As I listened at the conference to speaker after speaker telling us how grim the future looked in the face of declining world oil supplies, it occurred to me how fortunate we are in to live in Hawai‘i where we have abundant alternate energy sources. We have geothermal, hydroelectric, solar and wind power possibilities. I did not have the heart to tell the people I met there how fortunate people in Hawai‘i are in these changing times.

Yet right now, our energy costs are the highest in the nation. Here in Hawai‘i we use 50 million barrels of oil per year. At $100 per barrel, this amounts to $5 billion leaving our economy for the Middle East every year. We need to fix this.

I think that we need to empower our citizens, by subsidies if necessary, so they can sell electricity back to the electric utilities at “peak times.” Instead of relying on only a handful of industrial-sized power plants, we need to spread our risk and empower individuals and small businesses.

After tourism and the military, discretionary income is what powers the local economy. Every dollar we can avoid sending to the Middle East is a dollar that can multiply in our local economy. We must do this because we now have the highest cost electricity in the entire nation.

Why don’t we give the money we would send overseas to our homeowners and small businesses, instead? Wouldn’t we rather pay our neighbors, where the money can circulate in our economy, instead of sending it straight overseas?

We can fix this. Not, no can. CAN!

Biofuel, Food Security, Peak Oil, Renewable Energy Sources, Sustainability

Fundamental Assumptions

Sally Odland, a former geologist and project manager, has worked in mineral exploration, oil & gas exploration, environmental remediation, and exhibit design. She wrote this article below (in italics) for The Day, a newspaper in New London, Connecticut, and here I have interjected some comments as they relate to Hawai‘i.

“Who’d have thought we’d already be nostalgic for $80 oil? Only five years ago, a barrel of crude oil was trading comfortably at $25-$30, where it had for 15 years. Today the same barrel fetches $90-something, and it’s anyone’s bet whether oil will break $100 before Christmas. That’s a 300% price increase in five years, 50% in the last year alone. Credible energy analysts predict $200 to $300 oil in the next few years. No wonder the Feds removed energy costs from the core inflation index!” 

In the last few weeks Matson announced a rate hike for its seagoing cargo arriving from the West Coast; Aloha Airlines announced a rate hike of 5 cents per pound for its air cargo; Young Brothers barge company announced a rate hike for interisland freight, and HELCO, our electric utility, announced a rate hike as well. Yesterday, while participating at the Kino‘ole Street farmers market, I was told, unofficially, that UHS will be increasing its fertilizer prices significantly. We know from past experience that the cost of plastic and other supplies  rises with oil prices, but lags as inventories clear out. This means that Hawai‘i farmers’ production costs will be rising. Imported food costs will also start rising as high oil prices work their way through the system.

Our alternate energy Farm Loan Bill will help to stabilize some of the Hawai‘i farmer’s costs and help them become competitive.

“Our fundamental assumptions about the continuing availability of cheap oil to fuel the American lifestyle are being tested. Last year the topic of peak oil—the idea that the world is approaching a maximum limit to oil production—was virtually taboo in polite company and business journals.

This November, however, the Wall Street Journal ran a Page One piece: “Oil Officials See Limit Looming on Production.” If that’s not the definition of peak oil, I’m not sure what is.”

Sunday’s New York Times says that some of the world’s largest oil exporters will no longer export in five to ten years because their own growing economies will use more oil products domestically.

Last week in a landmark speech, Fatih Birol, Head Economist for the International Energy Agency (IEA), was asked the following question, in response to oil-producing countries’ assertions that they would be able to produce an extra 25 million barrels per day. (Note: Until this point, the IEA was notoriously optimistic.)

The question: “Where will the projected extra 25 mb/d oil production come from?”

His response: “If the supply turns out to be less than this, we are in serious trouble. If these projects do not come online, the wheels will fall off our energy system.”

Yes, those were his exact words.

I am the only one from Hawai‘i who attended the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) conference held in Houston in October. (ASPO is a non-partisan organization with 25 national chapters worldwide). At that time, the mainstream media had largely ignored the world oil supply shortage. Since then, in just the last few weeks, the topic is starting to make headlines in many papers and has become mainstream. All who were at the conference knew how serious the situation was. Now, maybe we can start to deal with the problem.

