All posts by Richard Ha

Food Security, Government, Renewable Energy Sources, Sustainability

Looking to the Future

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Yesterday, the House of Representatives’ Agriculture, Economic Development & Business and its Tourism & Culture committees visited us at Hamakua Springs. First I gave them an orientation and then we took them on a tour of the farm.

The overriding theme of my orientation and tour was a look at how we are positioning ourselves for events that will happen five or more years from now. Along that line, our main topics these days are 1) food security and 2) decoupling ourselves from energy costs.

I included this note in the booklet we prepared for each member:

It will take all farmers—big and small, conventional and organic, rainy-side, dry-side, low elevation and high—to make Hawai‘i secure in its food supply.

As our contribution to the food supply, we have chosen intensive hydroponic production. From 15 acres we produce more than 2 million pounds of tomatoes. We have 600 acres, which we own. Land is not a limiting factor.

We think that the decreasing supply of fossil fuels is opening up a great opportunity for all of us here in Hawai‘i. We have the prospect of using our natural resources to generate electricity.

In our case, we are developing a hydroelectric plant. And we plan to utilize the “free” electricity we generate to replace as many internal combustion engines as possible. We could install labor-saving devices, such as conveyors. We could even install pumps for water filtration, temperature control, etc. We could probably duplicate many of the conditions at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA) with our “free” electricity.

But our main stumbling block is financing. It is true that there is a 100% state tax credit for some energy projects. And it is so attractive that we know we could easily get investors who would jump at the chance to be a part of a “guaranteed” investment. But then the value would flow to the investors, not toward our goal of producing cheaper food.

Perhaps funding a state farm loan category specifically for renewable energy would work. This would, in effect, be betting that oil prices rise, making the payback of the loan safer as time passes.

As oil prices rise, renewable energy sources become more attractive and local farmers utilizing these resources would become more competitive and produce more food on less land. This is doable.

Hawai‘i’s lack of food security — our extreme dependence on imported food — may truly become a crisis as fuel prices continue to rise. But our concentration in the present on developing renewable energy sources can only pay off in the future as we both remove ourselves from dependence on fossil fuels, and ensure that Hawai‘i will always have easy access to the food we need to feed our people.

Alan Wong, Salads

Salad Dressing 201

This past Saturday, I had one of my most enjoyable days ever as a farmer. I was invited to sit in on a class Chef Alan Wong taught called Salad Dressing 201.

I had previously taken Salad Dressing 101, so I met the prerequisite.

Chef Alan loves to teach and he’s very good at it. He explained that fruits can be used as an emulsion—something to keep the solution mixed.

After using mango to make a vinaigrette, he asked, “And what else could we have used? Guava? Okay, good. What else?”

He started demonstrating how to make a spicy tomato dressing. Halfway through he said, “Notice this is the tomato soup that we do. You can do different colored tomatoes and pour them in glasses, side by side. Now add miso, roasted garlic, apple cider vinegar and blend in extra virgin olive oil. You now have spicy tomato dressing, using the tomato as the emulsifier.”

He asked, “Isn’t tomato a fruit?”

“What other fruit could you use?”

He took ½ cup of rice, salt and  ½ cup of water. Blended until syrupy. I’m thinking, “Rice? What is he doing blending rice?”

Rice is a starch, he says, and he asks: “What other kinds of starches could one use?” The class answers, “Sweet potatoes.” “Taro.”

“Good,” he says. “What else?”

“Add 2 tablespoons rice vinegar and rice oil. Blend.” Did I hear that right? Rice oil?

He says, “Make shoyu vinaigrette and add it to the rice mixture with wasabi. That’s the shoyu rice cream wasabi vinaigrette.”

The students tried a spoonful of each dressing. All the while, Chef Alan asked for opinions and suggestions. One had no choice but to be engaged. It was great!

By the way, try this, he said: Hamakua Sweet Tomato raisin. Dried with Balsamic vinegar and sugar.

I need to ask about this. I need to know how to make it.

At the end, Chef Alan made a dish with caramelized tomatoes. Cocktail tomatoes caramelized with one part sugar to one part sherry vinegar. Cook down in sauce pan.

He also smashed a cocktail tomato down in a dish. Put goat cheese on top of the tomato, and parsley and basil on top of that. It was beautiful to look at and delicious to taste.

I came away from the class with so many ideas floating around. I understand the general picture now and am thinking of a thousand delicious possibilities.

