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Hawaii's last sugar harvest paves the way for a fight over the land's future
Source: The Guardian
Hawaii's last sugar harvest paves the way for a fight over the land's future
Stephen McLaren in Maui, Hawaii
Thursday 28 April 2016 15.00 BST
For one last season, luscious, green fields of sugarcane are animating Maui’s landscape.
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For more than 150 years, the big agricultural corporations that produce sugar have been top dogs in the island’s economic life and its political governance. As the industry winds down, a new generation of activists are dreaming big of replacing sugar not only with a new agricultural model but also a new political settlement.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Access to Maui’s water resources is another big issue. Farmers on East Maui are trying to prevent A&B from making permanent the water use permits that have kept sugar cane bountiful and would be needed for their future diversification plans. On the west side, farmers are trying to reclaim access to streams that have been dammed and diverted for others including the sugar company. Hokuao Pellegrino’s eco farm sits right next to one of the streams; it used to roar down the nearby mountain and out into the ocean but is now more sedate. He claims that the water and sugar companies have been water-banking for years and preventing farmers growing taro, a starchy staple for islanders.
“The demise of sugar is their own fault. They will tell you it is because of us fighting them over the water but it’s nothing to do with the water, it’s everything to do with their business model and their archaic farming practices. The health of their soil is terrible, it has no nutrient base. They don’t fallow, they don’t rotate crops, they just burn, till, plant, burn, till, plant.”
The post-sugar agricultural vision for Maui is being hotly debated and Monsanto, which is appealing a moratorium on the production of GMO crops on Maui, is thought to be casting an avaricious eye on the 36,000 acres about to come up for grabs. Despite HC&S claims that they are researching diverse agricultural model to replace sugar, the fear among many who see the island’s future as being organic and closer to the traditional Hawaiian concept of Aina (“that which feeds us”) is that Monsanto will end up leasing the redundant fields and growing GMO corn.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Stephen McLaren in Maui, Hawaii
Thursday 28 April 2016 15.00 BST
For one last season, luscious, green fields of sugarcane are animating Maui’s landscape.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
For more than 150 years, the big agricultural corporations that produce sugar have been top dogs in the island’s economic life and its political governance. As the industry winds down, a new generation of activists are dreaming big of replacing sugar not only with a new agricultural model but also a new political settlement.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Access to Maui’s water resources is another big issue. Farmers on East Maui are trying to prevent A&B from making permanent the water use permits that have kept sugar cane bountiful and would be needed for their future diversification plans. On the west side, farmers are trying to reclaim access to streams that have been dammed and diverted for others including the sugar company. Hokuao Pellegrino’s eco farm sits right next to one of the streams; it used to roar down the nearby mountain and out into the ocean but is now more sedate. He claims that the water and sugar companies have been water-banking for years and preventing farmers growing taro, a starchy staple for islanders.
“The demise of sugar is their own fault. They will tell you it is because of us fighting them over the water but it’s nothing to do with the water, it’s everything to do with their business model and their archaic farming practices. The health of their soil is terrible, it has no nutrient base. They don’t fallow, they don’t rotate crops, they just burn, till, plant, burn, till, plant.”
The post-sugar agricultural vision for Maui is being hotly debated and Monsanto, which is appealing a moratorium on the production of GMO crops on Maui, is thought to be casting an avaricious eye on the 36,000 acres about to come up for grabs. Despite HC&S claims that they are researching diverse agricultural model to replace sugar, the fear among many who see the island’s future as being organic and closer to the traditional Hawaiian concept of Aina (“that which feeds us”) is that Monsanto will end up leasing the redundant fields and growing GMO corn.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/28/maui-hawaii-sugar-cane-crops-agriculture-hcs-monsanto
