Cattle grazing, energy crops could replace sugar production
BRYAN BERKOWITZ / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER
HC&S workers listen as a prayer is said at the ceremonial first harvest for the last season of sugar cane at Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company (HC&S) in Puunene, Maui on Tuesday, March 1, 2016.
WAILUKU >> Alexander & Baldwin is considering cattle grazing and energy crops as sugar production phases out on Maui.
The Maui News reports the company held its conference call with investors last week covering topics like a grazing trial on the island and weighing the possibility of leases for large-scale ranching.
President and Chief Executive Officer Chris Benjamin said the company hopes to help local ranchers meet the growing demand for grass-fed beef.
Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. will stop sugar production before next year and reduce its workforce from 675 to 15.
Alexander & Baldwin estimates agribusiness operational losses this year between $5 million and $15 million.
Revenue fell from $150.7 million in the first quarter of last year to $108.8 million in the first quarter of 2016.
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17 responses to “Cattle grazing, energy crops could replace sugar production”
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Well, we have so many of those cattle egrets flopping around Hawaii they would finally have something to do.
scary
What about hemp? The US imports all it’s hemp now. It’s a valuable cash crop. Has many many commercial uses. Short time between planting and harvest. And…. I understand it grows like a weed.
Shhhhh; don’t tell everyone… I’m on it (screw MED MARIJUANA (LET “HA” and all the other “Corrupto’s play that game..)). One of the few ways to remediate the polluted-AINA is HEMP.
Medical marijuana and HEMP are NOT related.
Of course they are related. They were both created by God on the third day of creation. Both should be freely legal. Why are we behind? Wake up democrats or we will fall further behind.
Hemp may be a cash crop. But it can still be grown much more cheaply elsewhere than here. On top of that, it can be processed at a much lower cost elsewhere than here. Commodity crops simply won’t work here.
…and where will the beef be sold — on the mainland or Japan?
JAPAN won’t buy the beef, but CHINA might–in trade for Oil and Natural Gas.
And China will ship it back to the U.S. after adding who knows what!
How about to Oahu McDonalds or Burger King, as Angus ???? Burgers?
where is the closest slaughter house? Didn’t someone want to build/make a portable one?
cattle/livestock use a lot of water.
No, cattle release greenhouse gas. The environmentalists will object and insist we eat vegan.
But when we eat vegan we release “greenhouse gas”
But its not, crackerboxes is the only crop in the works
Why is everybody wearing hardhats?
the sky is falling.
If all else fails A&B can always buy off Donovan Dela Cruz or Ron Kouchi to pass a bill for the state to buy the land for “preservation purposes”. That seems to be the trend these days when developers find they own land that is useless to them.