Biofuel, Current Affairs, Peak Oil, Sustainability

Peak Oil

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Lately there has been much discussion about energy security—or lack of security—and what, if anything, we can do about it. The term “peak oil” means we are at or very near the point where maximum oil production equals our oil demand. After the peak, demand will outstrip supply.

We all agree that this is true. We differ only about how bad it will be. Some people are predicting the collapse of civilization. Others think we can make the necessary adjustments.

We in Hawai‘i are especially vulnerable. In addition to the prospect of having to pay unbearable fossil fuel costs in the future, we currently import more than 70 percent of our food—a highly fossil-fuel-dependent method of taking care of the basic need of feeding ourselves.

We have abundant natural resources available to us that could help us find a solution to the “peak oil” problem. But we need to take action NOW!

Solar, hydro, wind and geothermal power are available to us on each island, in varying degrees, and they are not tied to fossil fuel costs. They can all be converted to electricity. With electricity, we can produce food and get work done. And with electric cars, we can also get from one place to another.

What about bio-diesel and ethanol?

It does not look as though farmers would work for the returns that these fuels would bring. For example, ethanol and biodiesel can be brought into Hawai‘i for approximately $2 per gallon. Presumably that is what a farmer would be paid for a gallon of bio-fuel, which weighs roughly 8 pounds.

Therefore a farmer would get approximately 25 cents/pound of liquid bio-fuel. If it took, say, two pounds of a farmer’s product to make one pound of bio-fuel, that would mean a Hawai‘i farmer would get 12.5 cents per pound for growing bio-fuel crops. Under those conditions, farmers would not grow bio-fuel crops.

We may have to be content with buying them from overseas.

Truly, the answer is that we should be focusing on our natural resources as sources of electricity. And we should focus on supporting our farmers, as well—on every island, at every elevation: windward and leeward, big and small. We need to know that we can produce the food we need here.

We can do this.

Sustainability, Water

Power Play

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A while back we found out that we could generate 75 kilowatt-hours of electricity from a flume on our property. That’s enough electricity to power 15 refrigerated 40-foot Matson containers continuously.

Ever since then, we’ve been asking ourselves, “What does free electricity mean?” “What could we do with all that free electricity?” (Keeping in mind that we also have 6 million gallons of water per day that the sugar company had in its water system.)

We’re thinking wildly right now, and not worrying about the practicality of our ideas at this point. We just want to have fun with it. So here are some thoughts. Feel free to send us your ideas as well; we’d love to hear them.

We could have countless types and numbers of water fountains. After all, we are located just a few miles outside of Hilo, where we measure rain in feet, not inches, per year. There is approximately 10 feet of rain annually.

What about bug lights to control moths?

Could we simulate the seasons and fool plants into producing off-season? My friend Ralph, who lives in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, wonders if we couldn’t grow peonies. What are peonies? What about grapes? Or berries? ‘Ohelo?

And then there is the idea of aquaculture. Could we add salt and minerals to the water and simulate an ocean? Circulate the water through a filter? Or what if we grew freshwater prawns and fed them lettuce leaves or tomato leaves or bananas? The best bait is coconut. Maybe we run water from the prawn tanks through watercress beds and pump it back around?

What about taro lo‘i, where we use the same water by pumping the water back uphill and spraying it back in, oxygenating it at the same time?

Kevin Hopkins, director of the aquaculture center in Keaukaha, mentioned growing sturgeon. He asked how much free-flowing water we have. Could we install aerators?

Someone told me a funny sturgeon story recently. Sturgeons are associated with caviar. You know, the ultra, high-end caviar from the Caspian Sea. Well, a person who was growing sturgeons lost them in a flood. So when he found a few of them he knew he had to try to salvage the eggs.

He went to a high-end restaurant at one of the Kohala Coast resorts and asked the Executive Chef if he was interested in buying some caviar. The chef, assuming the man was a food purveyor, asked him where the caviar came from. He was thinking Caspian Sea.

The fish farmer replied, “Hilo.”

Comment here, or email me, with your ideas of what we should do with our free electricity!

Government

A Trip to the Farm

On Wednesday, members of the House of Representatives’s Finance Committee, whose chair is Marcus Oshiro, visited our farm. Representative Dwight Takamine escorted the committee members as they made a series of visits in the Hamakua District, working their way down the coast to Hilo. We had a lot of fun when they stopped at the farm.

I told the committee members that we are a three-generation family operation. My mom, Florence Ha, is 82 and still works at the farm part-time. June runs the office and is in charge of Human Resources. Our daughter Tracy is our special project and marketing person and her husband Kimo, is the Farm Manager. We are all very proud of our farm operation.

