Volume 48 October | November | December 2022

Providing science-based information to serve Hawaiʻi's Farming Community

HānaiʻAi

The Food Provider

Oct | Nov | Dec 2022

Aloha Kākou

 

This December 2022 issue of HānaiʻAi comes before the Holidays. All of us at SOAP wish you and yours Happy Holidays! This issue features some exciting articles, providing insight into alternative sweetpotato weevil management tools. For the home gardener, check out the article from our extension faculty which provides tips on how to successfully grow cilantro in the garden as well as chocolate making at home with "One Cacao Tree".

Many producers rely on the use and benefits from planting Sunn Hemp as a covercrop. Unfortunately, growers are seeing increased incidents in fusaruim on their Sunn Hemp, "Subbing Sunn Hemp with Sorgum grass in Fusarium Soils", provides insight into rotating sorgum and Sunn Hemp as a management practice. If you are interested in garlic production, take a look at the "Garlic Production Guide for Hawai'i" as well as "new farmer" grant opportunities and more.

 

Take a moment to browse new CTAHR publications, and get caught up with what is happening in the world of organic management at our Organic Corner. 

 

Make sure to visit the "back pages" of the newsletter as well, which feature Upcoming Workshops, Conferences and Meetings, and the latest news on organic production.

 

Stay up to date with our weekly SOAP activities via Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, links are below.

 

As always, the mission of HānaiʻAi is to provide a venue for the dissemination of science-based information to serve all of Hawaiʻi's farming community in our quest for agricultural sustainability.

 

On-line version of newsletter as well as archived issues available at:  Hānai'Ai Archives

 

Click Here to View as Webpage

Feature Farmer: Rainbow Roots Farm, Puhi, Kaua'i

How long have you been farming? 

I was one of the “founding mothers” of GoFarm Kauaʻi in 2017. I was the very first person on the island of Kauaʻi to complete the GoFarm incubator training, a statewide commercial farmer training program.

 

What crops do you grow? Animals do you raise? Any other goods and services you provide (i.e. value added)?

 I grow a diversity of vegetable crops including carrots, cabbage, leafy greens, and more that we sell to a local food hub. I also grow a number of cultural crops including taro, sugar cane, sweet potatoes, and some ‘ulu that are for family and cultural use. On the commercial side, I want to focus on crops that have a better return: carrots, cabbage, eggplant, herbs, and flowers. There is an old loʻi with very deep sandy soil where I want to expand and do some carrot trials. 

 

 

 

Read the full article here.

Hot Tips from Camille Pakchong

 Start early – don’t wait. 

Know that is it going to be hard. You can’t do everything by yourself, unless you are growing microgreens. 

 

Mahalo nui loa to Emilie Kirk and Camille Pakchong

Read More
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Sustainable & Organic Research &

Outreach News

News from Hawaiʻi's Researchers and Extension Professionals

Subbing Sunn Hemp with Sorghum in Fusarium Soils

 

Roshan Paudel1, Lauren Braley1, Joshua Silva2, and Koon-Hui Wang1

Department of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences1, Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences2, University of Hawaii at Manoa

 

 

Although sunn hemp is a vigorous cover crop that can generate lots of biomass in short periods of time during long day length periods, its growth can sometimes be challenged by Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium udum f. sp. Crotalariae (Fuc). Rotating sorghum/sorghum-sudangrass hybrids (SSgH) as cover crops with sunn hemp could help farmers to cope with Fuc infested soil. This project aimed to find alternatives to sunn hemp to overcome soil infested by pathogenic Fusairum.

 

Read full Article Article

FMI: Roshan Paudel

 Increasing Success Rate in Backyard Cilantro 

 

Pono Chung¹, Christine Hanakawa2, Tina Lau3, Jensen Uyeda3, Amjad Ahmad3, and Jari Sugano1** 

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources 

¹Oahu County, ²Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, 3Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences 

 

 

 Cilantro or Chinese Parsley is a common backyard herb that is used in many dishes worldwide. Backyard gardeners who attend the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Cooperative Extension’s educational programs often share that they have difficulty getting cilantro (Coriandrum sativum) to grow. Troubleshooting the problem can include evaluating environmental conditions (sun/shade), seed viability, pest, nutrition, and other factors. The possibilities are endless. Germination testing is a good start, researchers at University of Hawai'i recommend doing a germination test.