“For practical purposes, the exact date of “peak” (or more likely “plateau”) oil—whether 2005, 2012 or 2030 as the optimists predict—is immaterial; we have already rolled over to a sellers’ market.

Oil production has been essentially flat—about 85 million barrels a day—for the past two years, despite soaring prices. Strong demand growth in India and China was accommodated only because poorer African and Asian countries were priced out of the market. There is a growing realization that it’s not going to be cheap or easy to grow either capacity or production much beyond the present rates.” 

We know that the world population has increased in parallel to oil production. This is because oil allowed cheap food to be produced. More food equals more people. Now that the oil supply is starting to become short, food will also become short. And people who cannot afford it may not get the food they need.

Here in Hawai‘i we import more than 80 percent of the food we eat. We need to start now in order to produce enough food for all of our people here in Hawai‘i.

“It doesn’t take a crystal ball to predict higher energy prices, greater volatility and periodic supply shortfalls on the 1- to 5-year horizon. Spare oil production capacity is sorely lacking, making the system vulnerable to supply and price shock. This specter is reason enough for families, businesses and local governments to start planning—now!—to dramatically reduce their exposure. We need conservation, but we also need emergency preparedness plans for dealing with the very real potential of disruptions to fuel and heating oil delivery.” 

I am starting to meet more and more people who are doing things now to protect themselves against an uncertain future. One person at the farmers market told me he bought his parents five acres so they could become self-sufficient in terms of food production. He was a manager of a fertilizer company!

Hawaiians have always felt that self-sufficiency was no big deal. For them, it is a given that shipping will sooner or later be interrupted. They can remember when their grandparents were self-sufficient. People back then had a few animals, a taro patch and some ulu trees and they traded. To Hawaiians, it is not difficult—it is a lifestyle.

Someone recently asked me if I knew how expensive sheets are. I admitted that I have no idea. He told me that they purchased a few recently because sheets are made from petroleum products and prices will only go higher. My mom complains about how high canned goods and rice prices are. I know this is just the start. Prices will go much higher. It will be a challenging transition period. I worry that the farmers who are least able to pass on price increases may become discouraged and quit farming.

In order to prepare ourselves for a future of uncertainty, Hamakua Springs Country Farms is planning to make biodiesel on a small scale.  In case there are supply disruptions, we don’t want to wait in gas lines.

“In the longer term—the next 20 to 30 years—we will have no choice but to transition to a reduced petroleum economy. There are compelling reasons why it makes sense to start doing that NOW, rather than waiting until we are 100% certain we’ve passed the point of maximum oil output:

Long lead times for large capital investments. It takes at least 15-30 years to bring revolutionary ideas from research and development to widespread usage. It takes similar time to plan, permit and build major infrastructure—like mass transit or new energy plants, LNG terminals, etc.”

(Garbage to energy?)

“Competition for scarce resources will drive up the future price of raw materials: The building blocks of progress—fossil fuel energy, metals, land—are more abundant and cheaper now than they will be in the future.

Resource nationalism means that certain strategic materials may not be available for import—at any price—in the not-too-distant future. We should reconsider the future value of energy, raw materials, farmland and water.”

We should consider what might happen if oil shipments to Hawai‘i are disrupted. It makes one wonder if we should not be producing our electricity from geothermal, wind, solar, hydro, the ocean, etc., all of which are available naturally here in Hawai‘i, and concentrate on using liquid fuels for transportation.

Why should we be relying on liquid fuels for electricity? Liquid fuels are not natural resources. If we do this, we cannot give Hawai‘i’s small businesses the competitive advantage derived from our natural resources. For example, if we relied on geothermal for most of our electricity, wouldn’t we have a competitive advantage over certain products imported from the mainland that rely heavily on oil for manufacturing? To the extent we could export those items we could still have a complex vibrant society as the dollars would circulate in Hawai‘i rather than being sent away.

