Pubdate: Sun, 10 Jan 2016
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser (HI)
Column: Volcanic Ash
Copyright: 2016 Star Advertiser
Contact: 
http://www.staradvertiser.com/info/Star-Advertiser_Letter_to_the_Editor.html
Website: http://www.staradvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5154
Author: David Shapiro

LIKE IT OR NOT, LEGALIZING POT COULD BE BOON FOR LOCAL AG

It's been a sad week for agriculture in Hawaii - and not only because 
Alexander & Baldwin Inc. announced that it's closing Hawaii's last 
sugar plantation, the company's 36,000acre farm on Maui.

The same day, longtime Hawaii island farmer Richard Ha told employees 
he's shutting down his Hamakua Springs Country Farms, at least for 
the growing of crops that people eat.

Ha stopped growing his tomatoes last year and now will no longer 
produce his mainstay bananas after the current crop goes to market.

While A&B talked vaguely of transitioning its massive acreage to 
diversified farms, cattle, flowers, agroforestry and biofuel, Ha said 
he's exploring an option where the future of Hawaii agriculture may 
truly lie: pakalolo.

He's been approached to lease some of his 600 acres and hydroelectric 
- - and lend his expertise on "growing things" - to one of the groups 
that has applied for a state license to grow and sell medical marijuana.

The marijuana deal "is not a sure thing," he said in his 
announcement. "When they first came to talk to me, I didn't take it 
very seriously. But in the last few weeks, it's become pretty serious."

Ha didn't elaborate, but it's not a move he would undertake lightly 
as a numbers-crunching businessman who has been a leading voice for 
greater economic opportunity to provide for future generations on 
Hawaii's poorest major island.

Several well-heeled parties are competing for the state's eight 
potentially lucrative medical marijuana dispensary licenses.

While Ha personally doesn't favor retail marijuana sales for 
recreational use, others see medical marijuana as training wheels for 
eventual full pakalolo legalization.

Hawaii lawmakers attending a recent legislative conference in 
Colorado visited Vail's Green Mile and took great interest in that 
state's legalization of retail marijuana sales.

State marijuana programs are risky because it's still a federal 
crime, but legalization here could be a bonanza for local farmers - 
and not only to supply the Hawaii market.

With Hawaii's long growing season and the excellent reputation of the 
bud long cultivated here illegally, marijuana could become a 
significant export crop as more states and countries legalize pot.

Big marijuana would be in keeping with Hawaii's agricultural history, 
which has been less about feeding local residents than export crops 
such as sugar, pineapple, macadamia nuts, coffee, and more recently, seed corn.

If marijuana is ever fully legalized, you have to wonder how much of 
A&B's former Maui sugar lands will end up in its production.

It would no doubt be a boon to the local economy and tax base, but 
the potential social effects of widespread marijuana use aren't fully 
understood, and pot farming does little to advance the state's goal 
of food self-sufficiency.

When smart farmers like Richard Ha can't make a go of it, that seems 
a pipe dream.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom