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EiJ Hawaii Agriculture and Stakeholders

mtebbe

Indigenous farmers - creating food forests that focus on native crops (though they do include non-natives that serve a purpose or simply taste good) and fostering biodiversity/sustainability, also support Hawaii's ability to be self-sufficient (85-95% of food is imported) and the return of native species of animals

Japanese farmworkers - first arrived in 1860s, particularly influential in coffee industry

Filipino farmworkers - 6,000 arrive in 1946

International Longshore and Warehouse Union - includes sugar plantation workers - 1946 28,000 workers strike; again in 1958, 1974 (pineapple workers strike 1947, 1968, 1974)

Agrochemical transnational companies, e.g. Monsanto, Pioneer, Novartis, Cargill - environmental destruction, disregard for regulations on use and disposal of hazardous chemicals, off-site releases of hazardous chemicals from Maui research facility, political lobbying against regulations for GMOs and pesticides

Historic stakeholders - cattle ranchers, monocrop plantations - less common today but their effects on the environment are still very visible

  • Cattle ranching begins in 1809
  • Coffee plantations begin in 1830s (peaks in 1957)
  • Sugar plantations begin in 1850s, peaks in 1933 and again in 1966
  • Pineapple plantations begin in 1880s (Dole plantation established in 1901; peaks in 1955)
  • Many plantations close in the 1990s

Tourism - economic control

Beyond Pesticides - national organization with programs in Hawaii

Maui County Department of Agriculture - newly created to invest in food sovereignty, help move the island away from monocrop pasts by rehabilitating the environment and creating jobs

Sources:

https://grist.org/agriculture/the-farmers-restoring-hawaiis-ancient-foo…

https://www.mauinews.com/opinion/columns/2022/03/changes-to-agricultura…

https://hdoa.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/HISTORY-OF-AGRICULTU…

EiJ Hawaii Agricultural Hazards

mtebbe

Significant pesticide usage from industrial agriculture:

  • "[Hawaii] became the biotech GMO capital of the US after agrochemical transnationals were welcomed to open research fields with fewer restrictions on potentially toxic pesticides."
  • Legacy contamination from past monocrop plantations
  • Research facilities owned by agrochemical companies like Monsanto - potential illegal dumping, off-site releases of chemicals

Runoff from agriculture (even if it contains just sediments and no pesticides) is harmful to coral reefs

Sources:

https://grist.org/agriculture/the-farmers-restoring-hawaiis-ancient-foo…

https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2017/03/02/cooperation-is-key-to-reduce-sed…

Tanio, N_Learning_Outcomes

ntanio

Spring 2023 - to continue to learn, build, create experimental collaborative research methodologies with EcoGovLab participants.

To write (collaboratively) an article on collaborative methodology practiced within our lab.

To learn to negotiate incommensurabilities better while also developing ways to bridge difference, first in lab practices and second in engagements with other ej practitiones.

TebbeM Learning from EcoGovLab

mtebbe

I want to build my familiarity with a wide variety of different cases (in the room right now, we have people with expertise on: Austin, Louisiana, London, Orange County/Santa Ana, La Puente, and Delhi, among others) and my ability to think about how these cases can give insight on the places I am interested in.