On our farm, we are shifting direction. We will use hydro and solar to power electric motors, and replace as many internal combustion engines as possible. For example, we will use electric forklifts instead of diesel. We will use biodiesel primarily for our delivery trucks. It is important that the food we produce is transported dependably and on time.

Unconventional oil won’t bail us out: Canadian tar sands and U.S. oil shale resources may “rival Saudi Arabia,” but they can’t scale up production to match. Oil shales will be lucky to produce 100,000 barrels/day—a 7-minute supply at current U.S. consumption rates—by 2020. Doubling tar sands production to 4 million barrels/day by 2020 (if possible) won’t even offset depletion of existing oil production.

Other parts of the country use oil, natural gas, nuclear power and hydro for their electricity generation. In Hawai‘i, we use mostly imported oil. HECO is running TV ads saying that they are starting to use renewable energy. But renewable energy by itself does nothing for our energy costs. We are hoping the utility can figure out how to translate our free Hawaiian energy sources into cheaper electricity.

The impacts of Peak Oil will be hardest felt at the local and state level. The solution lies in revitalizing local manufacturing, farming and business around the emerging reality of constrained fossil fuel supplies. Peak Oil gives us the opportunity to strengthen and rebuild our local economies and to restore forgotten American—and Hawaiian—values such as ingenuity, resourcefulness and community.

Older people I talk to all say how good it was in the old days. Then, the sugar plantation towns all had company stores, theaters, bakeries, pool halls, boxing teams, etc. There were even medical clinics and transportation back and forth. The plantations must have done something right, as the older people have fond memories of those times.

Before that, the Hawaiians had a thriving sustainable society based on the aloha spirit—and it worked very well.

I think it is important to empower individuals. The farm loan alternative energy bill we are introducing into the legislature will empower individual farmers. Instead of relying only on industrial-sized power plants, there must be ways to incentivize individuals, and especially farmers, to generate electricity at strategic times to inject into the electric grid.

Large-scale bioenergy farming may be economical where there is flat ground and where the infrastructure is in place. But for many, taking the direct route by generating electricity and getting a check from the electric utility makes more sense than growing palm trees, fertilizing, harvesting, hauling, squeezing and shipping the juice to refineries and then getting a check. Incentivizing and empowering individuals helps to spread risk. Long supply chains and just-in-time inventories have made us vulnerable.

NASA incorporates multiple redundancies before they send astronauts into space. We, too, should spread our risks.  

Sally Odland currently administers a division of research geophysicists at Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia
University. Sally holds advanced degrees in Geology and Business
Administration. Her MBA dissertation, “Strategic Choices for Managing the Transition from Peak Oil to a Reduced Petroleum Economy” is online here. She serves as a volunteer Board Member of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO-USA).

Peak Oil, Renewable Energy Sources, Sustainability

Future

Peter Goodchild, at countercurrents.org, paints a bleak scenario about the future in a world of depleted oil supplies:

The decline in the world’s oil supply offers no sudden dramatic event that would appeal to the writer of “apocalyptic” science fiction: no mushroom clouds, no flying saucers, no giant meteorites. The future will be just like today, only tougher. Oil depletion is basically just a matter of overpopulation – too many people and not enough resources. The most serious consequence will be a lack of food. The problem of oil therefore leads, in an apparently mundane fashion, to the problem of farming.

To what extent could food be produced in a world without fossil fuels? In the year 2000, humanity consumed about 30 billion barrels of oil, but the supply is starting to run out; without oil and natural gas, there will be no fuel, no asphalt, no plastics, no chemical fertilizer. Most people in modern industrial civilization live on food that was bought from a local supermarket, but such food will not always be available. Agriculture in the future will be largely a “family affair”: without motorized vehicles, food will have to be produced not far from where it was consumed. But what crops should be grown? How much land would be needed? Where could people be supported by such methods of agriculture?

Though Goodchild’s portrayal looks bleak, here in Hawai‘i we have a great opportunity to transition to different ways of doing things. These ideas come to my mind:

1. If oil is equal to energy, what alternate energy could we substitute? How about geothermal? The energy is just coming out of the ground. How about water in a river running down hill? That’s potential energy. It rains 140 inches per year at our farm. What if we caught water and dug an injection well and captured the energy at the bottom? Instead of the internal combustion engine, we use electrical motors.

