 Aloha and welcome to another episode of Hawaii Food and Farmers Series. I'm your co-host Matt Johnson here today with Justine Espiritu. First time since September 29th. Yeah, since we've both been here so we're happy to be back again. As always, we're here every Thursday talking to Hawaii's movers and shakers in our local ag community. If you want to join the conversation, please start tweeting in at thinktechhi.com and if you want to see the show again and again, we'll be up on the YouTube channel, ThinkTech Hawaii. Justine, you want to go ahead and introduce our guest today? Thanks Matt. So today we have Joey Char, who is a land asset manager for Kamehameh schools, overseeing an ag park on the windward side, Punaluu. So he's here to talk about some of the things that's going on over there. It was started in 2012 and there's a couple different growers and operations and there's been some new developments and a lot going on. So we get to have Joey here to kind of explain that, give your background with kind of managing a project like this and let us know what's going on. So thanks for joining us. Hi Justine, hi Matt. Thanks for having me on the show. So one word, we don't like to use the word development in Punaluu. That's something that doesn't sit well with the community. So I don't know where we would use it, but we don't want to send the wrong message. Community, building a community. Yes. Great. So what can I tell you about Punaluu Valley? So as an ag park it started in 2012, so that's not too long ago. So if you kind of want to start with the impetus and the purpose of this specific piece. Okay. So a little bit of history. Punaluu Valley is a part of the statewide legacy lands that Princess Bernice Pawahi Bishop endowed a trust with known as Kamehameh schools whose mission is to educate Native Hawaiian people. So the valley is a true ahapua. It's 3,600 acres. It runs from the ocean all the way up to the top of the ko'olau. And it's been an ag pre-cont, since pre-contact days. So it was started as ag, you know, traditionally lo'i. You know what I mean? It was a bread basket for that side of the island back in the day. And then it was rice, mainly farmers rice when Chinese immigrants came to Hawaii. Then after that it was put into sugar cane production when James Castle leased the valley as a part of his sugar operation. And then in 2000 the land came back to Kamehameh schools, basically an in-house management. So KS took the land back and became an active steward of it. And that really, 2000 is really when the ag part concept came into being. And since then Kamehameh schools has invested quite a bit of money in terms of putting in an irrigation system. And we've got about 25 farmers there farming about 175 acres currently. We have about 350 acres total, so there's a lot of room for growth in terms of bringing more ag into the ahapua. It's always going to be ag because in March 2015 we petitioned the state and were granted the important ag lands designation. So Kamehameh schools made the commitment to keeping the land in ag in perpetuity. So it's almost kind of like an easement on the property saying that it has to be in agricultural use where it can't be rezoned or redeveloped for anything else? Yes, meaning if we ever wanted to do something other than ag with it it would be very difficult because we made it difficult for ourselves by pursuing that designation. No, that's great. And that's a large part of Kamehameh schools mission in bringing more local agriculture throughout the entire state. So like you said, kind of developing these ag parks. Are there other ag parks throughout the state on Kamehameh schools land? Yeah, I don't know if we don't really use the word ag park, but there's ag land. So the endowment has about 364,000 acres total. It's the largest private landowner in the state of Hawaii. And the bulk of it is either ag or conservation land. So most people recognize the commercial part of it, the Ili Waikiki Rohe Hawaiian Shopping Center. But really the vast majority of the land holdings are in agriculture and conservation. So there's ag operations throughout the state, you know, on Kaua'i, Maui, Hawaii Island and Oahu primarily, and Molokai. So yeah, there's ag operations all over. But then with this one specifically, it's smaller parcels, giving up in smaller parcels for small farmers specifically with diversified agriculture. Is that kind of unique? Yeah. So, well, I don't know if it would be unique. It would really be the idea that it's all one giant TMK that we've taken and divided into, arbitrarily divided into parcels of 5 to 10 acres. And again, TMK means... Tax map keys. So the... Just like a land designation. Land designation. So from the city's perspective, that's how they charge taxes, you know, real property tax. So we have 17 or so farmers actively farming right now, and they grow a wide variety of crops. Anything that they can sell, they'll grow. So, you know, diversified egg, vegetables, fruits, beetle leaf, which is a product that they... So a lot of our farmers are Southeast Asian immigrants, and they grow this product called beetle leaf. But really, from our perspective, trying to move the needle on local food production is really... One of the primary goals of getting the land into active production. Is also local production as well as local consumption of that? I thought that might have been a goal of that as well. Yeah, I think that that would be a great goal, hopefully, that everybody would strive for. I mean, we can't control what people buy, but hopefully, if more local produce is put into the grocery stores, then people will buy it. And the more people that buy it will increase demand, so more farmers will get into growing it. And hopefully, it'll just exponentially increase in that way. So, I mean, being a farmer, one of the hardest things to do is actually to get on the land. So this is a great opportunity. What's that process look like if somebody who's watching the show right now is