EiJ Hawaii Agriculture and Stakeholders

Indigenous farmers - creating food forests that focus on native crops (though they do include non-natives that serve a purpose or simply taste good) and fostering biodiversity/sustainability, also support Hawaii's ability to be self-sufficient (85-95% of food is imported) and the return of native species of animals

Japanese farmworkers - first arrived in 1860s, particularly influential in coffee industry

Filipino farmworkers - 6,000 arrive in 1946

International Longshore and Warehouse Union - includes sugar plantation workers - 1946 28,000 workers strike; again in 1958, 1974 (pineapple workers strike 1947, 1968, 1974)

Agrochemical transnational companies, e.g. Monsanto, Pioneer, Novartis, Cargill - environmental destruction, disregard for regulations on use and disposal of hazardous chemicals, off-site releases of hazardous chemicals from Maui research facility, political lobbying against regulations for GMOs and pesticides

Historic stakeholders - cattle ranchers, monocrop plantations - less common today but their effects on the environment are still very visible

• Cattle ranching begins in 1809
• Coffee plantations begin in 1830s (peaks in 1957)
• Sugar plantations begin in 1850s, peaks in 1933 and again in 1966
• Pineapple plantations begin in 1880s (Dole plantation established in 1901; peaks in 1955)
• Many plantations close in the 1990s

Tourism - economic control

Beyond Pesticides - national organization with programs in Hawaii

Maui County Department of Agriculture - newly created to invest in food sovereignty, help move the island away from monocrop pasts by rehabilitating the environment and creating jobs

Sources:

https://grist.org/agriculture/the-farmers-restoring-hawaiis-ancient-food...

https://www.mauinews.com/opinion/columns/2022/03/changes-to-agricultural...

https://hdoa.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/HISTORY-OF-AGRICULTUR...