Community, Education, Mauna Kea

Reaching For The Stars

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Richard Ha writes:

I’ve written here before about the Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT), a “new generation” telescope that may be sited here on Mauna Kea.

And I’ve written about how this project, unlike previous telescopes, is being discussed. I’m on the board of the Hawai‘i Island Economic Development Board, and we’ve made it clear that this can only happen if, unlike with previous telescopes, our people clearly benefit from it.

What I haven’t mentioned yet are the types of extensive benefits we are discussing:

• What if the TMT coming here meant disadvantaged Hawaiian (and other race) students can attend Hawai‘i Community College and the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo for free?

• What if we develop a pathway for local people to fill jobs during the extensive construction and operating of the telescope?

• What if we collect all the funds attributable to astronomy and have that money administered by a group of wise people who are chosen specifically to allocate it to the education of this island’s keiki?

• And what if these credible people fund education programs about the Hawaiian culture and Hawaiian language, and about traditional ways of sustainability, the sciences, job skills and other subjects that prepare our children for a new world where we, living on the island of Hawai‘i, might have to survive on what exists here on our island?

• And what if this organization exists far into the future and benefits many generations to come?

What if, not at the summit though on Mauna Kea, the world’s finest and most powerful telescope looks back in time to the beginning, seeking the answer to the question, “Are we alone?”…

…while on the ground, the people have learned how to restore the ancient fish ponds, and are supplementing that with modern aquaculture methods that don’t require oil? And the people on the island’s windward side are using their abundant water to again grow kalo, and growing food with hydroponics, and as in pre-Western times they are able to feed everybody without depending on foreign oil?

It would be the best of the future and the best of the past. What if?

From the TMT:

May 15, 2008

 PASADENA, Calif.–After completing a worldwide survey unprecedented in rigor and detail of astronomical sites for the Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT), the TMT Observatory Corporation board of directors has selected two outstanding sites, one in each hemisphere, for further consideration. Cerro Armazones lies in Chile’s Atacama Desert, and Mauna Kea is on Hawai’i Island.

The TMT observatory, which will be capable of peering back in space and time to the era when the first stars and galaxies were forming and will be able to directly image planets orbiting other stars, will herald a new generation of telescopes.

To ensure that proposed TMT sites would provide the greatest advantage to the telescope’s capabilities, a global satellite survey was conducted, from which a small sample of outstanding sites was chosen for further study using ground-based test equipment. This ground-based study of two sites in the northern hemisphere and three in the southern was the most comprehensive survey of its kind ever undertaken.

Atmospheric turbulence above each candidate site, and wind characteristics, temperature variations, amount of water vapor, and other meteorological data at some of the candidate sites, were continuously monitored for up to four years. Based upon this campaign, the TMT project will now further evaluate the best site in the northern hemisphere and the best site in the southern hemisphere.

“All five sites proved to be outstanding for carrying out astronomical observations,” said Edward Stone, Caltech’s Morrisroe Professor of Physics and vice chairman of the TMT board. “I want to congratulate the TMT project team for conducting an excellent testing program, not only for TMT but for the benefit of astronomical research in the future.” In addition to the “astronomical weather” at the sites, other considerations in the final selection will include the environment, accessibility, operations costs, and complementarities with other nearby astronomy facilities.

The next step in the site analysis process is the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that will thoroughly evaluate all aspects, including environmental, cultural, socio-economic, and financial, of constructing and operating the Thirty-Meter Telescope in Hawai`i. An environmental impact statement for Cerro Armazones has already been completed and submitted to the Chilean government for their review.

The community-based Mauna Kea Management Board, which oversees the management of the Mauna Kea summit in coordination with the University of Hawai’i at Hilo, concurs that the Thirty-Meter Telescope should proceed with its EIS process. Regardless of whether Mauna Kea is selected as the Thirty-Meter Telescope site, information generated from the EIS will be useful in the management of Mauna Kea.

Henry Yang, TMT board chair and chancellor of UC Santa Barbara, expressed the gratitude of the board. “The selection of these top two candidate sites is an exciting milestone in the Thirty-Meter Telescope’s journey from vision to reality. We are grateful for the tireless efforts of our project team and the tremendous vision and support of the Moore Foundation and our international partners that have brought us to this point. We look forward to moving ahead rapidly and with all due diligence toward the selection of our preferred site.”

