Kauai’s trademark red soil can be found in many places on the island, but nowhere more prevalent than on the west side. In fact, the town of Waimea got its name, which means "reddish water," from the soil that for centuries has colored the Waimea River.

From this red soil, farmers grew sugar cane for more than 100 years. Though this land is used differently now, agriculture is still a part of the town of Waimea.

The Hawaii Right to Farm Act, passed in 1982, recognizes that farming inevitably will create dust and other impacts, and seeks to balance the rights of farmers to farm and neighbors to use and enjoy their homes.

DuPont Pioneer today uses innovative conservation practices to reduce impacts to its neighbors and to preserve the land for the future. Validating DuPont Pioneer’s soil-conservation and dust-mitigation efforts, a recent jury decision (Jim Aana, et al. vs. Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.) found that, since January 2012, we have followed generally accepted agricultural and management practices. Though the jury found our practices between December 2009-December 2011 did not meet this standard, the fact that it found our practices to be compliant since January 2012 is crucially important.

I am pleased to share with you a few of these practices — some are unique to DuPont Pioneer and all of them illustrate our commitment to being good land stewards.

One such practice at our Waimea Research Center is the extensive use of cover crops. We use buck-wheat because it works best at this location, given the soils and environmental conditions.

There is widespread agreement that cover crops are the most effective method of preventing erosion by protecting the soil surface. Not only does this practice reduce dust, it also replaces nutrients in the soil, helping ensure fertility of the land for future generations.

Our efforts at Waimea go far beyond planting cover crops. We no longer farm acres nearest the town. For example, even though we pay rent for this land, we keep a cover crop on it to reduce dust.

We planted hundreds of trees as a vegetative wind barrier and erected a 12-foot high dust fence more than 1,000 feet long.

Water trucks regularly spray roads, and low speed limits are followed to keep dust down. We also monitor wind speeds, and don’t conduct land preparation if wind speed and direction could impact our neighbors.

Other efforts to minimize dust include increased permanent irrigation systems and mobile sprinklers, netting on newly planted fields and small-scale land preparation.

Although we have been engaged with local schools and other organizations in the community, the lawsuit precluded us from interacting with certain neighbors — something we look forward to changing.

Our employees are neighbors, parents, coaches and volunteers. They are proud of their work advancing agriculture in Hawaii and around the world, and are also honored to continue the heritage of farming in the islands. We hope to share with our neighbors more about what we do and to demonstrate our strong commitment to the entire community.

Richard McCormack is DuPont Pioneer Hawaii operations leader.