2. Can the utilities help us produce food? I don’t think so. It’s about costs and they have the highest costs in the country. We have to look for other ways.

3. What about fertilizer? Synthetic fertilizer is made from air and natural gas. Air is made up of 78% nitrogen. It may be possible that the geothermal company, using air, sand and geothermal energy, could manufacture calcium nitrate. Could a wind farm make fertilizer? We need to ask these questions.

Because oil was so cheap for so long, we have even forgotten that the sun’s energy has value. Here in Hawai‘i we can grow crops all year long. And as oil prices rise, the value of the energy coming from the sun will also rise. This means Hawai‘i farmers will become more competitive.

When I returned from the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) conference in Houston in mid-October, things seemed bleak. But as time goes by, I realize we have many resources and opportunities to transition successfully.

My Pop used to say there are a thousand reasons why, “No can.” I am only looking for one reason why, “CAN!!”

Health, Peak Oil

Me & T. Boone Pickens

While I was doing my exercises this evening, I thought about listening to T. Boone Pickens at the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas (ASPO) conference I attended in Houston last month.

Peak Oil refers to the point where the total amount of oil extracted in the world starts to decline, for geological reasons. At that point there are still lots of reserves left, but it has become increasingly difficult to retrieve it. Here’s an up-to-date and unbiased overview of where things stand right now.

Pickens said the world cannot produce more than 85 million barrels per day (which was reached in 2005) yet present world demand is 87 – 88 million barrels of oil per day. By 2030, 22 years from now, total oil supplies will decline to 50 million barrels per day. That’s 35 million barrels less than is produced now.

Supply and demand being what it is, we can expect higher prices. How high? No one really knows. That whole subject is difficult to wrap one’s brain around.

T. Boone Pickens also said he was a great believer in exercise. I liked him right off. He related that many years ago his company (Mesa Oil) was one of the first companies to require that its employees take an exercise break.

He told us that even now, at 79 years of age, he still walks 40 minutes at 4 mph several times per week. I considered interrupting his talk and asking him at what heart rate, but decided not to. Now I regret that I didn’t. He was obviously the kind of guy who would know the answer. And I was truly curious.

Back in the Feeling Good post of April 23rd, I related the results of the treadmill test I’d taken a few days earlier. The test consisted of four three-minute intervals. By the last three minutes, which were set at 4.4 mph, I had reached a heart rate of 172-174 and had stabilized. I stopped at 2 minutes and 40 seconds.

I use that three minutes at 4.4 mph as a goal. I did 2 minutes 30 seconds yesterday. But I am also doing short bursts at 6 and 7 mph.

Although T. Boone Pickens is 6’2” or so and maybe he is just walking fast, still, 40 minutes at 4 mph is pretty good for someone who is 79 years old. I have to step it up.

Peak Oil

Matson Fuel Surcharge Increasing

In today’s business section of the Hawaii Tribune-Herald, the article “More to Ship” announces that “Matson is hiking surcharge further.”

Last month, Matson announced that on December 2 it was raising its fuel surcharge from 24 percent to 26 percent. But due to rising oil prices, Matson now says it will instead raise the fuel surcharge to 29 percent on December 14.

This is the single largest fuel surcharge hike since 1999. And the article says that the company may consider another rate increase in Jaunary if fuel prices stay at the same levels—which I think they will.

The article goes on to say that a 20-pound bag of rice will cost 3.9 cents more, a head of lettuce one cent more and an 8 ft. 2X4 will cost 2.7 cents more. This gives the impression that the surcharge is only a minor cost increase.

But Paul Brewbaker, Senior Vice President at Bank of Hawaii, added some perspective to the discussion. He said, “The cost of oil has gone up from $50 to nearly $100 per barrel over the last year….It’s too simple to say that the fuel surcharge will lead to higher prices at the supermarket…It may be more expensive to transport lumber, but it may also be that lumber is more expensive.”

