Less than 1 percent of the land nominally managed by the state Agribusiness Development Corporation is found on the island of Hawai\u02bbi, according to a pie chart in the agency\u2019s most recent report to the Legislature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That fraction is all in one small, 1.5-acre parcel near the mauka end of the Shipman Industrial Park in Kea\u02bbau, just south of Hilo. The ADC purchased it in 2015 for $500,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whether this land has, in fact, been managed at all in the nine-plus years since that acquisition is open to question. In the entire time the ADC has owned the land, it doesn\u2019t seem to have collected any rent on it or leased it out to any party. County property tax records show the property is unencumbered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet for years \u2013 at least seven, possibly more \u2013 the parcel has been used by Pacific Biodiesel Technologies, LLC, as a parking lot for its tanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Environment Hawai\u02bbi<\/em> attempted to find out whether the private company pays rent for use of the state land and, if so, how much and to whom. Inquiries to Pacific Biodiesel and ADC were unanswered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just as Environment Hawai\u02bbi<\/em> was going to press, the ADC produced a copy of a right-of-entry agreement, signed in August 2020, giving Pacific Biodiesel use of the property for parking and storage purposes. For this, Pacific Biodiesel pays no rent but is supposed to insure the state. ADC was asked if proof of insurance was ever obtained; no response was received before we went to press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why did ADC acquire the land in the first place? Questions to ADC about the rationale behind the purchase were referred to Becker Communications. According to Scott Ishikawa, a senior account director with the company, Becker Communications had \u201cjust been awarded a state contract to assist ADC with media relations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe property had been purchased to house a proposed food waste treatment facility to handle items such as table scraps, outdated and off-spec produce, to create organic fertilizer,\u201d Ishikawa replied. \u201cHowever, project funding lapsed several years ago and has not been reappropriated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n An Ambitious Project<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n More than a decade ago, the state, under the leadership of Governor Neil Abercrombie, was championing the idea of using crops and waste produce for biofuels. In April 2013, the governor\u2019s office issued a press release announcing the award of $200,000 from the state Department of Agriculture to the Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The award was to support PBARC\u2019s \u201czero waste biofuel and high protein feed program,\u201d the press release stated. (The award was actually made by the ADC.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAside from the benefit of producing biofuel,\u201d the press release said, \u201cthis technology has the ability to create another revenue stream for papaya and other tropical agricultural farmers\u2026 At full scale, more than 1,000 jobs are projected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhile papaya was chosen as the initial feedstock, this technology can be applied to any plant material as a carbon source. In Hawai\u02bbi, other identifiable feedstock are unmarketable sweet potato, sugar cane, mango, albizia, and glycerol.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jimmy Nakatani, then head of the Agribusiness Development Corporation, is quoted as describing the project as \u201ca major breakthrough that focuses on key components hampering the sustainability efforts of other micro-organism based fuel projects. \u2026 Using unmarketable plant and other waste materials drastically reduces this cost driver.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A year later, in August 2014, Abercrombie\u2019s office issues another press release, this time announcing the award of $1.6 million from ADC to PBARC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On April 22, 2015, the ADC board heard a presentation urging approval of the Kea\u02bbau parcel. Staffer Ken Nakamoto described this as an acquisition \u201cneeded in conjunction with our zero waste project.\u201d According to ADC minutes, he told the board that the Legislature last session had allocated funds \u201cto establish a zero waste demonstration facility on Hawai\u02bbi island for the purposes of scaling up the mini pilot project to determine if the heterotrophis algae\/fungi can be produced on a commercial scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cADC entered into a [memorandum of agreement] with Pacific Biodiesel to establish a temporary demonstration on PB\u2019s property to work on the specialized equipment which may take months to assemble. ADC identified land in the W.H. Shipman Business Park to construct the permanent zero waste demonstration facility. The property is an ideal location to construct the facility because of its industrial zoning and its proximity to the PB facility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scott Enright, chair of the Department of Agriculture, \u201ccommented that the land adjacent to Pacific Biodiesel in Kea\u02bbau allows ADC to move forward. The original work was done by PBARC so now that we are taking it to commercialization but still in the demonstration phase this allows us to tie it in. The thought is that Pacific Biodiesel has the best track record to allow us to move forward just short of commercialization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The board approved of the purchase. The sale was recorded December 4, 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Petering Out<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The big plans to turn unsellable papayas, other produce, albizia, and who knows what else into fuel or feed seems to have fizzled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2016, the Legislature appropriated $1.5 million for \u201cplans, design, construction, and equipment for the Kea\u02bbau facility to develop biofuel and animal feed in Kea\u02bbau, Hawai\u02bbi.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n ADC\u2019s reports to the Legislature for 2018 and 2019 report its expenditures on the zero waste project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fiscal year 2018 it had a budget of $25,000 for zero waste but spent $42,924. In 2019, the budget was again $25,000, but it spent $64,173.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both reports contain an identical description of the accomplishments toward zero waste:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reducing food waste, the reports state, is a strategy championed by UDSA PBARC. The ADC, PBARC, and Pacific Biodiesel Technologies \u201ccurrently are engaged in a project regarding the development of algae grown on papaya waste as a biofuel and livestock feed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sole achievement noted is the completion of plans and design for project-build out \u201cin the adjacent lot to Pacific Biodiesel. The construction phase was put out to bid and did not receive any offers. As a result, the funds received for construction ($1.5 million) lapsed on June 30, 2018.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014 Patricia Tummons<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Less than 1 percent of the land nominally managed by the state Agribusiness Development Corporation is found on the island of Hawaiʻi, according to a pie chart in the agency’s most recent report to the Legislature. That fraction is all … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[535],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-16384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-march-2025","tag-patricia-tummons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}