Aquaculture

by Senator Will Espero
District 19

Mahi mahi, salmon, ahi, aku, akule, opakapaka, ogo, limu, shrimp, tako, crab, squid luau, poke.  Sauteed in garlic, with wasabi glaze, stuffed, pan-seared, broiled, grilled, with butter-shoyu sauce, covered by teriyaki or miso sauce, deep fried patties, steamed and finished with hot peanut oil /soy sauce / ginger, carpaccio style, or  with tomato concasse, chili pepper water, konbu broth and truffle butter  – any way you like it.  Getting hungry yet?

Surrounded by the ocean, to fishermen’s and seafood lovers’ delight, Hawaii residents consume an average of almost 45 pounds of seafood per person per year.  That’s almost three times the amount eaten by on the mainland.  Seafood is an important part of our island cuisine.  Attend almost any party or buffet and you’re likely to find a fish dish along with the chicken, pork, or beef.  Who doesn’t have their favorite recipe or restaurant entrée choice for seafood?

With all the seafood we eat here, we’re curiously dependent on importing 75% of it.  Given Hawaii’s ideal water, climate, and technological resources, we should be at the forefront of the explosive global demand for aquaculture.  Worldwide the industry has grown 8.8% annually.  In 2007, Hawaii’s entire aquaculture industry had $25 million in sales.

Increasing demand has led to depletion of fish stocks in the wild faster than they can be replenished.  Farming is the responsible way to go.  Sustainable aquaculture can help rebuild naturally occurring supplies of fish and prevent unhealthy reductions in ocean populations. 

Aquaculture can and should be a thriving sector of our agricultural industry.  Think of it as the seafood equivalent of farming food crops.  Plants and animals are bred, reared, and harvested in natural or man-made aquatic environments:  ponds, tanks, or the ocean.  Surrounded by the ocean, with near-perfect water and climate, it makes sense for us to support aquaculture to diversify our economy.  Consider the flavor factor:  in-state products can get from local aquafarms to seafood outlets in only a few hours.  Fresh tastes best!

Anyone who’s driven the North Shore has passed by the shrimp plate lunch trucks.    Hawaii produces more than 30 different kinds of ocean products:  finfish, shellfish, microalgae, seaweeds, ornamentals, and other specialty offerings.  The list is impressive:  kampachi, moi, tilapia, Asian catfish, flounder, mullet, sturgeon, groups, Asian carps, marine shrimp, freshwater prawns, lobsters, clams, oysters, ogo, sea asparagus, and other seaweeds, koi, and other freshwater and marine plants.  Most of these aqua farms are small, family businesses. 

Deeply rooted in our island tradition.  Aquaculture is in line with our Native Hawaiian culture.  With a strong stewardship conviction, ancient Hawaiians made an intensive effort to use water bodies from the seashore to the forests as a source of food, whether agriculture or aquaculture.  Fishponds – loko i’a in Hawaiian — were abundant in pre-historic Hawaii.  All the families in the ahupua’a cooperated in the huge effort to use stones to carefully enclose the water close to shore to build the fishpond.  Everyone who worked on constructing it earned the right to share in the catch.  The loko i’a were used to fatten and store fish for food.  Fish were kapu during the reproductive season so the stock could replenish itself.  By custom, no one took more than they could eat.   When weather conditions made ocean fishing unfeasible, such as in times of storms and high surf, the fish in the loko i’a provided a reliable source of food.

Technological Innovations.  Learning from the wisdom of our Hawaiian elders, open ocean farming holds promise as a means of growing the aquaculture industry.  Raising fish in ocean cages protects the stock from natural conditions such as predators as well as other fisherman, and allows for sustainable cultivation of a steady supply of delicious edibles.  Ocean farming also is environmentally crucial in that species that could potentially die out due to overfishing can be preserved in carefully maintained farms.  The upside of this technology is that prices can be steady, not “market,” due to reliable supplies that can be harvested with less effort than going out to the ocean in a boat and competing with other fishermen.

Chef Roy Yamaguchi of Roy’s Restaurant, wowed 1,100 members at the American Culinary Federation Convention several years ago with a uniquely Hawaiian fusion dish, Steamed Whole Moi with Chinese Soy.  The moi came from Grove Farm Fish & Poi, which uses innovative open-ocean farming techniques that allow the rare species to be raised on a commercial scale.  Located two miles off-shore Ewa Beach, it is the first open ocean farm in the U.S., and produces 1.2 million pounds a year.  Another open ocean farm, Kona Blue Water Farms on the Big Island, produces about 600,000 pounds of fish.  It grows amberjack, which is sold as Kona Kampachi and is also known as kahala or Hawaiian yellowtail. 

Innovative biotech research makes Hawaii’s “Specific Pathogen Free” shrimp the gold standard for disease-free breeding shrimp.  Ninety per cent of the world’s supply to aqua farmers worldwide comes from Hawaii.  Technology also supports Royal Hawaiian Sea Farms.  There, marine biologist Steve Katase mixes warm surface water with cold, nutrient-rich, deep sea water pumped from 2,000 feet deep.  The combination churns the ogo in several above-ground tanks to create a flourishing crop of – drumroll please – one ton of ogo per week.  Royal Hawaiian Sea Farms’ impressive output of delicious seaweed is proof that our ocean delicacies can be farmed productively while treating the aina with malama pono.

Operating aquatic farms requires technical knowledge.  Hi-tech aquaculture creates high wage jobs, in research, training, higher education, industry conferences, and consulting.  Technology helps Hawaii’s water farmers recycle and reuse our natural resources, conserve water, and preserve our land.  The carefully controlled environments, scientifically balanced feeds, and close monitoring all work together to result in consistent premium quality.  With our year-long summer conditions, our seafood is available all the time at affordable prices.

Responsible seafood farming brings more products to the market and protects the fragile ocean ecosystem.  It is a positive solution to the food crisis caused by dwindling stocks caused by overfishing natural supplies.  Deeply engrained in our island roots, aquafarms strengthen our economy by supporting jobs and creating revenue streams.  Finally, homegrown food satisfies local and global demand.  Farm fresh seafood from the islands – it’s good for Hawaii and the world.

The food chain

by Senator Will Espero
District 20

Hawaii’s volcanoes put on a fantastic show for nature lovers, but its lava also creates a rich soil that gives locally grown food their distinctly delicious flavors.  Agriculture in Hawaii suffers from memories of plantation days gone by.  No longer simply sugar and pineapple, our farmers deserve a fresh start of support.  There are several reasons why fostering our farms makes good sense.  The biggest is it helps the economy.  The more we can produce our own food, the less money we need to export outside our cash circle, which helps to keep a positive state balance sheet overall.  The meals we eat will be fresher, more nutritious, and tastier when we buy and eat locally grown food.  Expanding our farmer’s marketplace locally and elsewhere means more jobs will be created, and diversify and strengthen our economic base. 

Fostering this industry means making sure that we expend the energy to promote it, and make sure the requisite infrastructure and industrial side supply chain are in place.  It will take a coordinated effort between the private and public sectors. 

The in-state market for farmers needs private sector support.  Health safety standards require that foods be chilled at certain temperatures while transported to prevent bacterial growth.  Young Brothers has chilled cargo service by barge, but having it by air gets food to interisland markets faster.  Let’s hope that one of our in-state airlines consider and can feasibly offer this service to increase the in-state market for our farmers.

Out of state promotion would help as well.  We have a wealth and wide range of products – teas, coffees, herbs, lettuce, fruits, vegetables, avocadoes, tomatoes, cheeses, and many, many more.  Our year-long summer gives us favorable growing conditions.  We should try to find grocers and food processing companies both domestic and foreign who would be interested in carrying our agricultural products in their stores or including them as ingredients in their food products.