 

Read full Article Article

FMI: Jari Sugano

The Need for Seed: Surveying the Interests of Local Seed Growers

 

Christine Hanakawa1, James Keach2, Emilie Kirk2, Josh Silva2, Marielle Hampton1

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources

¹ Department of Family and Consumer Science, ² Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences December 2022

 

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted food supply chains across the world, driving unprecedented demand for seed and home gardening supplies. Seed suppliers of all sizes experienced an explosion of orders and seed shortages, limiting the availability of different varieties for farmers and gardeners as public interest in food self-sufficiency grows. This has clearly been observed in Hawai‘i as well, with the UH Seed Lab reporting the equivalent of a whole year’s sales in a single month during Spring 2020.

 

For Hawai‘i growers, sourcing high-performing seeds can be a major barrier to production due to the state’s unique climates and growing conditions. The CTAHR Extension Seed Saving Hui formed in 2020 to address the need for high-quality seed and supporting development of local seed production. An online needs assessment survey conducted in 2021 revealed important information about the state’s existing small-scale seed saving and production and highlighted the potential for future expansion.

 

Read full Article Article

FMI: Christine Hanakawa

 

 Sweetpotato Varieties Tolerant to Insect Pest Damage 

 

Rosemary Gutierrez-Coarite

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources

 

Sweet potato is a nutritious root crop that contains significant amounts of fiber, beta carotene, and is an excellent source of vitamin A, vitamin C, Potassium, Folate, and Calcium. Orange-fleshed cultivars are rich in b-carotene and purple-fleshed cultivars are rich in anthocyanins, and both cultivars are important dietary antioxidants. In Hawaii, sweet potatoes can grow year-round and when sweetpotato is managed properly, it has the potential to be one of the more profitable vegetable crops. Profitable production practices include using good propagation material, selecting suitable soil, and following good production practices, including fertility, irrigation, and pest management. One of the methods of pest management is to grow sweetpotato varieties tolerant to pest damage. A sweetpotato varietal trial was conducted to determine the best sweetpotato varieties tolerant to the most important pest in sweetpotato crops: sweetpotato weevil (Cylas formicarius), rough sweetpotato weevil (Blosyrus asellus), and sweetpotato stemborer (Omphisa anastomosalis). 

 

Read full Article Article

FMI: Rosemary Gutierrez-Coarite

 

 Farmer Driven Sweetpotato Weevil IPM using UNI-Traps 

 

Roshan Manandhar1*, Taiwan Gu2 and Koon-Hui Wang1

1College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2Hawaii Xing Long Farm, Kauai

 

 Sweetpotato is a culturally significant staple crop and one of the top vegetable crops produced in Hawaii (NASS 2022). However, sweetpotato production is challenged by multiple pests and pathogens, and resulted in a continuous decline in production areas since 2012, with additional 54% reduction in acreages from 2019 to 2021 (NASS 2022). None-the-less, sweetpotato still have an increase of 21% of farm gate values from 2019 to 2021 with a farm gate value of $2.8 mil in 2021 (NASS 2022). Among the pests, sweetpotato weevil (Cylas formicarius), rough sweetpotato weevil (Blosyrus asellus), root-knot (Meloidogyne spp.) and reniform nematodes (Rotylenchulus reniformis) can cause more than 80% sweetpotato yield loss in Hawaii (Hue and Low, 2020). 

On the island of Kauai, while nematode pests were problematic on sweetpotato for a long time, the population of sweetpotato weevils (SPW) have been found increasing in present over time. This is a serious pest that can cause up to 97% yield loss if left unattended. The adult weevils crawl on the soil surface and the females lay eggs in sweetpotato roots or the swollen roots exposed on soil surface. The weevil infested roots can be recognized by the presence of tiny holes made by the females for oviposition (Fig. 1a). Weevil infested roots are consisting of mines and galleries (Fig. 1b) with or without larvae and dark spongy appearance often producing fermenting smell, when cut open (Capinera and Castner, 2018). 