interested in farming up on the loo? What's that process look like? Is it open to anyone who says they want to come on and farm? Are there requirements? What's that process look like? So, Justine, those first hand, put a little... You're going to go on a tour with Joey. It's not the easiest place to farm, so I actually turn away more people than we bring in, because you want to set farmers up for success. So when you say it's not the easiest place, what do you mean? So, geographically, it's located in the middle of the windward side, so it's not... You know, there's basically one road coming on the highway. So it's not the easiest place to get your crops to market. But beyond that, it's also topographically. It's, you know, the land that I've shown Justine is not the... You know, she basically looked at it and said, you want me to farm this? It looked like you needed to flatten things, but because at that time, too, there was all the flat area up in the front, was they were getting, not evicted, but the stream... It's being kept fallow in anticipation of a stream restoration project that we're still in the process of getting permitted. But the land, you know, but the land is good. The farmers that make it there love it there. Great land, great water, but you got to know what you're doing. So, you know, I usually ask four questions. I don't know if I ask these... Did you even get to the question? I was like, ah, I'm out of here. But usually based on the answers of these four questions, I kind of know whether or not they're right. And the first one is, what do you want to grow? Second one is, what is your experience growing it? Third one is, where are you going to sell it? And if they get past the first three, then the fourth one I usually ask is, why do you want to farm in Punaluu? Because you could farm in a lot of places in Punaluu. I don't want to scare anybody away, but it's not, you know, again, it's not the easiest place to farm. But if you can make it there, you could make it anywhere. But it is, well, I'm excited to know that there's a couple GoFarm graduates that are there and some other folks. And they're doing very well. Which also makes me curious, have you said Southeast Asian immigrants? And I know of the GoFarm, but is the diversity of the farmers, is it a lot of people that have been going for a long time? Or is it a lot of new farmers? Is it a mix or more so? It's a mix. What's really encouraging to me is that the farmers who are there are younger, younger-ish, younger than me. And that's really encouraging, you know, because like Robert and Latasha, you know, who are graduates in your class of GoFarm, they've got a really nice one-acre organic parcel that they're really doing well. What kind of stuff are they growing? Oh, God, you know, corn, beets, kale, corn. Tomatoes? They're called the tomato farm. They really know what they're doing, and they're making a really good go of it. And so getting more farmers like them through programs like GoFarm and just networking. I mean, that's what's been really cool as we bring people on, of really seeing this pipeline that's kind of developing in Hawaii to bring that increase in producers. Yeah, and so I think having more farmers like Robert and Latasha, Dave Berlu, and a lot of other farmers that are really doing well. And then you've got more experienced guys like Ted Nakamura, who's got some land in Punaluu. And then the most recent one, which they haven't gotten on the land yet, but the Mahiai match-up winner for this year, Mahauulu, is going to take one of the Kahana side parcels that they're going to turn into an Ulu orchard. And so there's a lot of promising upside. So a year from now, let's talk about it. And that's great where you have different programs. We're thinking about schools because I think you're recognizing that, you know, it takes more than just having access to land. You have the Mahiai match-up where we had Kalani on the show before talking about the program, where it's a competition, business plan competition, where applicants are applying for access to land. So there's some type of lease agreement for five years, something like that. Yeah, that they don't pay rent so that they are able to get their operation off the ground because you can imagine an Ulu orchard, it's probably three years minimum before you even see any fruit, probably more than that. And so the idea of the program is to help them just get off the ground and get established and part of the competition is to reward them with seed money that they can use to get the operation started. It seems like a real holistic approach where it's saying, okay, we have this ag land and then there's also resources to help you financially and making sure that they have a good plan going into it to give them as much opportunity for success. That's fantastic. Yeah, and I would really, that's a great point because I would encourage anybody that wants to call me as a result of the show interested in Punaluu, having a business plan really helps a lot. I mean, it really helps put on paper what they might be envisioning for themselves as a farmer. And if you can make it work on paper, then at least you've got a good shot at making it work in real life. And I think it's great. I think KS as a landowner is a lot more collaborative in that effort than people sometimes think. Yeah. So we're actually going to take a quick 60 second break and then we'll kind of get into some new developments that's going on. Okay. Thanks. I'm Ethan Allen, host of likeable science here on Think Tech Hawaii. Every Friday afternoon at 2 p.m., you'll have a chance to come and listen and learn from scientists around the world. Scientists who talk about their work in meaningful, easy to understand ways. And you come to appreciate science as a wonderful way of thinking, way of knowing about the world. You'll learn interesting facts, interesting ideas. You'll be stimulated to think more. Please come join us every Friday afternoon at 2 p.m. here