Auction house would help farmers prosper

I had some suggestions to address the Ige administration’s desire to double food production in Hawaii by 2020 (“Agriculture director grilled over jobs, food goals,” Star-Advertiser, Jan. 8).

As an agricultural researcher for 32 years and an owner/operator of an active 6-acre farm, I can confirm that the most challenging part about crop production in Hawaii is not what to grow but how to sell it.

Unlike small-scale commercial fishermen, Hawaii’s crop producers do not have ready access to the market via a professionally run auction house.

An auction house located on Oahu, supplied by neighbor island producers using an inter-island ferry, would greatly enhance the incentive for and efficiency of food crop production in Hawaii.

Also, exempting the first $500,000 of income, due to food crop production, from income and general excise taxes, would help bring new people into the food crop production arena.

Joseph DeFrank

Mililani

—

Listen to farmers, not political activists

I was very disappointed that the Star-Advertiser, the main news source in Hawaii, gave credence to Washington, D.C.-based activists like Ashley Lukens of the Hawaii Center for Food Safety (“Rallying for tougher laws,” Star-Advertiser, Jan. 7).

A photo also showed a professional activist and an environmental attorney who have relied on misinformation to threaten access to technology.

It’s ironic that with fake news in the headlines, the Star-Advertiser used their voices and images for this story.

Lukens’ group invests in celebrities, not farms.

The Star-Advertiser needs to get back to real investigative reporting and let the farmers speak up. The three environmental activists aren’t farming and never have as a profession, nor do they have any formal education in agriculture — but are sure out to tell farmers how to farm.

If they aren’t the ones walking the talk, why should they be at the forefront of what happens to our farms in Hawaii?

Please give more credibility to the real farmers who are preserving our agricultural legacy.

Joni Kamiya

Kaneohe

—

Protect adoptees born overseas

One would think legal adoption would guarantee American citizenship. Think again.

A large number of adopting American parents failed to apply for American citizenship for their foreign-born adoptees, which would have guaranteed all rights of citizenship. Many adoptees, now adults with families of their own, have been cruelly torn from their spouses and children in deportation proceedings to countries of their birth, where they do not know the language or culture.

In an effort to correct such injustices, the Adoptee Citizenship Act was introduced in Congress in 2015 (Senate Bill 2275) to grant retroactive citizenship to all foreign-born adoptees, including those who have been deported already. So far, the bill has not passed in Congress.

In the meantime, if you are the parent of a foreign-born adoptee now age 19 or older, make sure you have applied for that child’s citizenship since it was not automatically granted at the time of adoption. Legislation for children under 19 years of age is already in place, ensuring their rights as American citizens.

Janet Ashkenazy

Honokaa, Hawaii island

—

Don’t deny fireworks to responsible users

Before the fireworks ban, I was an enthusiast who would visit Ewa on New Year’s and happily set off quantities of fireworks with friends and family, building to a crescendo of booms and crackles at midnight and then fading away for another year.

For those of us who enjoyed fireworks, mostly working-class families from the Leeward side, the ban came as a total surprise. It became a driving factor in my current involvement in news and local politics. Something I enjoyed was taken from me, and I didn’t understand how.

It’s not lost on me that some of my neighbors did not care for it, or that the carelessness of some users will result in injury. There are risks in most worthwhile things.

It’s important not to color all fireworks users as lawbreakers. These are hard-working people who care about their families, and celebrate in an extravagant way once or twice a year. The people still setting off fireworks are stakeholders engaging in a form of civil disobedience.

Harlan Kanoa N. Sheppard

Ewa Beach

—

Time to stand behind Trump presidency

It’s one thing to be incredibly biased because the majority of your readership may subscribe to a particular philosophy. Just stop reporting the news in an unfair and unbalanced manner about our incoming president.

Hardly anything nice is ever said about Donald Trump. He’s won; get over it. It’s time to stand behind him and support the change the American election process has set in motion.

I’m a veteran. We need a strong, pro-military leader who won’t sell out U.S. interests.

Get on board.

Tyler Adams

Kaneohe

—

Government tells citizens to settle

If we can proceed headlong into a boondoggle we call the rail, with nary a thought about how much it’s going to cost a fraction of our population, why aren’t we concerned about the unfunded liability for our retirement system that affect countless more citizens (“Nest egg shortfall tops $12 billion,” Star-Advertiser, Jan. 10)?

Any thoughts to those responsible for skimming our funds during better times?

Look at the future: Russia and China in control of world order; the U.S. a Third-World nation, with unions, developers, landowners and speculators in charge of government operations, and the citizens being told to “shut up and settle for what you get.”

Yep. New order of peace.

Steven Vidinha

Kaneohe