How bad is farming real produce in hawaii ? (homes, neighborhood)

[mangodog]

I am not a professional farmer but I hear that there are a myriad of pests to frustrate agricultural farming in Hawaii. Is this really true ? I know of papaya farmers who are doing well on Big Island. Please tell of other ventures. I cannot fully believe that farming in Hawaii is doomed as some critics lament. Mahalo.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Pests should not be too much of a problem unless what you are really asking is about growing organic produce.

Not everybody thinks that organic produce is the only "real" produce, so perhaps you could clarify what you are asking?

[HiloDiver]

By "doing well" do you mean the papaya farmers are making a living, or just that they grow lots of papayas? They sell five for a buck in the farmers markets here, so they would really have to sell a bunch of them.

[BigIslandBum]

Originally Posted by mangodog

I am not a professional farmer but I hear that there are a myriad of pests to frustrate agricultural farming in Hawaii. Is this really true ? I know of papaya farmers who are doing well on Big Island. Please tell of other ventures. I cannot fully believe that farming in Hawaii is doomed as some critics lament. Mahalo.

"Doing well" is a matter of perspective. The papaya industry was nearly wiped out by Ring Spot Virus which is transmitted by aphids. This lead to the genetically engineered virus resistant Rainbow papaya which is grown by the local farmers. Pests are a serious issue when growing anything organically here.

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

Pests should not be too much of a problem

Pests are a huge problem in Hawaii - Hawaii has special exemptions on pesticides due to our location in the tropics - and of the 50 states, Hawaii uses the most pesticides.

To farm successfully - one will need to overcome the high cost of the land - the cost of labor - and find a local market. Besides niche markets it certainly seems on the surface it must be difficult - go to any island and you'll see an incredible amount of land that was once farmed sitting vacant.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by BigIslandBum

"Doing well" is a matter of perspective. The papaya industry was nearly wiped out by Ring Spot Virus which is transmitted by aphids. This lead to the genetically engineered virus resistant Rainbow papaya which is grown by the local farmers. Pests are a serious issue when growing anything organically here.

The complexity of the papaya situation is illustrative. The ring spot virus wiped out papaya cultivation on Oahu in the 50s, but it had been held at bay on the Big Island until recent years, when despite a tight quarantine on interisland shipping of papayas or trees or even dirt that had been imposed around papayas, the aphids and their virus found a foothold on the Big Island and production began to fail. Disaster loomed.

So the plant scientists at CTAHR developed a Genetically Modified papaya that is resistant to the virus. And a couple more varieties are being developed. Then a new pest emerged: the eco-terrorist.

Two years running, large plantings of GMO papaya trees have been destroyed overnight by machete wielding vandals who are opposed to GMO crops in general, despite the fact that cultivation of non-GMO papayas seems unlikely to survive as the virus spreads, and GMO varieties dominate the market. .

Here's one of the news stories:
Genetically Modified Papayas Attacked In Hawaii

Or how about the coffee borer beetle, which has cut yields on affected farms on the Big Island by 50% or more the last couple of years. But half the coffee grown in Hawai'i comes from our sister islands, and the forces have been marshalled to try just to contain the pest to the Big Island.

Here's an article about that, and the slug fest over the $500,000 that was just allocated to fight the problem.:
More than $500,000 to fight coffee berry borer | Hawaii Tribune Herald

And here again are the latest administrative rules dealing with mitigation and quarantine procedures on the the top 17 agricultural pests, which are examples of what farmers face. See page 72-5 for that list.

http://hawaii.gov/hdoa/admin-rules/s...20HAR-2012.pdf

And this doesn't even address the environmental issues affecting agriculture, like the severe drought in many leeward areas, and the increased vog that has wiped out plum orchards and adversely affected citrus yields and and orchid cultivation.

It is neither simple or easy to be a farmer in the islands.

[hotzcatz]

And feral pigs will eat your crop, too. That is, if the fruit flies haven't gotten there first.

[CyberCity]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

... if the fruit flies haven't gotten there first.

Dang pests, we had a heck of a time getting them under control in our neighborhood of family homes with papaya trees.

[mangodog]

What astounds me after reading all the above replies, is; how was produce from the beginning of time on earth ever able to survive until present ? It surely did inspite of the pests and obstacles.

[nullgeo]

Originally Posted by OpenD

... Then a new pest emerged: the eco-terrorist. ...

Time will tell whether the ultimate pest to emerge is the "eco-terrorist" or Monsanto, ADM, DuPont, and all the other GMO chemists ... my bet is the latter group will "own", lock, stock, and barrel, the legal rights to all your food production in fairly short order ... and thus, regardless of the safety or not of their actual FrankenFoods, they will control the planet by controlling all rights to foods via agricultural patents.

Don't call that the penultimate terrorist scenario?