Agriculture

The EEOC named Del Monte Fresh Produce's Hawaii subsidiary, which contracted with Global for approximately three years ending in 2005 to tend pineapple fields the subsidiary leased on the island of Oahu....

...the undersigned farmers, ranchers and floral & nursery growers collectively produce more than 80% of the food and agricultural products grown in Hawaii....

One day before Kauai County Council set to consider override of Mayor's Veto .... 

U.S. candy makers are expanding production in other countries as federal price supports and a global glut of the sweet stuff give an ever-greater advantage to foreign rivals....

Department of Agriculture reaffirmed the Mayor’s assessment that complicated legal issues and practical enforcement and implementation details must be taken into consideration to effectively address community’s concerns....

Lawmakers return to Washington today with only nine legislative days in the House before some farm bill programs expire at the end of the month....

...it is not the cost of the tax that adds to the price of locally grown products as much as it is the external factors such as the cost of land, labor, and regulatory compliance....

Correcting the misinformation being spread by special interest groups about how we farm....

Hawaii currently plays an important role in the global food supply – one far more important than that of its historical sugarcane and pineapple industries....

The feedstock for the biofuel is anticipated to be woody biomass-based....

Renewable fuel credit prices rose to record highs recently, reigniting the debate over repealing the federal government's ethanol mandate....

There are plenty of people out there telling us what we should eat—and worse, trying to use public policy to make us live by their opinions....

fraud has flown under the radar. And as sales have boomed and the stakes have risen, the scale of deception has broadened....

...for causing or permitting visible fugitive dust to become airborne....

It still goes out of its way to tax Christmas trees....

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) is reportedly pushing to split up the old farm bill and take food stamps out of it....

...Abercrombie today signed seven bills related to agriculture....

Sixty-two Republicans bucked their own party to vote against the bloated bill....Coupled with a large bloc of Democrats (Including Hanabusa and Gabbard) who wanted more spending on food stamps....

the food stamp program has doubled under the Obama Administration....

...Boehner said yesterday that he will support the bloated farm bill....

The spike in food prices, coupled with the global economic crisis, halted and even reversed the long-time trend in reducing malnutrition....

Senate is expected to vote this morning on a measure that will effectively end debate on the misnamed “farm” bill....

...Bob Fletcher, who saved farms of interned Japanese Americans, dies at 101....

Whenever Congress throws too much into one bill, special interests profit....

Kona coffee growers are disappointed that the stipulated dismissal leaves unresolved what they believe is the key question....

The bills await final, floor votes of both the House and the Senate on Tuesday, April 30th....

...these parcels will add approximately 22,500 acres of land to the 1,700 acres of Galbraith Estate agricultural land in Central Oahu....

“Now we’re in sequestration, we have a bill that would give ... companies an additional 5 percent, $15 million,” McCain said. “It’s disgraceful, and it’s been going on for years....

We have presented our technology to and proposed a strategic relationship with various state agencies in the State of Hawaii, which closely aligns itself with Governor Neil Abercrombie’s “New Day in Hawaii” initiative....

...it is difficult if not impossible to overturn a land use district boundary amendment as contrary to IAL designation, when it does not yet exist...

In 2004, Nopphon Fuchumpa was promised a great opportunity in the United States.... 

The bills would provide economic relief to American consumers and businesses who have been forced to pay a $14 billion hidden tax over the past four years alone in order for the federal government to provide a special interest subsidy to sugar producers....

Did you know that as a Hawaii landowner you own all unmarked or unbranded cattle, horses, mules, donkeys, sheep, goats, and swine, over twelve months of age, which may be running wild on your land?

HEWA: we do NOT endorse this unexpected news that OHA is giving us, Makaweli Poi, away to a random group we never heard of before....

...Trust for Public Land assembled the $25 million purchase price from a variety of sources, including $13 million from a Hawaii state bond; $4.5 million from the U.S. Army; $4 million from the City and County of Honolulu; $3 million from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs; and $500,000 from D.R. Horton....

This informational briefing will cover the topic of food safety as it concerns and relates to farmers, wholesalers and retailers in Hawaii....

Why would someone criticize such a storied name in American charity as ours?....

One of the subplots of the South Park episode is about residents of Kaua'i claiming to be natives of Hawaii when they're just longtime residents who got there before the more recent tourists, whom they despise....

"...it’s come to the point where we are wondering whether it’s worth continuing the business...."

... a July 3, 2008 memo from the US Embassy in Mexico—revealed earlier this week with the latest batch of classified Wikileaks documents—shows that the UFW had signed a contract with Global Horizons and was itself looking forwards to becoming a major labor contractor ....

How could federal prosecutors “accidentally” debase their entire prosecution of crimes alleged to have occurred in 2004 by telling a Federal Grand Jury that the defendants’ collection of “recruitment fees” was a violation of a law which did not take effect until 2008?

In an astounding display of amnesia and misplaced sympathy, Hawaii rallied around the defendants. After entering their plea deal, the farmers, Michael and Alec Sou of Aloun Farms, orchestrated an outpouring of letters begging the judge for leniency at sentencing. Business leaders, community activists, politicians — even two former governors, Benjamin Cayetano and John Waihee, and top executives at First Hawaiian Bank — joined a parade attesting to the brothers’ goodness.

The men were paragons of diversified agriculture and wise land use, the letter writers said. They had special vegetable knowledge that nobody else had, and were holding the line against genetically modified crops. If they went to prison, evil developers would pave their farmland. Think of the “trickle down impact,” one woman implored the judge. Besides, their produce was delicious.

THREE MONTHS after Intajak arrived in America, in October 2004, Global Horizons sent him to Hawaii to work for the Maui Pineapple Co. Here, the pay was better than in Yakima—$9.50 an hour—but the conditions were worse. One Global Horizons agent, Intajak and other workers told me, was in the habit of carrying a knife, a gun, or a baseball bat, and of threatening workers with "deportation" if they didn't behave or meet their quotas. Just four days in, Intajak says, he watched the man beat a coworker. 

The Maui Pineapple Co.'s land is nestled among gorgeous foothills, shrouded in mist and covered with volcanic soil the color of dark coffee. The now-defunct company was part of Maui Land & Pineapple Co., whose majority owner is Steve Case, cofounder of AOL; another primary shareholder is eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, a generous benefactor of anti-slavery organizations....