Application of insecticides either at pre- or post-plant have been commonly used to manage SPW (Pulakkatu-Thodi et al., 2016). Post-plant insecticide foliar sprays are meant to target on the adults, especially if the adjacent fields are infested by SPW. Because damage is difficult to detect, insecticide application timing can pose challenges. This paper by University of Hawai'iʻs researchers explains their findings using when sex pheromones as a more versatile integrated pest management strategy for sweetpotatoe pests.

 

 

Read full Article Article

FMI: Roshan Manandhar

In Transition towards Organic Farming: Effects of Rock Phosphate,

Coral Lime, and GreenManure on Soil Fertility of an Acid Oxisol

and the Growth of Soybean (Glycine max L.Merr.) Seedlings

 

Maintaining soil fertility and obtaining good crop yields in highly weathered tropical soils through organic practices–without chemical/synthetic inputs—requires a scientific approach and skillful managements, especially for phosphorus (P) nutrient. The objective of this paper was to find a combination of lime and rock phosphate additions that made soil pH low enough so that rock phosphate would be adequately soluble, yet high enough so soil acidity is not harmful to most crops.

 

Read full Article Article

FMI: Nguyen Hue

Publications & Programs

for sustainable and organic production systems 

CTAHR Publications

Organic Corner

 

USDA Amends the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances

 

The USDA organic regulations contain detailed requirements about how to produce and label organic products. Part of the regulations, the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances (National List), describes what can and cannot be used in organic—like what materials are allowed in organic food production and processing. On Monday, November 14, USDA published a final rule that adds two substances to the National List and corrects the spelling on another input.

 

This rule allows low-acyl gellan gum, a food additive used as a thickener, gelling agent, and stabilizer, as an ingredient in processed organic products. This rule also allows paper-based crop planting aids for organic crop production. Finally, this rule replaces the term “wood resin” on the National List with the term “wood rosin” to reflect the popular spelling of the substance.

 

Changes to the National List require a recommendation from the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) and rulemaking by USDA. The NOSB is the federal advisory board that advises USDA leadership about the National List and other policy matters impacting the organic industry. These changes are based on NOSB recommendations from October 2020 and April 2021 and public comment on a proposed rule on this topic.

 

More information on the National List, including how and why substances are added or removed is available on the USDA's National List webpage here: https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/organic/national-list.

 

For the full text of the new rule, visit: https://go.hawaii.edu/tu2

 

The National Organic Program (NOP) enforcement dashboard for fiscal year 2022

The dashboard provides an at-a-glance update on enforcement activities for the 12 months ending September 30, 2022 (October 1, 2021, through September 30, 2022).

https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/QuarterlyEnforcementReportQ4.pdf

 

Organic Integrity learning Center- New Seed Sourcing Course

The Organic Integrity Learning Center offers online training that supports the professional development and continuing education of organic certifiers, inspectors, reviewers, and other professionals working to protect organic integrity. The New Organic Seed Search course introduces learners to the challenges encountered with organic seed search verification across a range of certified operations. It examines the state of the organic seed supply and the challenges which certifiers and inspectors face in making informed decisions about whether equivalent varieties are available. The course guides learners in determining whether commonly encountered enforcement issues are systemic or limited in nature. Register with the Learning Center here: https://go.hawaii.edu/Yu2

For New Farmers

Next GroupGAP cohort begins in February

 

Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) is an audit certification program created by the USDA and is based on guidelines from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. GroupGAP is a new USDA food safety certification option that will increase opportunities for smaller farms to supply GAP-certified produce. North Shore Economic Vitality Partnership (EVP) is the first organization in Hawai‘i to offer a GroupGAP program. North Shore EVP assists farmers in the development of food safety plans, provides food safety training, and conducts farm audits two times per year. Applications are due January 13.

 

Watch the GroupGAP Informational Webinar

Website

Applications for Cohort 7 are open from November 18, 2022 through January 13, 2023.

How to Start a Farm: Beginning Farmers and Ranchers

 

New to farming? Want to learn how to start a farm? USDA can help and offers additional assistance to beginning farmers and ranchers. USDA considers anyone who has operated a farm or ranch for less than ten years to be a beginning farmer or rancher. USDA can help you get started or grow your operation through a variety of programs and services, from farm loans to crop insurance, and conservation programs to disaster assistance.

