Any agricultural project that is sustainable will be well received. But it is absolutely essential that the definition of sustainability includes environmental stewardship — both with respect to the land involved, as well as the communities surrounding the land. Engaging the community is an important part of environmental stewardship.
To be clear, Kawailoa Development and the businesses that it oversees in the Poipu area, the Grand Hyatt Kauai and the Poipu Bay Golf Course, strongly support local agriculture. We favor food production being sustainable and local farmers being prosperous. We are always looking for ways that our restaurants may access Kauai-produced products. We believe that agricultural sustainability and tourism should go hand in hand.
An example of such support is a new project developed by Kawailoa in close consultation with the University of Hawaii’s College of Tropical Agriculture. The project will feature a soon-to-be-built 4,000 square foot greenhouse at the hotel, which will be used to grow hydroponic lettuce, tomatoes and other herbs and vegetables. The project will provide opportunities for training, research and education. It will enhance the dining experience of the hotel’s guests, promote locally grown produce, and most importantly, have no adverse effect on the environment or ecology.
In contrast, the dairy proposed by Hawaii Dairy Farms will involve a highly intensive use of land in an area of such natural and cultural significance that the National Park Service has studied and considered Mahaulepu for inclusion in the National Park system.
As a concentrated animal feeding operation with 2,000 cows on approximately 500 acres of land, the dairy will trigger significant environmental and public health concerns. The Environmental Protection Agency is very concerned with the risks that livestock will contaminate groundwater and surface waters.
According to data contained in its own plan, Hawaii Dairy Farms acknowledges that each cow will produce an average of 143 pounds of manure per day. The 2,000 total cows in the dairy will therefore produce a staggering 286,000 pounds of manure per day.
It is not enough to simply declare that no discharge or runoff will occur. It is not enough to simply declare that there will be no odor. Details of measures to address that amount of manure must be explained and proven. If not contained, contaminated runoff water will inevitably find its way into the streams, wetlands and ocean, or seep into the groundwater table. The results will be tragic.
Ironically, the dairy will not produce milk for consumers of Kauai or for businesses in Poipu. There is no pasteurization plant on Kauai. All raw milk will be shipped off-island. If one of the goals of sustainability is to have Kauai-produced foods more available for Kauai residents, the proposed dairy farm clearly will not meet this goal
Tourism, of course, is Kauai’s largest industry, and the Grand Hyatt Kauai and Poipu Bay Golf Course, with over 1,000 employees, is Kauai’s largest private employer. The livelihood of a lot of local families depends on the successful operation of the hotel and golf course.
In turn, the success of the hotel and golf course is dependent upon its guests enjoying their experience. Visitors come to Kauai for its unrivaled natural beauty. They do not come to Kauai to be near large amounts of manure. If visitors do not return, the visitor-related businesses, and the jobs associated with them, will be in jeopardy.
Can agriculture co-exist with tourism? Sure it can. Kawailoa will soon demonstrate by its own project that local agriculture is compatible with tourism. But not all agricultural operations prioritize environmental stewardship. On an island where available land is scarce, highly intensive and concentrated farms that place a heavy toll on the environment, without proper environmental review or community participation, simply cannot be considered sustainable.
