MCFB E-Newsletter ~ February 2021

MCFB Prepares a Re-Launch of ‘Buy Local’ Campaign and Sponsors ‘Cooking Hawaiian Style’

The importance of “Grown on Maui, Buy Local” took on a whole new meaning after restaurants and hotels shut down in spring 2020. We all saw first-hand just how essential it was that our main food supply be rooted here in the islands.

Now even as tourism returns to Maui, we want to keep up that vigilance and not return to the old, dependent ways. Given low visitor arrivals, we need to do our best to drive residents (and visitors) to restaurants, grocery stores and farmers markets.

That’s why Maui County Farm Bureau is pleased to reinvigorate its “Grown on Maui, Buy Local” campaign that urges residents to support our island economy, farmers and producers. In line with that focus, MCFB has secured the presenting sponsor title for season 15 of “Cooking Hawaiian Style.”

This popular cooking show, hosted by Emmy Award-winning local foodie Lanai Tabura, celebrates the richness of our islands’ culinary culture, featuring Hawaiian and Hawaiian-style recipes from all ethnicities. Season 15 includes 13 half-hour shows and will air on OC-16 starting July 5 for 26 weeks. Each episode will air eight to 10 times. Many opportunities will be available for MCFB members in connection with this new partnership, mainly having your produce or products showcased in recipes prepared by the featured guests. MCFB is also planning public relations efforts and a social media program, as well as promotions with local retail outlets and restaurants to showcase the “Grown on Maui, Buy Local” campaign.

“Maui County Farm Bureau is excited to sponsor ‘Cooking Hawaiian Style,’” says MCFB Executive Director Warren Watanabe. “Our goal is to do all we can to highlight agriculture and drive consumers to buy local, and what better way than through promoting local recipes using local ingredients, filmed right here on Maui?”

Emergency Assistance Program Established for Moloka‘i and Maui Ag Operations Suffering Losses due to Excess Deer Population.

The Hawai`i Department of Agriculture (HDOA) has opened an emergency assistance program for farming and ranching operations on Moloka`i and Maui that have suffered losses due to excessive deer populations. HDOA has committed a total of $200,000 for this relief program through the Agricultural Development and Food Security Special Fund.

Qualified agricultural and livestock operations on Moloka‘i and Maui may apply for up to $10,000 in assistance via the state’s procurement platform at: https://hands.ehawaii.gov/hands/opportunities/opportunity-details/19971. The application deadline is noon on March 8, 2021.  [ Read More ]

The legislative session began with hundreds of bills that your Hawai‘i Farm Bureau Government Affairs Committee has been diligently tracking. Our HFB executive director and President has been busy with testimonies with assistance from the committee. Our two bills Relating to Land Leases, HB 469/SB 693 and Relating to an Agricultural Enterprise Program, SB 1248/HB 871 has passed the first committees and remains alive. We are also supporting bills that will help and oppose bills that will harm agriculture. We ask for your help by responding to our Call to Action by submitting testimony. We have a long way to go before the session ends and updates will be provided.


Warren K. Watanabe
Executive Director

Shyloh grew up on a diversified tobacco and row-crop operation in Missouri. He attended Northwest Missouri State University, where he earned a B.S. in agronomy with a minor in precision agriculture. While at NMSU, Shyloh was an agriculture ambassador, recruiting for the ag department and growing attendance by 25% over three years. He was also an active member in Missouri’s Collegiate Farm Bureau, a four-year delegate to the Agriculture Futures of America Leadership Conference, and participated in an Ag-Travel Class to Alaska, which motivated Shyloh to pursue an agriculture career outside of the mainland. After graduation, Shyloh started his career at a co-op in southwest Iowa, working on a team to improve crop production through a precision agronomic decision tool. Later he took a job managing the corn seed warehouse for one of the largest co-ops in Nebraska. In 2015, Shyloh was hired as weed control supervisor at Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. As one of the youngest employees at the plantation and coming from the mainland, Shyloh dug into his role hands-on to learn directly from the workers he supervised. By doing this, he was able to better understand what tools they needed to improve efficiency as well as gaining trust and respect from his workers. When HC&S shut down at the end of 2016, Shyloh was asked to stay on to run the diversified ag operations in the transition out of sugar. After the transition, Shyloh developed a successful animal feed growing operation, despite limited resources and sub-par field conditions. The sale of the A&B lands ended the feed operation as the new owners did not pursue the venture due to political concerns. SJ Ag Operations serves a range of clients from veg crops, row crops, pasture, and permanent crops, to conventional or organic. As a certified crop advisor, Shyloh strives to improve not only the agronomics of an operation but also their bottom line. Shyloh has served MCFB at many different levels over the years, including helping with Maui AgFest and 4-H Livestock Fair, Maui Fair, Hawai‘i State Farm Fair, and Ag Day at the Capital. He volunteers to help with 4-H youth livestock shows, high school/FFA, and the Maui Soil and Water Conservation Districts soil judging contest; as well as helping the University of Hawai‘i with agronomic recommendations associated with rebuilding efforts at the Haleakalā Research Station for livestock and forage research.