A food processing plant or two would help, too.  Sam Choy may be a famous local chef, but the salad dressings that bear his name are processed in California for lack of a food processing plant in Hawaii.  The Executive Branch should try to recruit food processing businesses to invest here, to produce food products using the flavorful vegetables, fruits, and herbs grown on our island soil.  Why is this important?  Farmers can only sell in grocery stores what satisfies grade requirements.  Vegetables and fruits that literally don’t make the grade  – too long, too short, not the right color, etc. — cannot be sold retail, and that can add up to a lot of waste of perfectly edible food and loss to the farmer. 

Off-grade produce still possess the same delicious flavor as grade food but don’t look as pretty or uniform.  On the mainland, off-grade produce get channeled into food products such as soups, salsas, sauces, stews, frozen dinners, and other yummy products we gladly buy.  It would help farmers with profitability to have an avenue for selling their off-grade produce.  The food processing plant, moreover, is an employer.  The plant would provide jobs to residents.  There is no denying that our volcanic soil gives our onions, lettuce, avocados, fruit, teas, coffee, herbs, and other food products the fabulous flavor it has.  Think of the terrific salad dressings, salsas, and so on that Hawaii could sell.  Being able to expand Hawaii’s food product line can help strengthen our economy by offering a more diverse range of products and keep people employed. 

Then there’s the waste issue for those parts of food products that can’t be eaten, what’s called biomass.  Instead of stuffing it into landfills, the throwaways can be diverted and processed by anaerobic digesters to produce biogas that then can be used to generate electricity.  Gas digesters have long been used in Europe to deal with the land scarcity issue, by extending landfill life through diverting waste away from landfills.  Gas digesters (anaerobic digesters) take greenwaste and turn it in to methane gas and compost for soil improvement.  There are more than 85 of these facilities throughout Europe and many others planned. 

Even China has long used gas digestion, and is planning on expanding its use.  China set a target of 18.5% biomass by 2010, as a source of renewable energy.  The biomass includes food waste, agricultural waste, industry, municipal solid waste, sewage sludge, animal manure, and the like.  Nine plants are being planned for Beijing using restaurant throwaways, animal waste, and municipal waste.  Other large-scale biowaste plants are currently under consideration in several regions in China. 

Homegrown / small scale urban household biogas digesters have been in use in southern China for about a hundred years.  The first biogas company opened in Shanghai in 1932.  About 10% of the rural population, by 2005, was producing biogas for their cooking and lighting needs, giving these areas a degree of independence from central energy supply systems.  Using biowaste to generate electricity also resolves water and soil pollution problems for that area.  These advantages give motivation for further development under China’s national plan.  Since 2001, 4,000 middle- and large-scale biogas plants for electricity production were built mainly at pig, chicken and cattle farms.  Other industries, such as sugar or alcohol production, can use its waste to generate electricity.  The distillery in Henan supplies 20,000 households with biogas. 

Waianae coast and Windward residents know all too well about landfills.  Extrapolating from City & County statistics and UH estimates, the amount of food and landscape waste could be around 1000 tons a day.  There are also nine wastewater treatment plants on Oahu.  Instead of spending money to ship our trash overseas, the City and County would do well to invest in anaerobic digestion facilities that can supply enough power to operate the wastewater treatment plants and send the excess electricity into the grid.  The long-run benefits are local supplies of electricity, extended landfill life, job creation, and reduction of dependence on foreign oil.  When we use local supplies of stock for electricity generation, we can keep part of that exported $7 billion in-state, circulating through our local businesses and keeping our economy healthy.  Locally generated electricity reduces losses through transmission lines, for greater efficiency of distributing power.  Wisconsin and other states have gas digester facilities.  The City of Los Angeles is constructing a facility following a successful, small-scale pilot project that used food waste from airport concessionaires. 

The food chain – more than just a biology lesson and better for the economy.