First of all, we want to wish everyone a Happy New Year, the Year of the Ox. It is time to look ahead and work towards an improved future in Maui County. The new year brings the beginning of the state legislative session which began on Wednesday, January 20. We have heard from legislators that bills that require funding will be difficult to pass due to the projected $1.4 billion budget shortfall. Presently, there are many unknowns and the state’s spending will depend on current data. Hawai‘i Farm Bureau normally introduces a package of 8-10 legislative priorities every session.  However, due to the economic situation, we will only be introducing two policy bills this year. The bills are DLNR Lease Transfer and Agriculture Enterprise Program in HDOA. We do not have the bill numbers yet. We will provide them once received. Our Executive Director and Government Affairs Committee will be closely monitoring all ag related bills. We need from you, our members, timely testimony and other responses to our Action Alerts. Your input is essential for success in getting the limited funding available and the laws that farmers need…and preventing new laws from being enacted that will make farming even more difficult.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the State Capitol building is closed and in-person attendance at Senate and Housing committee hearings is suspended for the 2021 legislative session. All committee hearings will be conducted virtually using Zoom. The House and Senate committees will be accepting both written and remote testimony via Zoom this year. The good news is: this remote testimony option will allow more participation by MCFB.

Thank you in advance to all our members for participating in this process and responding to our call to actions by submitting testimony. Instructions on submitting testimony and participation guidelines are posted on the State Capitol website www.capitol.hawaii.gov/docs/RemoteTestimony.pdf

Let’s all work together to support Hawai‘i agriculture in this New Year.

2021 brings a few changes in MCFB’s leadership team. Kyle Caires is the new president, Shyloh Stafford-Jones is the new vice president, Tim Stevens, whom we featured in our November newsletter, returns as treasurer and Heidi Watanabe will be the new secretary. See her profile in this newsletter. Heidi also serves as the Hawai‘i Farm Bureau secretary.

Board members for 2021 are James “Kimo” Falconer, Carver Wilson, Mario Gaggero, Rodrigo Balala, Brendan Balthazar, Teena Rasmussen, and the officers introduced earlier: Kyle Caires, Joshua Shyloh Stafford-Jones, Tim Stevens, and Heidi Watanabe.

Agricultural Producers are Frontline Essential Workers

Per the Hawai‘i State Department of Health, agricultural producers (farmers and ranchers) are frontline essential workers. If you are an agricultural producer, you will be eligible to receive a vaccine in Phase 1B as part of the Department of Health’s Vaccine Distribution Plan. Please note that due to the limited supply of vaccines, the Department of Health is prioritizing vaccinating kupuna (individuals aged 75 and older) that sign-up. As the state receives more vaccines, the Department of Health will offer more opportunities for other individuals to receive the vaccine. For the most up-to-date information, please visit the state’s Department of Health’s COVID-19 Vaccine Page at https://hawaiicovid19.com/vaccine/. If you are considering receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, please review the prevaccination checklist. You can find Vaccine Registration Here.

I have been in contact with several of our members regarding their current status on sales. Is it better, worse, or status quo? The response is that it has gotten better or little change. All reports indicate that the recovery will be over an extended period of time. As such, MCFB will work on programs to help our members with their sales. We need the support of the community by their purchasing of agricultural products produced by our farmers and ranchers. Governmental assistance will also need to continue by providing necessary resources and not added regulatory controls. During these difficult times, our members also need assistance with invasive species management, droughts, transportation, labor, and more. If food security is to occur, these many issues need to addressed in a timely manner.

Warren K. Watanabe
Executive Director 

Heidi has served on the board of Maui County Farm Bureau for more than 10 years and is now serving as secretary of both MCFB and Hawai‘i Farm Bureau. She also works with MCFB as the produce coordinator for the Farm Product Purchase Program. This program helps local farmers utilize CARES ACT funding by purchasing their products and distributing them to Feed My Sheep, the Maui Food Bank and the Salvation Army to help feed families in need. Watanabe Vegetable Processing LLC was started in 1983 with a high-volume account: all the McDonald’s locations on Maui. For almost 15 years, the Watanabes provided processed vegetables, mainly lettuce and onions, for the Big Mac and Quarter Pounder. When McDonald’s went to a franchise operation, the Watanabes embarked on the school path. They now provide around 500 different cuts and products to numerous schools, hotels and airlines.

“The business is slowing down because of our current economic situation,” Heidi says. “We are currently working with the schools as the hotels and restaurants are still very slow.”

Heidi enjoys working alongside her mom Shirley, brother Thomas, and sister-in-law Dona Watanabe. It’s truly a family affair, and Heidi says it wouldn’t be the same without the support of MCFB. “We are a great and tight organization,” she says. “I really enjoy my time as a board member, and I continue to learn more each day. My goal is always to help as many farmers as possible!”