“Farmers of all ranges and sizes need guidance to improve their operations, and ranchers need viable feed resources to continue to produce locally sourced meat,” Shyloh says. “The rest of the ag industry depends on farmers’ and ranchers’ success. It is our job at Farm Bureau to make sure that it happens for our members and the entire ag industry.”

Lehn Huff, Founder of Maui School Garden Network Gardens make people happy. Lehn Huff found this out early in life, and as the years went on, she found that not only do gardens make folks happy, but gardens also make them healthy, productive, and connected to the ʻāina.

Lehn established the Maui School Garden Network (MSGN) in 2010 to help promote ‘aina education, teaching students how to grow their own food, on all Maui County’s K-12 school campuses. In 2019, MSGN merged with Grow Some Good and changed its name to the Maui Farm to School Network. Today, the network comprises 35 schools and more than 8,000 students. Lehn loves that she can walk into any school and immediately connect with the principal, teachers and students – “because everyone loves garden learning!” Historically, Maui County Farm Bureau has always been a staunch supporter of school garden programs on Maui. When MCFB launched “Ag in the Classroom” back in 2006, teachers were asked what they wanted in the way of ag education. A majority of teachers said “school gardens,” as well as “healthier food in school lunches.” Over the years, MCFB has continued to work toward these goals through continued ag education, financial support and community meetings, including working with Lehn and MSGN on many occasions. During Lehn’s 31-year career at Seabury Hall, she tapped into the amazing power of the school garden as a teaching and learning tool. After joining Seabury as a history teacher in 1977, she started the new middle school there in 1997. Inspired by ideas she had heard while earning a master’s degree (her second) at UCLA, she tasked a group of 8th-graders with planting a garden for the school cafeteria’s salad bar. “Lettuce” just say, the program was a hit! While serving as the Middle School Head (and still teaching one class a day), Lehn helped her staff work with the students to put in their own fruit orchard and to grow vegetables using compost from a bin that they constructed. Harvested produce was taken to the dining hall, where the school chef turned it into breakfast and lunch. After a brief retirement from teaching in 2008, Lehn served as interim director of the Sustainable Living Institute of Maui at University of Hawai‘i Maui College, before going on to establish MSGN. Today, Lehn is a member of many boards and organizations, including MCFB and the Hawai‘i Farmers Union United and has worked at the state level with the Hawai‘i Farm to School and School Garden Hui.

Ever a teacher, Lehn is also ever a student. She holds a B.A. in international relations and an M.A. in Chinese history and anthropology from University of Hawai‘i, and an M. Ed. and A.B.D. in curriculum & instruction from UCLA. As a child in Missouri, Lehn loved tending the flowers and vegetables in her family’s garden. As an adult for the past 40 years on Maui, she has taken that love of gardening and expanded it into a deeper knowledge of water usage, recycling systems, zero waste, food hubs, neighborhood food exchanges, root cultivation, permaculture, how to “grow” rich soil, and more. Lehn takes every opportunity to learn from MCFB members who have worked the land for generations. “I appreciate that they are willing to share their stories with me, and I can pass their wisdom on to my students,” Lehn says. “Knowing how to grow our own food has become something everyone needs to know. Prior to 1970, our schools all had gardens where they grew many of the vegetables that they ate in their school cafeterias. Increasingly, overregulated food systems have taken that away from us, and we are only slowly just beginning to get it back.”

“Our farmers have become more precious to us than ever before. We need to honor that fact and respect it and to become life-learners—all of us combining the new technologies with those of the past.”

Ag in the Classroom
More than a dozen schools have signed up for MCFB’s Ag in the Classroom in-class program since we launched it in January. MCFB is working with the field trip ag partners on the virtual program. We’ll share the news in the next newsletter.

Grown on Maui, MCFB’s Buy Local campaign
As we announced, MCFB is the presenting sponsor for season 15 of “Cooking Hawaiian Style” which will air on OC16 starting July 5. Stay tuned for full details and ways you can participate in MCFB’s integrated marketing program to help raise awareness about locally grown produce, proteins, flowers, nurseries, value-added ag products and consumer promotions at retail stores, restaurants and more.

Maui AgFest & 4-H Livestock Fair Continue to hold June 5. The AgFest committee is working on plans to present our signature ag event. The AgFest committee will share the news in the next newsletter.

MCFB General Meetings The first MCFB general membership meeting for 2021 was scheduled to take place in March but due to Covid-19 restrictions that limit the number of people who can gather and with the closure of county community centers through March, we will be moving the meeting to April in the hopes of hosting a in-real-life meeting in Kula. Look out for more information in next month’s newsletter.  The remaining general meetings are still scheduled for June, September and December. Watch this space for more details. 
Join the Maui County Farm Bureau
Membership in the Maui County Farm Bureau is your best way to stay informed on all agriculture programs, issues, and education opportunities that can impact your family farm or ranch. If you are a Friend of a Farmer, we welcome your support as well. We are in the midst of our 2021 membership drive and we welcome new as well as returning members to sign up now. Our new online portal for paying for your membership is super convenient. Learn about membership benefits here. 

Through the many grant programs we administered last year with CARES ACT funding, we purchased produce and managed grant funds which totalled over $850,000. MCFB kept our farmers and ranchers informed of every program and opportunity that came along. Through your membership support MCFB is able to advocate for the entire agriculture community.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