I told them that June and I are mainly in charge of R&D, and we have to travel all over the world researching tomatoes, bananas and melons. It’s a tough job.

We took the group to our tomato packing house, where I gave them a quick orientation to our philosophy, which is sustainable farming as it relates to our employees, our community and the environment.

As an example of what we mean by “sustainable farming” in terms of our workers, I told them we offer profit sharing; and that although we would like to be liked by everyone, what we can control is that we are always fair. Because of my Vietnam experience, where “leaving someone behind was not an option,” we particularly focus on and look out for the most defenseless of our workers.

I told them the history of our farm in Pepe‘ekeo. When C. Brewer put all its Hamakua lands up for sale a few years ago, we had to buy the 600 acres on which we were farming bananas or it would have been subdivided and sold from under us. We made an offer to purchase the land with a very small downpayment, and then would be required to come up with a huge balloon payment in four years.

I remember going in to talk to Willy Tallett, the C. Brewer land officer. I had to puff myself up and make “big body”—like, “Oh yeah, where do I sign?”

I came out weak-kneed and sweating. Oh my God, how was I going to convince June that we could come up with that huge balloon payment in four years?

Land prices at that time had been relatively stable for years. But just a couple years later, land prices jumped eightfold. We sold off parcels, refinanced and instantly became really smart. If people only knew.

We told the committee that we are always moving in order to be positioned for the future. Right now it’s about energy cost and labor. So we are choosing cropping systems and inventing things to help us in those areas.

We all jumped into Kimo’s and my pickup trucks, and June’s SUV, and we headed out to the fields. Some of the legislators rode in the back of the trucks. We farmers have great respect for people who are willing to jump in the truck and then go walking around to see the crops. The legislators were all animated and very interested in what we were showing them. They were all right in our book!

At the greenhouses, we explained to the committee that we take the essential aspects of greenhouse growing and then adapt it to our Hawaiian style. We do very careful measurements of the plants’ environments and make precise adjustments as necessary. (It was bright and sunny that day, for instance, and Photosynthetic Active Radiation—the accumulated part of sunlight that plants use—was 42 mols.)

 

I explained to them that the most important thing to us is “taste.” We grow what we like to eat, and we measure sweetness and make adjustments weekly.

We walked through the hot and humid germination houses, and our greenhouses filled with lettuce, watercress and green onions. I explained how we are working on integrating our hydroponics with aquaculture in such a way that we control the quality of the run-off water.

The legislators were very inquisitive and asked good, probing questions. Kimo, Tracy and I had our hands full fielding their questions. We really enjoy talking to people who are engaged, as they were.

As we went along, we pointed out how our next step is to use hydroelectric power to decouple ourselves from dependence on fossil fuel energy. And how we are going to use our excess electricity to do some cutting-edge things in Hawaiian agriculture.

Our caravan returned to the banana packing house, where Tracy had set up a small display of the things we grow. She set out different kinds of heirloom and grape tomatoes to sample, as well as cucumbers. The walking must have made our guests hungry, as they enjoyed quite a lot of the samples.

We took photos and talked story. By the end, we were all like good friends. It was a great visit.

Community

Chefs du Jour 2

Six of us from the farm flew to O‘ahu last week to participate in the Chefs du Jour, which is a fundraiser for Easter Seals.

It was held at the Aloha Tower Marketplace. Guests moved between stations, where some of Hawai‘i’s best chefs prepared special dishes for them to sample.

 

Some well-known Mainland chefs also flew in to participate in the event, which is in its fifth year. June chatted with Art Smith.

He told her that Oprah has the same heirloom tomatoes at her home that we had on display—Purple Cherokees and Striped Germans.

We farmers were invited because the chefs wanted to support Hawai‘i Seal of Quality farmers. We set up booths to display our products and talked to guests as they entered the event area.

The Easter Seals kids welcomed guests, gave them lei and escorted them to their seats.

Lieutenant Governor Duke Aiona is a very strong supporter of agriculture. He chatted with all the Seal of Quality producers.

Fifteen years ago, a group of chefs got together and changed the face of cuisine in Hawai‘i. I cannot help but feel that this group of chefs and farmers will similarly change the face of agriculture in Hawaii.

Company News, Eating Locally, Food Security, Sustainability, Water

The Law of Survival

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As I’ve written before, I am increasingly worried about the fact that more than 70 percent of our food here in Hawai‘i is imported.

Recently, in the Hawai‘i Tribune-Herald, someone wrote that the Law of Comparative Advantage dictates that whenever we can purchase goods cheaper outside of Hawai‘i, we should. I majored in business, so I am aware of this law.

