Remember Gov. David Ige’s goal in 2014 that we would double local food production by 2020? With about a month left in 2020, we have advanced some, but lost large farmlands and dairies on Maui, the Big Island, Kauai and Oahu, and probably are still about where we were in 2014, if not behind.
One would hope that the state would double down and push ahead on all fronts. Instead, to provide income for University of Hawaii-West Oahu, it now wants to put the AES West Oahu Solar and Battery Project on 97 acres of precious state-owned, fallow farmland on the Ewa Plain just above the H-1 freeway.
Larry Jeft’s Kelena Farms worked this property for years and found it “very productive.” It also either was part of, or adjacent to, the Golden Triangle, the highest-producing farmlands in Hawaii during sugar times.
The Land Study Bureau map designates the area as Class B land, not A, but it is outstanding for farming. The Golden Triangle was composed mostly of Class B lands. The real difference in West Oahu is not in the high, or super-high, soil quality. The difference is the sun.
Waimanalo and windward-side farms, and North Shore and north slope farms get a lot of rain and cloud cover year-round. These Leeward lands, however, get full sun almost every day. While those other areas produce two or three crops a year, the West Oahu lands produce four, or more, because of the extra sunshine.
A few years back, we lost the 1,200 acres of this sunny farmland to the Ho’opili housing project, so there are few sun-filled acres left. We cannot afford to lose even one.
This solar project is gargantuan. New state law allows solar farms to occupy up to 20 acres of Class B land. This one occupies 97 acres!
A great advantage of this farmland is that there are crop cooling and packing and processing facilities right next door at Aloun Farms, which is looking to serve other farmers. The lands are also close to market.
We have learned with rapid ohia death that when disease or pest infestations invade, there is no stopping them till there is no more to kill. These lands, which are contiguous with the farmlands of Kunia, are well separated from all the other farmlands on Oahu, an important safety measure for future generations.
Former City Councilman Tom Berg recently sent AES 15 pages of YouTubes showing how he had tracked the endangered and protected pueo owl and Hawaiian bats in this very area. It’s not just that the hard-surface solar panels will displace the trees and bushes where they sleep and rest during the day; there are major lights that can be seen for miles on the neighboring Bayer land that would reflect on the solar panels and blind, confuse and kill these important species as they fly in the night.
But it is not only endangered species that would be destroyed. Projects like AES’ threaten the lives of our people who will be living 30 years from now. The world is experiencing population explosion and tremendous aquifer depletion; there are ever more people with ever less water for irrigating crops or drinking.
By 2050, the United Nations says, we must have two bites of food for every bite produced today. If that proves impossible, the UN estimates, 370 million will be starving in 2050. Those masses would migrate, and there would be food wars. Should that happen , there would be little food for Hawaii to import from anywhere.
Today, we import 90% of our food. We must become 100% food-self-sufficient by 2050. The state must create the necessary farming revolution. This state land — productive, sunny farmland — is the place to start.
Put solar on roofs, not on farmland.
Kioni Dudley, Ph.D., is a community activist and retired educator.
