One of the exciting things going on right now in Ag is taking place right here on the Hamakua Coast.

The Pacific Basin Ag Research Center (PBARC) is supporting a zero waste program that will help farmers in a very practical way.

It’s an ongoing program involving the Pa‘auilo slaughterhouse and anaerobic digestion. Waste from the slaughterhouse will generate gas and fertilizer by-products. It will increase the slaughter capacity of the facility and reduce/remove the problem of burying the waste. This helps ranchers save/make money.

As we all know, food security involves farmers farming. And if the farmer makes money, the farmer will farm. Save money, make money. They are the opposite sides of the same coin.

PBARC is exploring the possibility of using heterotrophic algae to generate oil, which eats plant waste instead of photosynthesizes it. This system is scalable so that small entities can use the resulting product. This is hopefully an alternative to industrial scale biofuel production, which cannot operate without subsidies and which is, up to this point, unsustainable. The waste product from this operation, hopefully, will end up as animal/fish feed.

PBARC is hiring specialists in the area of practical, value-added food technology. The emphasis will be on first level conversion, so that farmers can use their throwaways or divert production in case of oversupply. The idea is to convert farm products into forms usable by the military and the food procurement system for schools, etc.

If the farmer makes money, the farmer will farm.

At Hamakua Springs, we are using our abundant water supply to sustain oxygenation for our fish. We use falling water for oxygenation instead of energy. With the aid of PBARC scientists, and using our farm waste as food for the (vegetarian) fish, as prices rise ours will, sooner or later, become competitive with imported fish.

If the farmer makes money, the farmer will farm.

The Federal government is supporting this PBARC program as a possible template for rural America.

What I like about it is that it’s practical on the farm level. And, most importantly, it puts the control of individual, group and community destinies into their own hands. And that is what gives people hope.