Local Trees Can Help Solve Our Housing Crisis
A UH graduate’s relentless three-year quest proves even invasive trees can be turned into useful, even beautiful, dwellings.
Agriculture
Kona Coffee Fights Back
New equipment helps farmers battle the dreaded coffee beetle borer, but despite a labor shortage, farmers still rely on hand-picking rather than mechanical pickers. That may change for some growers as technology improves. Kealakekua, Hawaii Island – Coffee beans come…
Savoring Every Drop of Success
KRISTAL MUHICH IS A SURVIVOR. “I was adopted by my uncle when I was 4,” recalls the owner of Kauai Juice Co. “I really didn’t like school. I couldn’t wait to leave – I graduated from high school early when…
That Which Feeds Us
Kanekoa Kukea-Shultz exists in a world of dichotomy. He is a farmer and an intellectual.
Hawaii Farming's Uncertain Future
Hawaii's farmers can't catch a break. Rat lungworm has accelerated difficult changes in local farming. One local leader predicts a quarter of Hawaii’s produce farms will be out of business in a few years. They are already battered by high…
107 Years of Eggs on Oahu
Fourth-generation chicken farmer Chris Peterson inspects eggs over the candler, part of a machine that checks egg fertility and shell quality. The machine is crucial in handling the around 6,800 eggs per day from over 7,000 chickens at Petersons' Upland…
The Future of Farming
Imagine a world in which robots, drones and artificial intelligence plant, monitor, harvest, and deliver your food. This may sound like science fiction, but it is, in fact, the emerging reality in farming. “We’re seeing robots that can plant, water…
Not Your Father's Stock
Three Big Island breeders have welcomed 14 new alpacas to their pastures, part of what they say is a small but growing market in the state for the South American animals that resemble miniature llamas. Big…
The Need for Feed
The high cost of animal feed has long hindered the meat, poultry, dairy and seafood industries in the Islands, but local efforts on several fronts aim to reduce those expenses. Shipping feed from the Mainland costs about $150 to $200…