Ethan loves to see these landscape level changes that Native Nursery’s tree plantings have made, not just on Maui, but statewide. Since he and his business partner Jonathan Keyser established the nursery in Kula in 2003, their business has grown exponentially. They started small, filling a niche market for native Hawaiian plants such as ʻōhiʻa, koa, maile and māmaki. This grew into contracts with the state DLNR to produce plants for forestry and restoration statewide. Today they employ 11 full-time and six part-time workers, and provide the State of Hawaiʻi, private ranches and other large landowners with hundreds of thousands of native plants for reforestation. The idea took root for Ethan after spending five years in California, where he saw agriculture on a massive scale and wondered why there weren’t more large fruit orchards in Hawai‘i. He started his studies at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in landscape architecture for three years, but after one class in horticulture, he switched his major and earned his bachelor’s degree in horticulture.

“After coming home and working for Maui Land & Pineapple Company in the watershed department (Puʻu Kukui), where we would camp in the kua ‘aina for four days at a time, I learned my native plants and started a backyard nursery with native plants,” Ethan says. “It just seemed like they were underrepresented in the retail nurseries, backyards and large open spaces of Maui.”

Ethan went on to earn his master’s in horticulture at UH Mānoa in Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences, before returning to Maui to start Native Nursery LLC with Jonathan. Along with the native plants, they started producing avocado and citrus trees six years ago.

“I enjoy showing up to work every day and never getting bored!” Ethan says. “There is always a list of tasks, topics to research, procedures to improve, and problems to solve. Growing many, many different species of native plants, each with unique propagation procedures, is a lifetime of learning.”

Membership with Maui County Farm Bureau has been a valuable asset, Ethan says. “We read all the newsletters and Hawai‘i Farm and Food. The vendor discounts with Aloha Air Cargo and FedEx have really helped us to grow our business.”   Ethan and his wife are passing down plenty of knowledge to their two boys, ages 11 and 13. They live in Kula, near Ethan’s twin sister and her family, brother and his family, and his parents. Ethan’s great grandfather was an engineer at the Pa‘ia sugar mill, and his grandmother was raised in Pa‘ia during plantation days and shared many stories of the old days on Maui.

“Ag on Maui used to be everything,” Ethan says. “It is sad to see the culture and knowledge fade away in certain sectors of ag. It can take a lifetime or at least many crop cycles to get good at growing something, and if that knowledge isn’t passed on, it takes a while to be re-invented. If you look at ranching/livestock, that culture is being kept alive with rodeo, 4-H and generations of cowboy families, and they end up managing thousands of acres of land on Maui very well. I wish there was that inertia in forestry and fruit orchards, and then a lot more land on Maui would have trees on it instead of houses, condos and hotels.”

Ag in the Classroom
MCFB launched a virtual version of its popular in-class lesson plan titled “Where Would We Be Without Seeds?”.  Filmed with Andy Ho, MCFB’s in-class presenter, the lesson plan is presented in three parts ranging in length from 6-12 minutes. Andy does a great job explaining the importance of seeds and the life cycle of plants. MCFB’s virtual program makes it easy for teachers and students to include agriculture in their second grade curriculum. The virtual program is available to all schools islandwide for second graders of any public, private, or charter school on Maui.

Maui AgFest & 4-H Livestock Fair
Maui AgFest & 4-H Livestock Fair is scheduled for Saturday, June 5, from 8 a.m – 5 p.m. Sponsorship and vendor forms are available on the home page of MCFB’s website: www.mauicountyfarmbureau.org.

We are working to host the 2021 event with social distancing rules and requirements in place and pre-event reservations. We will provide vendor information by March 1 including our COVID-19 event plans and layout. We encourage vendors to complete the participation forms and submit no later than Mar.15. Our plan is to announce the event information to the general public and go live with ticket sales on April 1. If we’re able to host AgFest 2021, we will have an aggressive nine-week advertising program to promote the event.

We hope to present all of your favorite event highlights including the Maui 4-H Livestock Exhibit and Auction, Maui Legacy Farmers Pancake Breakfast, Keiki Zone, Education/Information, Grand Taste, Grown on Maui and Made in Maui Market, and food booths and trucks. Stay tuned for more information.

It is membership renewal time. The Maui County Farm Bureau is your voice of agriculture on Maui.

Last year our members and the larger agriculture community benefited from millions of dollars in CARES ACT funding that were deployed to help farmers and ranchers.  The MCFB put out a constant flow of communications on all programs that were available. We offered assistance in accessing those programs, we participated in the Mayor’s Recovery Task Force to help guide how the funds could be  distributed. We assisted the County of Maui in implementing and distributing many of these programs and funds. The MCFB worked hard for you and our entire industry.  in addition, you receive year-round legislative advocacy at both the county and state level and professional marketing opportunities and support. Your $100/year membership investment is a terrific deal. Please help us keep this good work going.

If you are not a member yet, we welcome you to join us. Please click on this link to the new Hawai‘i Farm Bureau online membership portal to sign-up or renew. Join or Renew Membership Here.

Join Our Committee
The membership committee is looking for some additional members to help us strengthen and create even more value for our farmers and ranchers. We promise to make it fun.

If you are interested in joining our committee, please contact Lynne Woods, MCFB Membership Chair, via email at crash622@gmail.com 

General Membership Meetings
The community centers on Maui are still closed. It is likely that we will need to hold our spring meeting on a virtual basis. Stay tuned for the date and time.