The TMT is currently in the final stages of an $80 million design phase. The plan is to initiate construction in 2010 with first light in early 2018. This project is a partnership between the University of California, California Institute of Technology, and ACURA, an organization of Canadian universities. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has provided $50 million for the design phase of the project and has pledged an additional $200 million for the construction of the telescope, and Caltech and the University of California each will seek to raise matching funds of $50 million to bring the construction total to $300 million.

“We look forward to the discussions with the people of Hawai’i and Chile regarding the opportunities to open a new era in astronomy in one of these two world capitals of astronomy,” says Professor Ray Carlberg, the Canadian Large Optical Telescope project director and a TMT board member. “Canadian scientists have partnered in the extensive site testing carried out by TMT and we are very pleased to see that it has led to two great options for TMT.”

TMT gratefully acknowledges support for design and development from the following: Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Canada Foundation for Innovation, Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, National Research Council of Canada, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund, Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, and the National Science Foundation (USA).

Current Affairs, Photography, Where We Live

Kilauea Volcano Eruption Photos, August 2008

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Richard’s grandson Kapono Pa recently took these photos of Kilauea Volcano, which is erupting magnificently these days and dramatically fountaining its lava into the ocean near Kalapana.

Amazing photos, Kapono! Wow.

The pictures really speak for themselves.

Kalapana_3_4

Well, except for this next one. Do you see the face in the right hand photo?

Kalapana_7

 

Kalapana_11

He was down there at sunset, which is a powerful time to experience the eruption.

Kalapana_9

Kalapana_8

Kalapana

Kalapana_14

Kalapana_15

Very impressive. The eruption and the photographer both.

Articles, Bananas

Richard Featured in Inc. magazine

Feel free to click on over to the national business magazine Inc.com if you’d like, which is featuring Richard in an article called He Thought it Was Time to Shut Down, Until His Workers Cooked Up a Scheme. Subtitled: “Has this farmer gone bananas?”

Here’s how Alex Salkever’s article starts:

Richard Ha tends not to take himself too seriously. The founder of Hamakua Springs Country Farms, a 600-acre banana and vegetable farm on Hawaii’s Big Island, once showed up wearing shorts to receive an award from the state’s governor. He calls his eco-farming blog Ha Ha Ha! But earlier this year, Ha was not smiling. He had decided to shut down his banana-growing operation, a move that would leave 400 acres fallow. His costs — for fertilizer, energy, and health care coverage for his workers — had been soaring. And because banana prices were flat, there seemed to be no end in sight.

On the first Friday in April, Ha delivered the bad news to his nine full-time banana pickers. But when Monday morning rolled around, Ha was surprised to find that seven of the workers had shown up to plead their case for keeping the farm going…. (Click for more)

Eating Locally, Peak Oil, Sustainability

Wave of the (Post-Oil) Future

We’ve had a series of lunch meetings with our fertilizer distributor over the last several months.

Back in May, we discussed the news that fertilizer prices were rising faster and higher than usual. Knowing that this was related to energy prices rising at an accelerating rate, we knew things were going to get tough. He told us that he was worried for his small farmers, and that some were actually dipping into their savings to buy fertilizer. We knew was very bad news.

In June, we had lunch and learned that fertilizer prices were going even higher. Our distributor expressed very strong concern for papaya farmers and other small farmers. His fertilizer sales were dropping, he said, and he wasn’t sure it was due to dry weather, which is expected, or to farmers dropping out of farming due to high fertilizer costs and low returns. He suspected the worst. But because of the extremely dry weather right then he wasn’t sure.

A few weeks ago, the rains came back. I gave it some time and then called him to ask if, with the change in weather, farmers had resumed buying fertilizer.

His answer was NO! That many farmers did not return to order fertilizer. Small farmers who have no capital investment can just drop out and then drop back in when the economic climate is right. These farmers, he told us — who were squeezed by rising costs on one side and shrinking margins from distributors and retailers on the other — have quit farming.

There are other farmers, though, who sell at Farmers Markets and to retailers like KTA and Foodland, which sticks with their farmers through thick and thin. Those farmers are doing okay. And now Whole Foods is coming into the market, and all indications are that they, too, will work with farmers through thick and thin.

