Step up or get lost. That\u2019s basically what state Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz told board members of the state Agribusiness Development Corporation on July 11. That day, Dela Cruz outlined his vision to turn former plantation lands in central O`ahu into a thriving agricultural hub.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you guys aren\u2019t up to the challenge, that\u2019s fine. We can find someone else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He blew into the state Department of Agriculture Plant Quarantine Division\u2019s board room with his power point presentation, recounting the ADC\u2019s history and reminding board members of all of the agency\u2019s special powers to side-step the bureaucracy that bogs down other state agencies. ADC leases and licenses aren\u2019t restricted to any particular term or qualification process and they can be directly negotiated. Simply put, the ADC can put farmers on the land faster and easier than any other state department.<\/p>\n
Dela Cruz, who grew up in Central O`ahu, launched into his Whitmore Village Development Plan to revitalize current and former plantation lands there. He had pushed hard for it during the past legislative session via various bills. Some passed, others didn\u2019t. Still, his goal to \u201ccreate some kind of synergy and scale\u201d to allow young O`ahu farmers to pursue agriculture remained.<\/p>\n
A major component of his plan, the use of more than 1,000 acres of Galbraith Estate land, falls under the ADC\u2019s purview. Or it will once the purchase from the Bank of Hawai`i, the estate\u2019s trustee, is finalized. In the next few months, the Trust for Public Land is expected to complete the $25 million purchase of 1,723 acres, 500 of which will then be transferred to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. The remaining 1,223 acres will go to the ADC.<\/p>\n
Dela Cruz has recommended that the ADC enter into a memorandum of agreement with OHA to transfer management of its 500-acre parcel, except for a five-acre archaeological site containing the Kukaniloko Birthstones, to the ADC.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce ADC takes possession of the Galbraith Estate, it will be able to offer long-term license agreements and public-private partnership contracts to a number of local farmers for the use of 50 to 200 acres each within the 1,723-acre plan,\u201d Dela Cruz writes in a summary of the Whitmore Village plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwelve-hundred acres is not enough,\u201d he told the ADC board. \u201cWe need access to water and infrastructure. We need to deal with food safety, marketing, distribution,\u201d he said, adding that he envisioned a co-op arrangement, \u201cwith ADC being the nucleus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dela Cruz had hoped to add 500 acres in Kunia, currently under the DOA\u2019s control, to the ADC\u2019s inventory, but legislation he had introduced supporting that transfer failed in the face of strong opposition from DOA director Russell Kokubun. Even so, Dela Cruz envisions farmers with ADC leases for the Kunia lands, prepping the Galbraith Estate lands \u201cso ADC can quickly jump-start the Whitmore Village Agricultural Development Plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite failing to bring the Kunia lands under ADC control, Dela Cruz succeeded in passing legislation (Act 106) to acquire Dole Food Co.\u2019s 24-acre former processing and packaging plant in Whitmore Village for $3.6 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could create an ag industrial park,\u201d said Dela Cruz, who visited the site with ADC board member and former DOA director Letitia Uyehara.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we were to do something like this, [it] would be a one-stop shop\u201d for people to pick up products from farmers and for farmers to package their produce securely and safely.<\/p>\n
Dela Cruz also asked for the ADC\u2019s help in acquiring 257 acres from Dole that have access to irrigation water from Lake Wilson. In fact, it includes the land under the lake. The land is worth $5.6 million and already supports two farmers, he said. As far as future tenants, he noted that Dole, which is already growing cacao on ten acres in Waialua, has said it would need 150 acres to grow enough to make it worth processing locally rather than in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
The University of Hawai`i\u2019s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources is also experimenting with growing blueberries and tea at Poamoho, which is 15 minutes away from Whitmore Village, he added.<\/p>\n
When Dela Cruz finished, several board members expressed their support for his concept, but wondered how it would be accomplished.<\/p>\n
ADC board member and Department of Land and Natural Resources water deputy William Tam noted that the ADC has only four staff members to tackle such an ambitious proposal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs there some thought to providing funds for more staff?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot necessary,\u201d Dela Cruz responded. The ADC has the ability to enter in to public-private partnerships. Farmers can do a lot of the work on their own with the right foundation and incentives, he argued.<\/p>\n
\u201cFarmers say if they get a long-term lease, they can get loans to [make improvements]. You have to use your land as leverage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Tam, a former state deputy attorney general, then pointed out that negotiating arrangements with farmers, businesses, and other government agencies takes time.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can contract [it out],\u201d Dela Cruz replied. \u201cWe see a lot of farmers that don\u2019t have that luxury of time. … We have to become creative.\u201d<\/p>\n
ADC member David Reitow said the Whitmore plan was nice concept but will require \u201can awful lot of work getting this from the ground up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t want to do the work, you shouldn\u2019t be part of the board,\u201d Dela Cruz responded, then went on the attack. \u201cThe law gives you so many unique advantages. … ADC does not even have a project to allow it to fulfill its mission. You haven\u2019t produced anything that the law allows you to produce.\u201d (With regard to Dela Cruz\u2019s last comment, he cites in his own Whitmore Village plan summary the ADC\u2019s partnership with Kaua`i\u2019s Kekaha Agriculture Association to operate and maintain the vast plantation infrastructure as an example of the agency\u2019s power, flexibility, and agility.)<\/p>\n
Dela Cruz pointed to his and his staff\u2019s efforts to produce the Whitmore Village Development Plan as an example of how to get things done.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t taken years to do this. We\u2019re not looking for excuses. We all drank the Kool-Aid [about food sustainability]. … The governor really needs to talk to the DOA to get it to understand we need those [Kunia] lands. The state\u2019s taken a lot of hits because of Ho`opili, and Koa Ridge,\u201d he said of recent decisions by the state Land Use Commission to place large swaths of agricultural land on O`ahu in the Urban District.<\/p>\n
Every time agricultural land is placed in an urban zone, people want to know what the state\u2019s plan is to get fallow land up and running, he continued. That, he argued, is the ADC\u2019s job.<\/p>\n
Regarding the ADC\u2019s 2008 strategic plan, Dela Cruz asked, \u201cWhat excuses does this board have that it hasn\u2019t updated its plan, its benchmarks, shown results? … I\u2019d hate to see the ADC become another bureaucracy.<\/p>\n
When ADC board member Paula Hegele asked how many people are looking for land and how many partners the ADC will need to support the 1,700 acres, Dela Cruz said that\u2019s what she should work on with staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the pieces are already done,\u201d he said, and his staff is working on doing more, like working with the Hawai`i Agriculture Foundation on applying for funds to purchase Dole\u2019s 257 acres.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just us, not the ADC. That\u2019s why I don\u2019t want to hear any excuses. My office only has two people and we\u2019ve been meeting with Dole, Castle and Cooke. We\u2019ve been meeting with farmers,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are already opportunities for partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he finished, everyone in the room laughed a little when ADC board chair Marissa Sandblom thanked him for starting off the meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll be back,\u201d Dela Cruz promised. Dela Cruz is chair of the Senate Committee on Water, Land, and Housing.<\/p>\n
— Teresa Dawson<\/p>\n
Volume 23, Number 2 August 2012<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Step up or get lost. That’s basically what state Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz told board members of the state Agribusiness Development Corporation on July 11. That day, Dela Cruz outlined his vision to turn former plantation lands in central O`ahu … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-august-2012"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459","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=459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}