I’m glad he mentioned that. We grow lettuce and we know that the cost of bringing a head of lettuce to the local supermarket is affected by oil prices from the very beginning to the very end. Fertilizer, cultivation, chemical, irrigation, cooling, packaging and transportation all uses, or is made from, oil.

For example, lettuce must be grown to get seeds. So as oil prices rise, seed costs rise. Similarly, the cost to grow that head of lettuce will rise with escalating oil prices. Costs all along the way, such as of cooling the lettuce and hauling it by truck to the docks, are influenced by rising oil costs.

The Matson transportation to Hawai‘i may cost only one cent more per head of lettuce. But hauling that head of lettuce from the dock to the wholesaler’s cooler, and further hauling to the store, all cost more as oil prices rise. Then the store lights and refrigeration costs go up as oil prices rise, too.

So as Paul Brewbaker points out, “It’s too simple to say that the fuel surcharge will lead to higher prices at the supermarket.” Lots of these costs take a little time to work their way through the system. But they will.

That’s what I was talking about when I wrote the blog post Frog in the Pot.

Biofuel, Community, Eating Locally, Farm Stand, Peak Oil, Sustainability

Tour de Farm

I tagged along Saturday morning while Richard gave a really interesting farm tour to some University of Hawai‘i at Hilo students. They listened and asked questions and seemed very engaged.

Asisstant Professor Jon Price brought 12 of his Introduction to Environmental Studies students, and Assistant Professor Kathryn Besio brought a similar number from her Food and Societies course, which is offered through the university’s geography department. In addition, there were a couple students present from the Keaholoa STEM program.

Jon Price told his Environmental Studies students that they have covered agriculture, energy and biodiversity in class, and that during the tour he wanted them to think about how those subjects relate to each other, and come to some conclusions. I think Richard gave them a lot to work with.

He took them around the tomato packing house, the banana operation where Williams bananas were hanging in neat rows and to see the banana fields and some of the greenhouses.

“Everything you’re looking at now,” he told the students, motioning to the farm, “was planned five years ago. You’re not looking at today. You’re looking at yesterday.” He told them that he plans for five years out—or 10, or 20.

Yesterday, he explained—five years ago—oil was $30/barrel. Today it’s almost $100/barrel. He talked about how five years ago he was already thinking about sustainability and getting away from oil dependence.

He talked about how industrial agricultural—the big operations on the mainland—largely rely on oil for their refrigeration, packing, etc., which keeps up the prices of food that is imported to Hawai‘i. “Eventually,” he said, “as oil prices continue getting more expensive, and imported food prices keep increasing, local farmers will be in a better position.”

These days at the farm, he explained, they are working on “tomorrow.” He talked about the hydroelectric plant that’s in the works at Hamakua Springs, which will use the farm’s abundant spring and stream water to generate enough power to run 15 refrigerated containers around the clock.

And about biodiesel. Banana waste, supplemented with oil, can be turned into biodiesel fuel, he said.

He talked about working with the farm’s local community and having family units growing different produce at the farm. The farm will help, in terms of pest control and food safety, and if the produce is up to standards the neighbor farmers can market it at the upcoming Hamakua Springs farm stand.

He talked about the farm stand he’s opening soon, so farmers who work with Hamakua Springs will have an outlet for their products and so people from the community won’t have to drive into town as often.

He talked about the importance of knowing your neighbors, and trading, say, the ‘ulu you grow for whatever it is they have. He talked about how, in a future where gasoline prices are exorbitant, we might change our driving habits and our entertainment habits too, and entertain more at home by cooking big meals for family and friends.

Charlotte Romo, the farm’s hydroponics specialist, spoke a little about her background as a crewmember in the Biosphere, where they produced enough food on 1/3 of an acre to support 7-10 people.

She talked about the hydroponic system at the farm and how intensive it is. For instance, the farm uses 450 acres to produce four million pounds of bananas per year, as opposed to its 2 million pounds of tomatoes, which grow on only 15 acres.

Richard told them that before it was about making money; but now it’s about “How are we going to feed the people? We have 1.5 million people on this island. If we use hydroelectric and grow more food, we may be able to feed more people.”

“This is about common sense,” he said. “Look at the problem, and don’t get stuck on what others say.” He summed it up on an optimistic note: “It sounds grim, but the harder things are, the more opportunities come up.”