This type of relationship is the wave of the future. I’m convinced that very soon, Hawai‘i’s people will realize how important it is that we all support local farmers.

They are the ones who will feed all of us when the “ships not going come.”

Adopt-a-Class, Community

Keaukaha Comes to the Farm

Lehua Veincent, principal of Keaukaha Elementary School, brought his teachers and staff to the farm on Friday.

They arrived in a big yellow school bus, and then everybody gathered outside the office in a loose circle while Kumu Lehua (in the orange shirt) chanted.

And then the tour started. Richard spoke a little, telling how they decided to move the farm to Pepe‘ekeo and talking about the significance of the resources here in helping them decide.

He led a tour of the tomato houses, and explained that they look very simple “but a lot of thought went into that simple design.” He spoke a bit about how they operate.

 

Someone asked about organics, and Richard said something I found interesting. He explained: “Our objective is to feed as many people as we can, the best we can. Like the ahupua‘a system the Hawaiians used to have – what works, works. We try to use the best technology available in the smartest way possible.”

Charlotte Romo, the farm’s greenhouse expert, elaborated, saying the farm “doesn’t want to get stuck in a label of ‘organic.’” She pointed out that when they have to spray, they use the same products organic growers use. And that she scouts each of the more than 100 tomato houses every single week to check not only what insects are present, but at what stage of development. She pointed out that what kills larvae isn’t what works on an older insect, and that they spray only for what is present. “We don’t want to just spray all houses the same,” she said.

 

While we toured the packing house and the banana operation, I had a chance to talk a bit with Kumu Lehua.

Keaukaha Elementary  School

 

I learned that Keaukaha Elementary is the only school on this island to have moved out of the federal “No Child Left Behind” restructuring.

Kumu Lehua told me, “Our school learns differently. Without the trips (provided by community members through Adopt-a-Class), I don’t think the academics would have gone up. For us it’s about getting them out. Before, there was a moratorium, you couldn’t take the kids out,” he said. “But that’s how our kids learn.”

Just before they brought out the lunches they’d brought for all of us, Kumu Lehua spoke. He explained what the school’s connection with Hamakua Springs has meant.

“Three years ago,” he said, “when Richard called me, it was because of Mauna Kea. I was fortunate to talk story with him. When I came to Keaukaha School, that connection became important to the children.

“I want to mahalo Richard and June,” he said. “They’ve meant a lot to the school, though a lot of people outside the school don’t know it. If it wasn’t for last year, there are things we wouldn’t have been able to experience, especially the excursions.”

He explained that before they came to the farm that morning, they had had three community kupuna (elders) come in and speak to them. He motioned to his staff. “You heard our kupuna say, ‘At one time Keaukaha School was not one to be recognized.’”

“Mahalo to Richard and June for being there,” he said.

Peak Oil, Sustainability

Steps Forward

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I wrote recently that Matt Simmons, one of the world’s leading experts on Peak Oil, sounded pretty pessimistic in a recent CNBC interview. View it here
 if you haven’t seen it.

It’s one more in a long series of reminders that we here in Hawai‘i (as well as those elsewhere) need to figure out how we can be sustainable. Many people are already taking action and making changes. We can each do our small part.

We all need to look at things differently than we have been. I
 attended the Peak Oil conference this past October, so the events of today 
do not surprise me.

I’ve also had some time to think about all this. Here’s what I think is most important, and they are steps everyone can move toward:

•  Support your local farmers.

•  Learn how to grow your own food.

•  Support education. The young ones need to have the tools to solve 
the problems of tomorrow. We must help them now so they will be prepared.

•  Diversify our economy. We need to expand and cannot depend too much on tourism. If done in a sustainable way, the Thirty Meter Telescope coming to Mauna Kea can help us with
 education and diversification.

•  Avoid petroleum costs whenever you can.

Another thing you can do, of course, is to check out the E Malama ‘Aina
 Festival coming up November 7th and 8th.

Community, Sustainability

Woe is Not Us!

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The reason we decided to do our E Malama ‘Aina sustainability festival was in order to plan for the worse case.

• Matt Simmons at The Oil Drum is sounding even more worried than usual.

• What happens if the ship does not come? Fuel Shortage Stops Water Supply in Rotuma, Fiji. Could it happen to us?