But first and foremost I am a survivor, and the Law of Survival is to “Always keep your options open.” And in order to keep our options open, we need to produce MORE food locally, not less.

The Law of Comparative Advantage is an intellectual exercise. The Law of Survival is, well, “the law of survival.”

And so this is our Law of Survival plan:

Hamakua Springs Country Farms is in the process of developing a hydroelectric plant. We will utilize water from a flume on our property, and then use that free electricity to replace that of the public utility. With our excess electricity, we plan to replace diesel- and gas motor-driven machinery with electric-driven vehicles. We also plan to use electric, motor-driven conveyors and other such labor-saving devices.

Then—by offering cheap electricity and cheap water, which we also have in absolute abundance—we are working on teaming up with farmers who specialize in products we do not.

We can offer technical expertise, in terms of disease and pest control, as well as technical and structural help in obtaining food safety certifications. And if these farmers meet our high standards, they can market their products with us under the Hamakua Springs brand.

In addition, we have a parcel of land on the highway where our farmer-partners will be able to sell their products in a farmers’ market-type setting.

We are actively working on these aspects of our “Law of Survival” in order to make our islands more sustainable in terms of food production.

In the State of Hawai‘i, what we need is for farmers to produce food on all islands at all elevations, both on the wet side of the island and the dry side. We need farmers to work together so that the whole is stronger than the sum of the parts.

We need to overcome the inertia of “it’s always been done this way.” And we need legislators to help us so we can act upon the Law of Survival, rather than intellectualize about the Law of Comparative Advantage.

Adopt-a-Class, Community

Affirmation

Last week I was invited by Kumu Lehua Veincent, principal of Keaukaha Elementary School, to have lunch at ‘Imiloa Cafe with 24 or so of his teachers. Kumu Lehua asked me, “Do you remember about two years ago when we first met to discuss the Thirty Meter Scope?” He said, “This is where that journey has brought us—here to ‘Imiloa.”

He introduced me to his staff as the person who helped organize excursions for the keiki at Keaukaha Elementary School. But it was not only me. It was also my friend Duane Kanuha, as well as others who saw an opportunity to help and just jumped in.

Kama‘aina Backroads recently taped an episode about Keaukaha Elementary School, which can be viewed here.

Although I was not expected to give a speech, I took the opportunity to tell the teachers that the occasion wasn’t about me. It was really about the teachers, largely unsung; they make the difference. I thanked them on behalf of the donors of the Adopt-a-Class project.

While sitting there, I overheard a conversation between Lehua and some district representatives from the Board of Education. Lehua told them that some people were in tears when they heard that Keaukaha Elementary School’s test scores had improved. And that if they improve sufficiently again this school year, they will be taken off the list of schools to be restructured under the federal “No Child Left Behind” program.

This is an extremely big, and emotional, deal! Keaukaha Elementary School had been underperforming for a long time, and people had started wondering if that was an inevitable and permanent state of things. This improvement in performance is an affirmation that the direction Kumu Lehua is leading is, indeed, the right way.

He has only been at Keaukaha Elementary a little more than two  years, and it’s since he arrived that things are starting to change.

Kumu Lehua believes in honoring the traditions and people who came before them in Keaukaha. Allowing the kids to be proud of who they are, and where they come from, gives them a firm base from which to move forward. From there, the sky is the limit.

We hope the Adopt-a-Class project will give the kids even more options and possibilities to contemplate. We doubled the contribution for the sixth grade class—the oldest students at the school—so they could go someplace a little bit special.

The Hawai‘i Island Economic Development Board has raised enough money to adopt at least one class. So now we just have two and a half classes left to adopt. At $600 per class, we need to raise just $1,500—and then every single class at Keaukaha Elementary School will be able to take an excursion each semester of this school year.

Next week we kick off the home stretch of our campaign by going on Big Island radio stations to talk about the Adopt-a-Class project.

Losing Weight

A Wide View

June and I cruised out to Waimea today for lunch at the house of our friend, the food writer Joan Namkoong. Joan has a new home on a hill in Waimea. It has ‘ohi‘a floors with koa all around. Just the right amount of koa—plenty, but not too much. The kitchen, which I’m sure Joan designed, is very open, efficient and functional yet elegant, as is the rest of the house.

June (not to be confused with Joan) oohed and aahed. She told me, “Remember when I asked you to make sure you design a window at the kitchen sink for our new house? That’s what I meant—a real window!”