on Think Tech Hawaii for likeable science with me, your host Ethan Allen. Hello, and aloha. My name is Raya Salter, and I am the host of Power of Hawaii, where Hawaii comes together to figure out how we're going to work towards a clean and renewable energy future. We have exciting conversations with all kinds of stakeholders, everyone who needs to come together to talk about renewable energy, be they engineers, advocates, lawyers, utility executives, musicians or artists, to see how we can come together to make a renewable future. Tuesdays at 1 p.m. Aloha, and welcome back to the Hawaii Food and Farmers series. I'm your co-host, Justine Asguratu. This is my co-host, Matthew Johnson. So happy to be reunited. Happy to be back. Today's guest is Joey Char, the land asset manager for Kamehameh Schools, and we're talking specifically about punaloo. So we talk about some of the different farmers, some of the different products, and I'm curious to hear some new efforts. You're kind of cultivating one to be more collaborative with who is farming there, as well as maybe some new initiatives of helping them bring the product into the community. So maybe related to ag, we have... So punaloo as a natural and cultural resource has so much upside potential because there's a lot of history, a lot of moalelo that goes back generations in terms of who lived there, what happened there, what was farmed there, how did they do it. And one of the programs that we're going to be bringing to life in the next year or so is a cultural restoration project where there's three large hay-out complexes there, actually four. And part of the program that we're working on is to engage the community with restoring, helping us restore and melama these sites. And that kind of ties into the greater KS mission, if you will, in terms of incorporating Hawaiian culture into the curriculum that the endowment is, the mission of the endowment is to educate Native Hawaiian people. So educating Hawaiian culture and values into the curriculum is one of the objectives. And doing INA-based teaching and opportunities on the land for people to engage in is one way of creating that synergy in punaloo. The same before the show, I thought it was really interesting that you're a guy coming from commercial development before, you were with Bank of Hawaii before, and then you transitioned over to Kamehameha Schools as an asset manager. And you're really kind of the guy on the ground that's interfacing between the mission of Kamehameha Schools, the cultural traditions, education, and then finding the right mix of farmers who need to come on and actually make it a viable business of really connecting all those pieces. And I think it's fantastic what you're doing and also tying in with my AI match-up. So there's a lot of these pieces that make it more complex, but I think overall it's more what, especially a community like punaloo, is looking for. Yeah, I think the name of the place I think sums it up well. It's actually punaloo ahapua'a farms. So punaloo obviously is the place. Ahapua'a tells you that there's more going on here than just farming. Now farms obviously is the ag component of it, but there's many different wonderful working pieces in the ahapua'a that have yet to be fully realized. And so there's, again, I really consider punaloo a diamond in the rough because there's so many things that can and will happen there, it just takes time to get them going. The land's always been there, so it's not like we have to be in a rush to do it. We just want to make sure we do it right. And connecting those three concepts, punaloo, ahapua'a, and farms to the immediate community and the community at large, really is one of the main objectives and one of the wonderful things that we hope to be able to do there. And so you had mentioned some other activities that you want to see happening in ahapua'a, connecting it to the farm. What were some of the other things that you want to see happening? So should we talk about CSA? Come on as well. Give a lot of fresh and good plugs. I mean, always. Yeah. My personal real, my real immediate goal is to try and get a CSA started in punaloo because we have the farming going on there. We've got a very vibrant, active community there, so it just makes so much sense to connect people that live in the community with food grown in the community. And a CSA seems like a natural evolution of that idea. It's just a matter of getting it off the ground, finding the right mix and the right chemistry. And hopefully, you know, if we talk a year from now, that might actually be happening. Another interesting thing culturally-wise, I just firm this up today, is that we're planning on doing a traditional board and stone class, I think in February. And this is where one of our cultural practitioners, Earl Kovah, a great guy, very, very knowledgeable, strong mana in this man. He's going to be, you know, he teaches these classes all over the island through Kikioka Aina. And we're just talking about doing one of those in punaloo where people from the community will be invited to sign up, and you, I think it'll be like an 11 or 12-week commitment. But you get to learn how to make a traditional poi board, a papakuii and a paku, the poi ponder. And the wonderful thing about it is all of these materials, you know, there's a ko'i that you make out of a hao branch to carve the board, which traditionally is monkey pod or mango, and a stone that you carve into the shape of the poi ponder. All these materials we plan on gathering from the aapwa. So it's a wonderful way to connect the community to the land with the practice, the cultural practice. And it's intended to be a family-oriented activity. And so I think it's going to be, and I haven't gone through the class, I can say, it's just really a wonderful way of connecting the culture to people with the land and ultimately food because you use it to pound, tower, and deploy. And so workshops like that have already happened in other