• T. Boone Pickens is saying that our country needs to do something now. He is going to build a massive windfarm in order to help the country get off foreign oil.

• Since we started planning the E Malama ‘Aina Festival several months ago, David Murdoch, the president of Dole Foods, has even requested that our Governor declare a state of emergency because of Hawaii’s vulnerability to fossil fuel shortages.

Well, we’re not sitting around saying, “Woe is me.” We’ve decided to do something about it.

We are asking people who are doing sustainable things to join us, by putting up a booth and showing people what they do.

Such as a local kid who lives in Hakalau. Using water from the river, he makes electricity and with that electricity he makes hydrogen. The hydrogen runs a hydrogen scooter.

This is just a proof of concept; they are planning much bigger things. Big enough that the legislature authorized a bond float of $50 million to help them develop the process into transportation fuel for Hawai‘i.

For quite a long time now, traditional farmer Jerry Konanui has been very concerned about our ability to feed ourselves.

“There are a lot more people becoming increasingly aware of our future,” he said, “and the demand for food production knowledge as well as seeds and plant materials are increasing at a higher rate than in the past. I’ve personally been called upon lately for workshops and as a source of plant materials a lot more than in the past.”

Jerry will talk about kalo, making poi and how things were done in the old days. And also, why these practices are still valid today.

We are putting on the E Malama ‘Aina festival to show people that they are not alone. That, working together, we can do this. And we are going to have fun doing it.

Roland Torres, producer of Kama’aina Backroads on OC 16, is helping us put on the festival. He knows all the Hoku award-winning entertainers and he is the festival’s Entertainment Chairperson.

There will be a keiki village.

The Master Gardeners will have a booth where they will give away plants and talk to people about how to make their own gardens.

Charlotte and Rodrigo Romo will have a booth adjoining our Hamakua Springs hydroponic vegetable booth, where they will talk about their time living in the Biosphere 2 and what they learned there about sustainability.

Bernie Kratky will show how to grow plants in his novel system of non-circulating hydroponics, where the plants grow in water.

Nancy Redfeather and friends from the School Garden Network will show what they do.

Manu Meyer will demonstrate “Got Epistemology? A Hawaiian Way of at Looking at Sustainability.”  Something like that.

The car dealers will bring out their most fuel-efficient vehicles.

And someone will show how he made an electric bike.

Let us know if you have something sustainable to share. Otherwise, please mark your calendar for November 7th and 8th and meet us at Mo‘oheau Park in downtown Hilo.

Adopt-a-Class, Community, Education, Schools

In Good Standing!

I was so happy to receive this email a couple days ago. It’s from Lehua Veincent, principal of Keaukaha Elementary School. That’s the school we work with through our Adopt-a-Class program.

Kumu Lehua announced:  It is my honor and my privilege to announce that Keaukaha School has MET Adequate Yearly Progress for SY 2007-2008 as announced by the Department of Education yesterday.

This second year progress has moved the school out of RESTRUCTURING STATUS into IN GOOD STANDING, UNCONDITIONAL!

On Friday, the local paper had a sub-headline: “31 of 42 Big Island Schools fail to make the grade.” Keaukaha School was one of the 11 schools that passed.

For as long as I can remember, 40 years at least, it was assumed that Keaukaha kids had a hard time doing schoolwork. Or maybe some people were assuming even worse.

That has now changed forever. Keaukaha Elementary has proved itself a role model as measured by modern methods.

Last year at this time, I heard whisperings that Keaukaha Elementary School had made progress with their ratings, and that with one more year of good results it would be removed from the list of schools to be restructured. Was it true? People were asking: could it be? Some were in tears.

A year later, and we have this incredible announcement.

It is much, much more than just an announcement. I feel like a big weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I can only imagine what it must mean to the community, teachers, staff and especially to KUMU LEHUA.

Read the whole announcement, from Kumu Lehua Veincent, below:

To members of the Keaukaha Community Association, Keaukaha School Foundation, Keaukaha Parent-Teacher Association, Keaukaha School Community Council, Queen Lili’uokalani Children’s Center, Kamehameha Schools, Ke Ana La’ahana PCS, Hamakua Springs, INPEACE/SPARK, and UH-Department of Education!

It is my honor and my privilege to announce that Keaukaha School has MET Adequate Yearly Progress for SY 2007-2008 as announced by the Department of Education yesterday.