I said, “Oh, you wanted a real view?”

Joan has a great, wide view from her kitchen sink. As well as all around the house. We were just so impressed with everything. And we had a great time. The food was unbelievable. There was roasted chicken with panzenella salad, a Greek salad made with Hamakua Springs grape tomatoes and Japanese cucumber, Wailea hearts of palm and feta cheese. Joan baked homemade bread.

Chef Eddie Goto of the Maunalani brought the chicken and panzanella, Joan cooked some of the meal, and some of the ladies brought desserts—a light and flaky lemon torte, chocolate chip cookies and bite-sized pecan pies.

The people were nice: The CEO of Parker Ranch Chris Kanazawa and his wife Mae; Executive Chef of the Maunalani Edwin Goto and his wife Dore Centeio; Lesley Hill and Mike Crowell of Wailea Ag Group, who were our down-the-street farmer neighbors  at Waiakea Uka for more than 20 years; retired Matson captain Norman Pi‘ianaia and his wife Nancy Pi‘ianaia, who is the leader of Slow Food Hawaii; and Pat and Doug Giles. Pat is the daughter of Monte Richards, of Kahua Ranch, who is one of my favorite people. He tells great Pidgin English jokes. We really enjoyed all the company.

As an aside, Norman’s dad, Abraham Pi‘ianaia, was my Hawaiian geography teacher at the UH when I attended back in the 60s. He taught me that being local had value. I really, really liked him and I respected him immensely. He was one of the people who made an impression on me as I passed through. I flunked out of school but I’m pretty sure I got a “B” in his class.

To top off the day, my workout was especially good today, too. My plan was to do my regular four-set workout alternating weights and aerobics. While accomplishing my regular workout, I also set out to do four sets of 30 crunches starting with no weights and adding 5 pounds for each successive set. On the last set, I wanted to do as many reps with 15 pounds behind my head as I could. I was prepared to do 15 or so, instead of the full 30.

By the middle of the second set, I had hit a heart rate of 130. I kept my heart rate around 135 for the 50-minute workout, slowing down a bit when my heart rate went into the 140s. I was saving my energy so I would not be exhausted by the time my last set of crunches came around.

I started the last set of 30 crunches with 15 pounds behind my head and without any unusual strain. I did 10, then 15, and then I realized I could probably do all thirty okay. When I hit 25, it was downhill all the way to 30—no strain no pain. It was great!

I’ll stay around here for the next couple of weeks before I try 20 pounds. No rush. All in all it was a great day!

Community, Seal of Quality

Chefs du Jour

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The sixth annual Chefs du Jour is a fundraiser for Easter Seals that will be held on August 11th at the Aloha Tower Marketplace in Honolulu. The event will be taped and shown on television as a one-hour special.

Last week we took a farm tour of Dean Okimoto’s farm in Waimanalo, on O‘ahu. The farm tour was taped too, and will also be a part of that television special.

Here’s Dean Okimoto’s Farm in Waimanalo. What a nice Hawaiian place.

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After our farm tour, the Easter Seals children in attendance got a special lunch featuring the “Seal of Quality dream burger.” This is Ryan Lum of the North Shore Cattle Company grilling burgers from the company’s beef. It’s very lean, grass-fed, hormone free, dry aged beef. Fabulous taste and good for you.

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Conrad Nonaka and Dean Okimoto with Easter Seals kids, trying different greens from Dean’s farm.

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This special burger was made entirely of Seal of Quality member products: North Shore Cattle Company’s dry aged, grass-fed beef, Hamakua Springs’s heirloom tomatoes, Dean’s Greens, mushrooms from Hamakua Mushrooms, and Wailea Ag Group’s heart of palm. Celebrity chefs and Seal of Quality farmers served the burgers to the children.

Representative Clifton Tsuji, chairman of the House of Representative’s Agriculture committee, told us his thoughts about sustainability. His background is as a senior bank executive, and he grew up where people raised their own vegetables. He knows how farmers have to grow their crops and pay their bills.

Hawaii Seal of Quality members’ products at Dean’s farm.

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Chef Hiroshi Fukui, Chef Roy Yamaguchi, me, Clifton Tsuji (House of Representatives Ag committee chairman), Chef Alan Wong.

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The serving line was made up of Chef Alan, Dean, me, Mike Crowell of Wailea Ag Group, Chef Hiroshi and Chef Roy.

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The Easter Seals kids got to tour the farm and then eat a great lunch served by world-famous chefs. We farmers were glad to be a part of this special event, which you can also read about here.