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Editor’s Note: This is Part 3 of a three-part series on food production in Hawaii. Part 1 covered the role of grocery stores and Part 2 covered food in public schools. It stems from the experience this reporter shared in a diary of his attempt to meet the Kanu Hawaii Eat Local Challenge.

The demand for locally grown food is on the rise.

While the state’s physical climate is ideal for growing food to fill the void, farmers say the political climate is anything but.

In Hawaii, they say, land is too often viewed as a place to harvest a “real estate” fortune rather than as a foundation on which to build a system to feed the islands. And food safety and labor regulations threaten to make farming even more draining than its long hours and hard work might suggest.

“The consumer is the one that’s driving buy local more than anything else. They’re pulling it through the marketplace,” said Chris Robb of the Big Island’s Robb Farms. “The challenge is to supply 52 weeks of the year and keep the government off your back.”

KCC farmers market shoppers cluster around Vilath Farm for produce.

Robb earned his degree in horticulture from the University of Hawaii in 1982 and started working on the Big Island, where he now runs Robb Farms on the dry side of Waimea. He grows six types of lettuce, broccoli, bok choy, beets, leeks, fennel and squash, which he sells to Whole Foods Market and wholesalers like Armstrong Produce.

He has a 20-year lease¹ that costs $2,200 per month, “a fair price considering all the infrastructure that comes with it.” He calls his farm and others in a 500-plus-acre swath of Hawaii Island “the best temperate vegetable-growing area in the state.” He and his neighbors benefit from a water source in Waipio Valley that was “dumping water all summer” even as other areas suffered through a serious drought.

“Water is the key to agriculture. Sure they can lease you a parcel, but if you’ve got no water, no infrastructure, it’s not going to work,” Robb said in a telephone interview from his farm. “Dryland farming is really hard. It’s hard to make money when you’re relying on rainfall.”

Robb knows he has it good compared to many other farmers. But even with all that going for him, he’s frustrated that he and others are “still defending our right to farm.”

Robb said farmers are being visited by the and , foreshadowing a possible crackdown on farm working conditions. Labor has historically been a major factor in limiting farming operations in Hawaii — hiring legitimate employees eats up a third of Robb’s gross revenue. He said the issue has been diminished somewhat by the downturn in the economy, the lack of available jobs and the willingness of prospective employees to work for less.

Robb also worries about the looming , which would, if passed by Congress, expand the federal government’s authority to inspect food records. The proposed legislation has drawn fire from some corners for adding expenses to farm operations’ ledgers.

But most of all, Robb complains there’s a lack of political will in Hawaii to identify Important Agricultural Lands. That failure over the past 30-plus years, since the Hawaii Constitution was amended to require that the state protect its most viable farmland, has allowed large landowners to think of their fallow agricultural holdings in terms of potential development instead of potential food production.

Looking For Land

“There is no political will. There is plenty of political lip service, but when push comes to shove, the large landowners, many of them are speculating on their land,” he said.

Potential development is referred to, at least when it comes to property taxes, as the “highest and best use” of the land. Robb said it would be better described as the “highest and last use of the land. Because once you urbanize the land, you can never farm it again.”

“You’ve got to have a master plan. This is where we want to go, and this is what it’s going to take to get there. And land is a major component,” he said.

Dean Okimoto of Nalo Farms agrees, saying that there’s currently no pressure on large landowners to designate lands as Important Agricultural Lands. Developments like Hoopili and Koa Ridge in Central Oahu can only happen when land is not permanently dedicated to agriculture, he said. When those lands are preserved, it’ll drive down the cost to lease or buy land, he said.

Nalo owns four acres in Waimanalo and leases 12 more at the price of $280 per acre per month — a price that is “a killer” for small farms, Okimoto said in an interview at the Nalo Farms tent at the Kapiolani Community College farmers market.

A slew of different vegetables are available at the KCC farmers market.

Nalo Farms produces 10,000 to 12,000 pounds of mixed greens per month and hopes to increase to 20,000 to 25,000 pounds per month. He sells to Whole Foods and Foodland, and in recent months has started to sell one of his more mild lettuce varieties to Zippy’s restaurants.

“We see the increase in demand, which is really nice, but until we’re able to increase the amount we can grow, the prices are going to be really unmanageable,” Okimoto said.

The price of land isn’t the only problem local farmers face. The costs of food safety certification and transportation add up, and farmers are challenged by new invasive species, pests and diseases every year, Okimoto said.

Keeping It Clean

Okimoto contends that many of the pests and diseases come in via containers headed to big box stores like Costco and Walmart. The Hawaii Legislature has declined to force those companies to pay for their own inspections, meaning that the state — and the taxpayers — are footing the bill. Okimoto says that means he’s essentially keeping his competitors’ costs low by paying for their inspections.

“In the long run,” Okimoto asks, “how do you build a local food supply if you’re going to be that uncompetitive?”

Food safety certifications are so burdensome that some farmers choose to avoid them altogether.

King Theng, who grows cucumbers, basil, mint and grape tomatoes on five acres in Waimanalo, sells the fruits of his labor at farmers markets six days each week. None of it goes to wholesalers or retailers, because he can keep costs low and profit margins high by handling the sales himself.

Farmer King Theng sells his wares exclusively at the farmers market, not to stores.

His is a one-man operation, though he gets some help from friends and family. Speaking at the Kapiolani Community College farmers market surrounded by tables of produce, he said he buys some of his goods — for example, sunrise papaya — from wholesalers, though he promises it’s all grown in Hawaii.

“We have limited land and we can’t mass produce like how the mainland guys can,” he said. Even with his relatively small production, he said he always has leftovers — some of which are donated and some of which are turned into fertilizer, mitigating another one of the costlier aspects of running a farm.

“There’s no way of us selling everything,” Theng said.

Okimoto, the Nalo Farms chief, said things are improving mainly because people are becoming aware that locally grown food tastes better and lasts longer. But, he says, “For us, the limiting factor is the market.”

Robb, the Big Island farmer, said government and farmers each have their role to play in making agriculture a viable enterprise in Hawaii. But the public plays a major part too.

“There’s got to be a concerted effort that this is the goal of everyone in the state, that this is where you want to be,” he said.