Category Archives: Video

Geothermal, Peak Oil, Television, Video

Richard Explains On Video Re: Kuokoa Takeover Of HEI

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This video talks about why we, as Kuokoa, are buying HEI: It is to retool HEI, so the utility can help us all cope in the future. I filmed it for Eco TV a few days ago. It’s in four parts, each 4 or 5 minutes long.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

This video will be going out on the social media circuit and on mainstream TV.

Although some folks are attacking “the messenger,” the average person we talk to says, “It’s about time something is done.”

We are serious! Our data shows that this will work, and the higher oil prices climb, the better it will work.

This is about taking care of everyone. The result will be to lower electricity costs across the state, keep some money in our pockets as prices skyrocket everywhere else, and to strengthen the aloha spirit. For that is what we will need to help us cope with an uncertain future.

Geothermal, Peak Oil, Renewable Energy Sources, Sustainability, Video

Video: Climbing Up The Bamboo Pole

Richard Ha writes:

Awhile back I spoke to the UH Hilo Student Association Senate leaders about geothermal energy. I warned them that exponential growth fueled by a finite resource – oil – was a serious problem for us here on the Big Island.

Along the very same lines, Lloyds of London just warned its business clients to prepare or it could be catastrophic. I wrote about Lloyds of London's warning here.

I told the student leaders that we need to know what we are going to do before a catastrophe happens. "White water coming, we need to climb up the bamboo pole and lift up our legs." 

This video sums up everything I talk about on this blog.

Richard Ha Video 

Hydroponics, Video

Video: Hamakua Springs Using Old Flume to Generate Electricity

Big Island Video News has a video up on Richard Ha:

The sustainably minded Richard Ha of Pepeekeo’s Hamakua Springs Country Farm seeks to have no resource go to waste. He has even found a future use for the old sugar plantation flume on his property.

The Wai‘a‘ama flume was a part of the old Pepeekeo mill and was used to transport harvested cane. According to Ha’s blog, 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.

Plans to restore the flume to a power generating resource once again are underway at the farm. A new hydroelectric generator will use the flume to generate enough electricity to supply the entire farming operation, and Ha believes there will still be enough left over to allow the farm’s workers workers to plug in their future electric hybrids as an extra employment benefit.

Watch the video here.

It’s part of a 5-part series; the other Hamakua Springs videos are listed at the bottom of the page.

Bananas, Our Employees, Video

Watch Us Harvest Bananas

Richard Ha writes:

Several years ago, the owner of a large, organic produce distributor visited us from Tokyo to explore whether we could supply bananas to Japan. He was soft-spoken and reserved. We had dinner with him and his interpreter, and he was so formal that I felt a little uncomfortable wearing my shorts at dinner. We arranged to show him our banana farming operation the following day.

As we showed him the banana packing operation, we explained about our sustainable farming methods as well as our food safety procedures, but we couldn’t tell whether we made a favorable impression or not.

Then we demonstrated how we harvest bananas. We stood at the road alongside our rows of bananas and watched as our harvester Albert notched the banana tree so it would bend over just right, placing most of the banana bunch weight on his shoulder. Then he cut the bunch off and carried it to the trailer. Up to that point, it was a routine demonstration.

But then Albert went back to cut the tree down and move its pieces so they’d be out of the way of the fertilizer tractor.

Our banana trees are very healthy and their trunks are as thick as a man’s torso. The standard tool used to harvest bananas is a razor-sharp machete with a two-foot blade.

Albert swung his machete once and cut the tree completely off, and then on the back swing he chopped it in two more pieces before it hit the ground.

Unexpectedly, our quiet, reserved guest yelled, raised his arms and leapt completely off the ground. Glancing at him, I instantly guessed what he saw–a samurai warrior swinging his sword cleanly through the enemy.

That’s what banana harvesters are like: Samurai warriors.

Only certain people can be banana harvesters. It’s not necessarily the biggest, strongest or baddest person who will become a successful banana harvester. It’s the person who has the most determination and mental toughness. I’ve seen lots of big, strong and mean guys over the years who just could not handle the job. A successful banana harvester doesn’t give up just because the job is hard. He has much more pride than that.

Watch our Harvest Superviser Radley Victorino harvest a bunch of bananas in this video (above), and notice how he positions the bunch on his shoulder. When he swings and cuts the bunch off the tree, he doesn’t flinch at the weight of that bunch dropping onto him—though that bunch probably weighs more than a hundred pounds.

Banana harvesting is by far the most physically demanding job on the farm. Good harvesters, like Radley, make it look easy. It’s not easy at all.

To help, we’ve invented a system where our banana harvesters walk only an average of seven steps with a bunch on his back. In Central America, it’s common for banana harvesters to carry the heavy bunches 100 feet or more. We’ve also designed our trailers so the harvesters don’t have to bend forward too much to put the bunch down. And we use a winch system to lift the bunches off the trailer.

The deal with the Japanese importer didn’t come to fruition, but it gave me a great new way of thinking about our harvesters–as Samurai.

No matter how you cut it, so to speak, you have to be tough to be a banana harvester. I’m proud to have been the original banana harvester more than 25 years ago. That’s how come I know what a difficult job it is, and it’s why I have such enormous respect for our banana harvesters.