Farming the Youth in Hawaii

Hilda from MA'O Organic Farms is one of the four-year program participants. She recently graduated from MA'O's two-year program and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Hawaii while working at MA'O as a manager.

The drive to MA’O Organic Farms in Waianae on the West Side of Oahu winds along a coastline dotted with extravagant vacation resorts, industrial power plants, run down strip malls, and military artillery test zones. The main highway is lined with boarded up local businesses and restaurants rotting in the shadows of colorful, bright signs beckoning customers to fast-food chains like McDonald’s and KFC.

Hawaii’s 1st Cheese Fundraiser

Sabrina about to roll 50 lbs. of fresh Hawaiian butter.

Sisters Monique and Sabrina of Naked Cow Dairy have a lot to smile about these days. After two months of fundraising with the hope of raising enough money to buy a heater for their cheese vats and build an aging room for their future cheese production, they are just 3 hours away from success.

Hawaiian Fish Pond 2.0

Dr. Wenhao H. Sun of Olakai Farms stands in front of one of his two ponds on Oahu. He grows sea asparagus, ogo seaweed, and various fish species in his aquaponic ponds.

 The future of agriculture looks different to everyone. Nostalgic homesteaders see a romantic patchwork of small rural farms supplying local towns with farm fresh eggs and produce. Urban futurists see cityscapes lined with rooftop gardens and public spaces filled with edible landscapes. Biotech scientists and researchers envision genetically engineered crops revolutionizing food production and nutrition. Dr. Wenhao H. Sun of Marine Agrifuture and Olakai Hawaii Farms has an unconventional vision for the future of agriculture. Wenhao wants to grow all his crops in saltwater and someday in the ocean. He has already started this alternate future in two repurposed shrimp ponds on the northeast shore of Oahu near Kahuku.

Long Term Local

Ted laughs as he shows off his wing bean crop. He is one of the only farmers on Oahu with this rare variety.

From the top of the hill behind Kawai Loa Farm, Ted Nakamura often looks down to check the surf rolling into Chun’s and Lani’s. He is hesitant to remove his gaze from the farm and the ocean beneath because behind him spreads a sea of Monsanto seed corn. Ted smiles as he recounts the decade he has spent on this land supplying Oahu’s grocery stores with USDA organic certified asparagus, beans, eggplant, and okra. A walk down the local organic produce isle at the Kahala Whole Foods in Honolulu features Ted’s goods alongside plenty of other food grown locally on the Hawaiian Islands.

Who likes their meat FRESH?

You choose your own animal straight from the pasture at Flying R Ranch.

The opening sequence of American Meat, a new documentary about the current state of meat production in the United States, asks the audience why modern Americans are so removed from the process involved in raising and killing the centerpiece of their meals and diets. Millions in the United States who eat meat daily have never killed a cow or a chicken with their own hands, some have never touched a pig or a sheep unless it was already conveniently sliced into bacon or lamb chops. Although this may be the story for most of the carnivores in our country, at the Flying R Ranch in Waialua, HI customers are intimately connected with the steaks and short ribs they buy from the ranch. Anyone who wants to eat the goats or cattle grazing on the 3,300 acre ranch have to pick and slaughter the animals themselves. The owner, Bob Cherry, laughs heavily and cracks a wide grin as he explains that on his ranch customers have to buy the animal live, then kill it and butcher it themselves. The practice comes both out of necessity and tradition.

Luann’s Local Layers

When it comes to navigating the myriad of certifications, labels, and claims put on chicken eggs sometimes it is comforting to simply see exactly where your eggs comes from. That is why many people on Oahu in search of a healthy oological experience come to Tin Roof Ranch for their farm fresh eggs. On a small two acre farm across the street from the surfers and sea turtles at Chun’s Reef, Luann and Gary raise over two hundred hens for laying eggs and around a hundred more for meat. You will not find a label or mark on any of their eggs, but the couple use strictly organic practices and their chickens have free range of over an acre on the property every afternoon. Luann laughs a little when you ask her about all the ways to classify eggs. She says most of her

customers just come out to the ranch and see the operation for themselves. Some of her extreme egg enthusiasts ask specifically for non-refrigerated eggs that can be eaten raw without losing any of the natural enzymes or microbes. Adding Safe for Raw Consumption or Sashimi Grade to the growing catalog of egg classifications might only interest a few egg eaters out there, but Luann does notice that a growing number of people are interested in where their food and their eggs come from.

Bridging the Divide

Milton and Aquilano of Twin Bridge Farms are still farming through decades of change in Waialua.

The calm and ease with which Milton Agader slowly navigates his silver pick-up through the rows of his 300 acre farm in Waialua attest to a life dedicated to working the ‘aina or the land of Hawaii. In its ten years of existence Twin Bridge Farms has carved itself a healthy niche among the local food producers of Oahu and their popular asparagus can be found at the Whole Foods, Foodland, and other major groceries around the island.