Ka`u Calendar News Briefs Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016

Spaghetti dinner fundraisers for Ka`u Hospital are tradition in Ka`u. Another one is set for Feb. 23. See more below. Photo by Julia Neal

HAWAI`I COUNTY COUNCIL’S Environmental Management Committee put a bill that would ban styrofoam food containers on the back burner yesterday. Nancy Cook Lauer, of West Hawai`i Today, reported that the committee voted 6-1 to have the Environmental Management Commission review the measure before considering it.

Punalu`u Bake Shop owner Derek Kurisu, at right, testified against a bill that would ban styrofoam containers. Photo by Julia Neal

      According to Cook Lauer, testifiers supporting the bill included students and scientists concerned about styrofoam’s harmful effects on animals that ingest broken pieces of it.
      Megan Lamson, Hawai`i Wildlife Fund’s Hawai`i Island program director and organizer of Ka`u Coast Cleanups, testified that “plastic pollution and marine debris are a very serious and global problem, but they are people problems and can be resolved by the steadfast commitment of people.”
      Business owners who use polystyrene containers testified against the measure. Cook Lauer quoted Derek Kurisu, owner of Punalu`u Bake Shop, executive vice president of KTA Super Stores and chair of Hawai`i Food Industry: “Supermarkets and take-out restaurants are dependent on polystyrene for plate lunches and polystyrene meat trays. We tried paper or recyclable trays in our deli, but it doesn’t work like polystyrene.”
      See westhawaiitoday.com.
      To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

I OLA NA `AINA MOMONA NONPROFIT hosted a discussion in Honolulu yesterday regarding Ka`u coffee farmers’ land security. Attendancing were Ka`u’s state Reps. Richard Creagan and Richard Onishi, Department of Agriculture Chair Scott Enright, Bishop Estates’ Ka`u Land Manager Kama Dancil, Kohala Center Rural Cooperative Business Development Specialist Teresa Young, Trust for Public Land Project Manager Stephen Rafferty and Native Lands Project Manager Laura Kaakua, IONAM President Malian Lahey and Ka`u community members Manuel Marques, a Ka`u Coffee farmer, and John Replogle, as a private citizen. State Sen. Russell Ruderman hosted the meeting.

Ka`u Coffee growers' land security was the topic of a meeting in Honolulu yesterday. Photo by Geneveve Fyvie

      Ka`u Coffee farmers have created their industry largely on former sugar plantation lands, which have been sold several times and now belong to Resource Land Holdings, of Colorado. The coffee lands at Pear Tree and Moa`ula were set up by a former owner to be subdivided into estates. Farmers said they fear such estates would be beyond their financial means and late last year voted to ask the state to acquire and help make their farmland into an agricultural park with long-term leases. The farmers are now operating under 15-year leases with RLH that allow RLH to withdraw house sites from each coffee farm.
      According to Lahey, it was reported at yesterday’s meeting that Ka`u Coffee Growers’ Cooperative voted earlier to support acquisition of the Moa`ula coffee lands by the state. According to Lahey, while Reps. Onishi and Creagan both expressed support for the farmers to own the land, financial gains from the coffee farms probably would need to increase before large mortgages could be sustainable for a majority of farmers.
      Lahey said consensus at the meeting was that the cooperative should again express its support to state legislators for the Moa`ula coffee lands to become a state agriculture park. The legislators would introduce an acquisition bill that would likely enjoy widespread support, she said. The state would negotiate with Resource Land Holdings, owners of the properties.
      Last year, the co-op sent a letter to legislators stating, “There is some interest within the state Department of Agriculture in acquiring an approximate 500 acres of this property and possibly providing the coffee farmers with 35-year leases and options to renew at farmable rates. This would eliminate the risk of the land being subdivided and sold off in the real estate market, as well as open up the possibility of more favorable leases for our farming community.”
      Lahey said Enright cautioned yesterday that the process is only in the beginning stages and that the farmers must make it a priority to see that the bill be approved by the Legislature.