spaces, and this is just a new venue for it? Yes. That's a well-established program that when I went through the class, I just thought, you know, we need to be doing this kind of thing and put a little, and so hopefully, two months from now, we will be. That's great. One thing I want to make sure we talk about, too, it's a little, I guess, on the side, but we've been involved with the upcoming Hawaii Ag Conference. You want to talk a little bit about that and some of the plans around that? Yeah, so you and I are both on the planning committee and we haven't nailed the date down. We're thinking August of 2017 is probably when it's going to happen, but the Hawaii Ag, Hawaii Agricultural Leadership Foundation of Hawaii is the sponsor and presenter of this statewide Ag Conference that the hope is to get anybody interested in ag, yes, farmers, yes, producers, yes, distributors, even the general population who just has an interest in locally grown food, get them engaged in this conference and start active dialogue about how we can make Hawaii more food self-sustainable. I mean, we're still working out the theme, but I believe we're gravitating in that direction in terms of just trying to get a more active interest in local ag because, you know, with HC&S closing down, sugar is basically its extinct come now. And so getting all of that land back into production, not just HC&S's land, but KS's lands, the other li'i trusts who have ag lands. I mean, there's a lot of ag land in Hawaii that I don't think it's a matter of lack of the resource. I just think it's really more lack of farmers and a lack of market, you know, demand that's going to inspire a farmer to inspire somebody to choose farming as a career as opposed to something else because they know that they can make a living wage doing it. I'm curious, as you guys are planning this conference, are you thinking of or looking to the new policy that Igay proposed of doubling, or whatever the percentage is now, doubling of food production? Yeah, is that getting intertwined in this conference? Is this going to like propose some plans for that? Or is it secret? You're not even ahead but not saying anything. Well, I was going to let our guests answer, but we actually want to think that was part of the conversation where we look at that and we're saying, wow, there's government officials saying these things. And I think anybody that is working in the ag industry, you know, here's a statement like that. It's like, well, there's so many components to that. Like, what does that even mean? You know, increasing food production. You know, we're talking about just street calories. Are we talking, what kind of food are we talking about? And do we even have a firm idea of what the amount of production even is right now? So that's definitely part of the conversation. And we're still trying to figure out the appropriate way to invite government officials to that venue as a way for them, not to put them on the spot. They're like, hey, what was this? How is this going to happen? But I think it's a good opportunity to have that conversation. And that's a challenge we're having as a planning committee, is when you say local agriculture, I mean, everybody has kind of their own definition. You know, are we talking about food? If we're talking about food, what are we talking about? A lot of times, and I know with the Ag Leadership Foundation, which is hosting the event, they include horticulture as agriculture. So just kind of defining what that means, I think is going to be part of our challenge, but also the challenge for everyone that's kind of coming, that's going to be attending the conferences, for them to figure that out as well, and kind of go from there. Yeah, I went to this presentation that Jeff Milrose was the presenter. Yeah, the Planner Day. Did you go there? Yeah, it was great. He did a great job. And one of the things that really stuck with me was he said, a lot of times when people think agriculture, they think food. And that's... I think it was when people say food, they automatically think vegetables. Yeah, yeah. But that could mean cattle, that could mean a number of things. It could be chicken if you make eggs. I mean, there's so many other things that go beyond vegetables. And so I think that was a really interesting point, because as we plan this conference and try to drill down to, what are we actually going to put as the content of this thing? Answering those types of questions are really what we are trying to do right now so that come actual conference, there really is a clear objective of having it. So yeah, I mean, there's a lot of work to do with that. But it's exciting. I think it's an interesting time to be involved in ag. I mean, you could be scared by what's happening right now or you can be energized by it in the sense of not knowing what's going to happen could be a lot of opportunity. There's a lot of opportunity that could come out of this void that we seem to be kind of in right now. Yeah, and I think too, anytime you do a conference, you don't want to be like, where people come and you just dish out information and people leave and say, wow, that was good information. Like how do you make it more participatory and more involved? You know, that's definitely the challenge and something we're hoping to address with the conference. And that would be great for anybody watching this to really, if you have an interest in agriculture, you should be coming to this conference and even better, help us plan. You know, get on, get involved with us now because if there's a topic you think is worthwhile for the state to be investigating, then you should be on this planning committee with us and just be a part of it. So we have to wrap it up right there. Thanks so much for coming and thank you for volunteering to host the show that gives the update on the conference and post conference. Thank you so much. We're happy to have you as a co-host. Thank you everyone for being here today. Thank you.