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…
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…
Kanekoa Kukea-Shultz exists in a world of dichotomy. He is a farmer and an intellectual.
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…
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…
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…
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 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…
Sixteen years ago, Hawaii legalized medical marijuana but never made it easy for qualified patients to obtain it. That’s about to change: Eight companies are preparing to open stores statewide that will sell state-tested and regulated medical marijuana for roughly…
Life and business partners Scott Buske and Megan Collins have adventurous souls that led them to an overgrown orchard on the Big Island and a whole series of tasty foods they are selling to locals and the world. “I always…
Inspiration: Farmers told Vincent Kimura they needed an affordable way to protect their crops and increase their yields. Once he had an idea to address that problem, he teamed with Ryan Ozawa, Isar Mostafanezhad and Justin Hedani to create the…
We may buy that clamshell of beautiful, ripe strawberries with the best of intentions – pancakes! cobbler! fruit salad! – but when the end of the week comes and they’re getting soft and fuzzy in the back of the produce drawer,…
It’s an economical and eco-friendly way to eliminate overgrowth on land, and the workers are cute and quiet. Chris Wilcox, then a boat captain for a fish-farming operation on Hawaii Island, switched gears in 2013 and started Big Island Goat…
With consumers seeking healthier options, small producers like Molokai Livestock Cooperative are enjoying a spike in popularity. “We have seen an increase in consumer demand over the years,” says GM Jack Spruance, 62. “But marketing is not our biggest challenge, …
Every workday is different for Brett Miller (center right wearing a black shirt), though each day usually includes at least some time in the MauiWine vineyard in Kula, on the slope of Haleakala. Start: While majoring in biology and…
IT LOOKED LIKE the end of an era. Maui Land & Pineapple shuttered its agricultural operations after 90 years and laid off the few farm workers left out of a workforce that once numbered more than a thousand. In what many…
WAIMANALO – David Yarber hands out samples of his locally brewed kombucha, a popular fermented tea that’s touted for its health benefits, to a group of Japanese visitors at his Waimanalo brewery. It's obvious from their nodding heads and polite…
“There was always something else. When pineapple closed, the resorts were there. When the ranch closed, Monsanto was still there. There was always an answer. We don’t have the answer now.” —Kimberly Mikami Svetin, Store owner To some people, Monsanto…
Ever wonder where the flour to make your morning toast or lunchtime sandwich came from? Until a few weeks ago, it most likely came from Oahu’s only wheat-flour mill, the Hawaiian Flour Mill on North Nimitz Highway. But, due to…
A lot of elements are needed to make Hawaiʻi self-sufficient in food. Here are a few examples of struggles and resiliency that enable more productive local farming and food production.
Shrimp is the most popular seafood in the U.S. – the average American eats more than four pounds a year. But nearly all of it is imported and most of that farm-raised in Asia and South America. Those are well-known…
Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant and Benjamin Franklin. Jilly Bean, Lemon Haze and Bubba Kush. Those two types of green are flowing in and out of Colorado’s 200 dispensaries: lots of cash to buy potent strains of cannabis. Nearly $19…
Geckos are iconic in Hawaiʻi, as much as pineapples or ukuleles, and, like them, are not native to the Islands. The Polynesians brought them here about 1,500 years ago along with other plants and animals.
A report by UH’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources compared 12 newly introduced crops in Hawaiʻi and found figs way ahead of the pack.