This second year progress has moved the school out of RESTRUCTURING STATUS into IN GOOD STANDING, UNCONDITIONAL!

We take one year at a time with new students, new attitudes, new behaviors, and new ways of learning guiding our next action step. We continue to build upon this dualistic approach to learning in not only maintaining our stance in achieving the standards set forth in our educational realm but also a standard set forth by our own kupuna, ‘ohana, and the history of a unique place of setting – our beloved Keaukaha. We move forward by looking backwards! We move forward with humility yet with focus and strength! We move forward with pono!

As business and educational partners to Keaukaha School, you have all kokua by embracing Keaukaha School and the many ways of learning that honors genealogy, history, and place! Your unconditional aloha to all of our keiki here at Keaukaha School is acknowledged and appreciated! The cliché that “we couldn’t have done it without you” extends farther — your support establishes the foundation from which learning takes place and empowers a community to do what is pono for all that live here!

I honor you, our faculty and staff, our ‘ohana, and our community.

Please share with your constituents at your respective agencies this voice of aloha and mahalo!

Me ke aloha nui ia ‘oukou a pau!

na’u, na Kumu Lehua

Adopt-a-Class

Mahalo from the Second Graders

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More young visitors and more sweet thank yous! Second graders from Keaukaha Elementary School and the Adopt-a-Class program came to visit the farm recently, and then big packets of thank you notes arrived.

The students each wrote individual thank you notes. Several of them, like Tiani, below, commented on the “man who chopped the banana tree fast.”

I wasn’t present and I don’t know who demonstated chopping down the bananas, but he made quite an impression. Look at Caleb’s great illustration!

Makena

Kaimana picked up something about the importance of “sustainability.” Excellent!

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And check out what Makena learned! (I circled the part I’m referring to.) Richard’s message got through.

It’s the message he talks about everywhere he goes, to every student he speaks to. When I hear him, I think, “If even just one of these kids really hears that and internalizes it and remembers it, what a difference it could make to their entire life.” It looks like Makena heard it.

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They also sent a collage of photos. Here’s Richard and his daughter Tracy with the kids.

Photos

And the students.

Kids

Sustainability

Coming Soon!

We are in the process of putting together a series of posts showing how we can all become more food self-sufficient. We’ll run one or two of these posts here each month.

Whether you live on the Big Island and have some land to put in a small (or large) garden, or live on O‘ahu in a condo without one inch of dirt to your name – or if you live somewhere else entirely – we are going to show you how to get some food growing.

Our mission is to:

• draw from both old ways and new ones

• keep it simple, with materials that are cheap (or free) and easy to find

• show you how to garden with minimal fertilizers or pesticides.

Some of the posts, complete with short video, will feature Macario, this blog’s photographer (and my husband) who comes from a long line of farmers. He will use our yard to demonstrate how to start, and maintain, plant foods traditional to this area that are also nutritionally useful and tasty.

Richard’s episodes will demonstrate how to grow plants when you don’t have any ground to put them in.

We might bring in some guest experts, too.

Mostly we hope that our mini-lessons will be accessible – easy to follow and useful for anybody, with or without gardening experience

The idea came about after Richard watched this YouTube video, entitled “Urban Food Growing in Havana, Cuba.”

It describes how Cubans were forced to suddenly become self-sufficient, starting in 1991 during what they call the Special Period.

From Wikipedia:

The Special Period “was defined primarily by the severe shortages of hydrocarbon energy resources in the form of gasoline, diesel, and other oil derivatives that occurred upon the implosion of economic agreements between the oil-rich Soviet Union and Cuba. The period radically transformed Cuban society and the economy, as it necessitated the successful introduction of sustainable agriculture, decreased use of automobiles, and overhauled industry, health, and diet countrywide.”

It was, of course, a very difficult time in Cuba. Many Cubans left the country, and, according to the above, those who stayed lost an average of 20 lbs. as lifestyles changed drastically and food became scarce.

It is interesting to watch that video and see a little bit about how they adapted and especially how they returned to sustainable agriculture. We can all start doing some of that now, pre-crisis. That’s what our new series of occasional posts is designed for.

Stay tuned for our first episode: How to get your compost going. After all, you’re going to have to feed all those plants.