Agriculture

...last week, the Hawaii Supreme Court issued a 4-1 ruling in Friends of Makakilo v. D.R. Horton-Schuler Homes, LLC....

"This appeal involves a long-standing issue in this state: balancing agricultural and urban land uses."

...fruits, vegetables, diary and seafood are more harmful to the environment because these foods have relatively high resource uses and green gas emissions per calorie....

"...homeowner reluctance (many organic farms in the area and general opposition to chemicals) ... likely present unsurmountable obstacles...."

Rep. Pitts is building momentum within Congress to reform this archaic depression-era corporate welfare package....

Kirk Co., an Oregon shipper of Christmas trees, spends about $7,000 to send its trees to Hawaii, while it costs it just $3,500 to send them twice the distance to Singapore....

In Hawaii, all agricultural users combined account for only about one-third of total restricted use pesticide (RUP) sold in the state....

The cause of HC&S’s operating losses were poor growing conditions with too much rain and expenses relating to their elderly sugar-carrying vessel....

The current Chipotle E-Coli outbreak offers an opportunity for shoppers to understand the true nature of the USDA’s organic certification program....

The Dole fruit and Dow chemical companies must face a lawsuit from migrant farm workers who claim they were harmed by a pesticide, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled....

...why do farmers need biotechnology?

As a result, industrial foreign fleets, with much higher bigeye tuna quotas, freely operate on the high seas around the Hawaiian Islands where Hawaii longline fishermen can no longer fish for bigeye tuna....

The 2014 Organic Production Survey conducted in Hawaii found 166 farms with 3,505 acres....

...the USAID and USDA’s cost of shipping U.S. flag was 23% greater than would have been by foreign flag....

Without food processors in the islands, Hawaii agriculture will always be limited....

Plaintiffs' Motion for Preliminary Injunction will be heard by the Honorable Joseph E. Cardoza, Judge of the Environmental Court of the Second Circuit on September 16, 2015 at 9:30 a.m....

She posted an article telling her dimwitted, gullible followers to avoid Hawaiian papayas....

...the cover of Time magazine foretold of a "world without bees"....

HC&S has been a member of the Maui community for over 140 years....

Hawaii is a hot bed for anti-everything activism....

When you have everything you need and never really had to earn it, it’s hard to fully appreciate it....

...Keli'i Akina speaks with Monsanto agronomist Dan Clegg about the latest....

... two draft replies--one labeled "the truth" and the other labeled "option 2" ....

...ugly comments happily hoping to send people who work on these farms back to where they came from....

...many common vegetables contain nicotine....

With the recent announcement of the closure of the DuPont Pioneer farm in Kekaha, it’s of no surprise that the no aloha crew is out and about again....

It’s a great tactic as so many folks don’t have a clue....

Outshipments of seed are projected to total 7.97 million pounds during the 2013-14 season, down 3 percent from the revised 8.25 million pounds shipped during the previous season....

A&B has been diverting water from East Maui streams for more than 100 years via "complex system of ditches, tunnels and flumes" to irrigate the HC&S sugar plantation in Central Maui....

When I hear the slogans used by protests calling to “rise up,” I have a different concept in my mind....

...MapOahuAgLand.com, provides information on the legal basis for IAL, the city’s process to map IAL, upcoming community meetings and announcements, and resource maps that show various characteristics of potential IAL....

...The Department of Planning and Permitting will hold a series of meetings in April to seek public input in identifying and mapping Oahu’s Important Agricultural Lands....

... “baseless, unreasonable and frivolous” ....

...the SHAKA Movement is now going after the sugar cane industry....

If approved, Hawaii taxpayers could find themselves providing $44M in loan guarantees to an Indian company's jet fuel deal in England....

... According to ITEP, payment of sales and excise taxes takes up an average of 11% of family income for the poorest 20% of earners ....

The best part of the hearing was hearing Dustin Barca go on about toxins and the horrible corporations. He even talked about how the cigarette companies and their evils. It’s weird because I just saw him smoking some corporate grown tobacco and inhaling toxins....

Read their testimony below....

...we are already highly regulated and another level of regulation will be the last shovel of dirt on our graves....

When lawmakers rely on bad science from activists, it takes something away from all of us and they don’t even realize it....

American sugar prices would be a lot lower if the government would stop interfering in the sugar market....

...The original proposal of 2,000 cows on site was modified in July 2014 to 650-699 cows....

...this referendum is invalid and contrary to long established state and federal laws that support both the safety and lawful testing and planting of GMO plants....

When Election Day comes, voters never seem to get a chance to reduce government spending....

Today, more than 800 million people are malnourished....

...gardeners growing GM corn, GM papaya, or GMO marijuana may be arrested and imprisoned for one year under the anti-GMO law....

...Estimation of the sales lost, plus the start-up, the bulldozing costs and growing up to that first year, when they’re ready to harvest again … is about $53 million....

...so many people tell me how they are cutting back on chemicals in their food by eating better. I can’t help but shake my head....