2022 Young Farmer Grant Program Applications Opening

 

For the last three years, the National Young Farmers Coalition (Young Farmers) has partnered with Chipotle to support young and beginning farmers and ranchers start up and grow their businesses with a flexible funding opportunity each spring. The program provided 50 farmers and ranchers with $5,000 each in the spring of 2020, 2021, and 2022. Grant recipients also received a one-year membership to the National Young Farmers Coalition.

 

These grants are available to farmers of all races and gender identities. To ensure that our grants are contributing to ending inequity in access to agricultural careers, we commit to providing a minimum of 50% of our grants to Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, and 50% of grants to female-identifying, non-binary, and trans farmers. These are not mutually exclusive identity categories and should not be understood as adding up to 100% of available grants.

Applications for the 2023 Young Farmer Grant Program are open until 3pm Eastern on January 13, 2023.

 

Qualifications for applicants

Rules and Requirements

Evaluation Criteria

Specialty Crop Research Initiative

 

The purpose of the Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) program is to address the critical needs of the specialty crop industry by awarding grants to support research and extension that address key challenges of national, regional, and multi-state importance in sustaining all components of food and agriculture, including conventional and organic food production systems. Projects must address at least one of five focus areas:

  • Research in plant breeding, genetics, genomics, and other methods to improve crop characteristics
  • Efforts to identify and address threats from pests and diseases, including threats to specialty crop pollinators
  • Efforts to improve production efficiency, handling and processing, productivity, and profitability over the long term (including specialty crop policy and marketing)
  • New innovations and technology, including improved mechanization and technologies that delay or inhibit ripening
  • Methods to prevent, detect, monitor, control, and respond to potential food safety hazards in the production efficiency, handling and processing of specialty crops

The RFA announcement and technical assistance webinar related to this FY 2023 funding opportunity is scheduled. Please access the details about the webinar, such as the zoom link, date, time, etc., through the Webinar heading below. The recording/supporting documents will also be accessible through Webinar heading after the event.



Apply for Grant

Download RFA

Technical Assistance Webinar

Resources for Farm to School Grant Program Applicants

 

Farm to School grant program request for applications (RFA) is now open. To apply, visit Grants.gov and follow the instructions found in the FY2023 RFA. Be sure to come back and visit this page for updated resources, including webinars recorded to assist applicants for Farm to School Grants.

For additional funding opportunities for farm to school activities, visit the USDA AMS Grants, Loans and Other Support webpage.

Manufacturing Assistance Program (MAP) grant



Manufacturing Assistance Program (MAP) grant is now open

Hawaii Technology Development Corporation’s (HTDC) Manufacturing Assistance Program (MAP) grant offers Hawai‘i-based manufacturers up to 20% reimbursement (up to $100,000) on qualified expenses to help Hawai‘i manufacturers become globally competitive. Qualifying expenses include equipment purchases, training, energy efficiency projects, and manufacturing feasibility studies. Deadline for submission is December 23. Visit HTDC’s website for more information.

Hawai‘i Agribusiness Guidebook 2020 Edition

 

The Hawai'i Agribusiness Guidebook is not meant to be an encyclopedia on agribusiness, rather a summary of important points and tips for farmers relating to the business (versus production) aspects of running an agribusiness. You might find that you need more information about a particular subject than is presented in this Guidebook – throughout each section has listed additional references you can turn to. In using this Guidebook, you won’t find all the solutions to the myriad of pitfalls that might arise in agribusiness, but you’ll know what questions to ask and where to obtain additional information.

 

2020 Guidebook

Garden with the Master Gardener

One Cacao Tree - Fermenting

 

by Raven Hanna, Master Gardener Big Island & Extension Agent Russell Galanti

 

Easy access to cacao pods is a particular pleasure of living on a tropical island. These eye-catching gems have delicious sweet-sour pulp, but their hidden treasure is their seeds. Try them raw and you will probably have trouble identifying familiar chocolate flavors. Cacao seeds undergo a many-step process to turn astringent and bitter raw seeds into chocolaty cocoa beans.