Hawai‘i is fortunate, Richard told the students, because we have sun energy all year long. “I recently attended a conference in Houston,” he said, “on peak oil, and when I left I didn’t have the nerve to tell the people there that we have energy from the sun all year long.”

Richard told the students he is confident that we can start educating people and making changes now to cope with an oil crisis that will gradually affect most aspects of our lives. “From what I see,” he said, “I feel the future is bright because of people from your generation.”

Peak Oil, Travel

Houston

1 Comment

Every year we try to visit the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) tradeshow in Houston. This year I almost stayed home with June to help with Vovo, her mother, who is ill. But the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) conference was taking place immediately after the PMA show, also in Houston, so I decided to go.

I didn’t expect it, but my son Brian told me that he, his wife Kris and their 15-month-old son Gunner would drive down from Fort Hood to hang out with me for a few days.

As it turned out, that was the highlight of the trip. I got to hang out with my only son, my favorite daughter-in-law Kris and my buddy Gunner. We went to visit the Central Market, a Whole Foods-like store, a children’s museum and the Houston Aquarium.

Outside of the Aquarium, a lady gave a little talk about a giant owl. This owl was huge and bad and he did not say “HOO.” When he said something, he said, “MAAAK!”

I told Gunner, “Gunner, owl! Maaak!!” One day, some teacher is going to have to undo that and teach him that an “owl goes hooo!” But Gunner will know that Papa calls it like it is.

 

Funny thing—I was walking toward the Galleria in Houston when a car drove by and a guy yelled and gave me the shaka sign. “Eh, howzit,” I yelled back. It was Young Tarring, who lives and grows apple bananas in Kea‘au. His dad Mike and I have been friends for more than 20 years. What’s the chance of running into someone from Hilo in Houston?

He is promoting Hawaiian-grown apple bananas on the mainland and has a really attractive product. He was at the Hawai‘i Dept of Ag booth.

The first time Clay visited Hawai‘i he was anxious to learn about the culture and pronounce words right, so I gave him a test. I said, “I’ll spell it and you say it.” I spelled “Komohana” and he pronounced it, “koh moh ha nah.” I spelled “Kalakaua,” and he said, “kah lah ka oo ah.” I was impressed. I spelled Pi-pe-li-ne and he said “pee pay lee nay.” I told him, “My friends pronounce it ‘pipeline.’” We both laughed out loud and we’ve been buddies ever since.

Clay, Steve West, (not pictured) who owns an agricultural consultant firm in Yuma, and me are friends from way back. Steve and I went to San Jose, Costa Rica for a world banana conference many years ago when we were both starting out in our businesses. Steve has since consulted extensively throughout Central and South America.

Every year at the PMA show I get to say hello to Cris West, former Director of Grower Development with Friedas and now with Euro Fresh, coordinating and sourcing from Mexico. She is the sister of my good friend Steve West.

The PMA show is always special because I get to visit friends. It was nice to see Clay and Cris. Maybe next year I’ll see Steve and Lee as well.

The ASPO conference was really intense; it ran from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday though Friday, and until noon on Saturday. There were a lot of rich investors in attendance. I thought to myself, “No wonder they are rich.” They are rich because they are on the cutting edge.

I met Gail Tverberg there, who is a very thoughtful commentator on the subject of world oil supplies. She posts at The Oil Drum under the name “gailtheactuary.” Her business assesses insurance risks.

The Houston Ship Channel is five or six times the width of the Wailoa River, and maybe 20 times as long. Add in all the industrial buildings and fuel tanks of HELCO, plus all the fuel tanks and industrial buildings of the Hilo wharf area, then multiply that times one or two thousand and you get the Houston Ship Channel. It’s the oil capital of the U.S.

I sat in on every conference session and by the end it felt like I had taken a graduate course in oil and gas. It was one of the most important conferences of my life. The subject matter is very grim, but you cannot grit your teeth all day long. No matter how grim things get, we need to find any excuse to laugh. That’s why it was so great to see my kids and grandson and friends, old and new, during this conference.