 

All the steps of cacao processing are important for developing chocolate flavors, but fermentation is perhaps the most critical. In fermentation, unpleasant flavors diminish and delicious flavor potential increases. Classic fermentations require a large amount of cacao fruit that will support the microbial growth necessary to heat the seeds to the point where they release enzymes that start to break down complex molecules. These volumes are difficult to achieve for home growers, so many of us experiment with adding heat from external sources to our tiny fermentations of a few pods to a few hundred pods.

 

Great chocolate can be made in these tiny amounts, as described in my new book One Cacao Tree: A Guide to Backyard Cocoa, Tiny Fermentations, and Chocolate Making in the Tropics. The book covers all the steps from growing cacao to processing chocolate, with recipes for each step along the way. Below is the Fermenting chapter, which is the first step after harvesting and cracking open the beans. After fermentation, dry and roast the beans to make delicious and healthy nibs. Use the nibs as they are or take them all the way to chocolate bars and confections in your home kitchen.

 

To read the full article, click here

FYI & Events

POINT OF SALE TRAINING FOR DIRECT MARKETING FOR AGRICULTURE PRODUCERS

 

 

POS Training for Direct Marketing Sales for Farmers and Ranchers : Hilo

Dec 20, 2022 5-7pm

 

Click here to register

The Future of Food and Agriculture in Hawai'i Speaker Series

 

January 11-12, 2023 @ UH West O'ahu

Future of Food and Agriculture in Hawaii Speaker Series brings thought-leaders, academics, community leaders, state officials and practitioners from across the state and the nation into a dialogue on “the future of food and agriculture in Hawai‘i.”The series intends to generate opportunities for community dialogue among a diverse audience, thereby facilitating the development of a common understanding, vision and plan of action for achieving a healthy, equitable, resilient and sustainable food system for Hawai‘i.

The Future of Food and Agriculture in Hawaii is a joint project of Civil Beat, the Hawai’i Institute for Sustainable Community Food Systems at the University of Hawai’i – West O’ahu, and the UH Better Tomorrow Speaker Series. These events are made possible through generous support from the Kellogg Foundation. BTSS is a joint venture of the Hawaii Community Foundation, Kamehameha Schools, The Queen’s Health Systems and UH, with support from the College of Tropical Agriculture & Human Resources and the Ulupono Initiative. Civil Beat’s agricultural and food security reporting is funded in part by grants from the Stupski Foundation, Ulupono Fund at the Hawaii Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation.

Presented by The Hawaiʻi Institute for Sustainable Community Food Systems at University of Hawaiʻi – West Oʻahu, Honolulu Civil Beat, UH Better Tomorrow Speaker Series, and Waiwai Collective, this series is meant to generate key opportunities for community dialogue among a diverse audience, aiming to achieve a healthy, equitable, resilient and sustainable food system for Hawaiʻi.

 

Watch First Event Root Causes and Systemic Solutions

Watch Second Event Root Causes and Systemic Solutions

Register for the Hawai'i Food System Summit 2023

Pest Prevention Training

Wasp Release Proposed For Hawaiʻi Coffee Berry Borer Biocontrol

 

(BIVN) – State officials are proposing to release a parasitoid wasp from Kenya for biological control of the invasive coffee berry borer, or CBB, the destructive pest that has been plagueing Hawaiʻi coffee farms for years.

 

Draft Environmental Assessment and Anticipated Finding of No Significant Impact for the statewide release of the wasp, Phymastichus coffea, has been published in The Environmental Notice.

 

The wasp release is being proposed by the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR) of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, in collaboration with the US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service.

 

According to the notice, “Phymastichus coffea is a small parasitic wasp whose larvae feed on adult coffee berry borer in the native range in Africa, causing beetle death before it can penetrate the coffee berry and lay eggs. High levels of parasitism of coffee berry borer by P. coffea is expected in Hawaiʻi, with anticipated suppression of the pest resulting.”

 

CTAHR noted that extensive testing in quarantine studies has shown that P. coffea is host specific to the invasive CBB (Hypothenemus species) and “does not attack any native beetles in the same family as the target pest.”

 

CBB was first detected on Hawaiʻi island in 2010, and has since spread to infest coffee farms on the islands of Oʻahu, Maui and Kaui. “CBB has had the effect of making coffee farming more intensive and less profitable,” the draft EA states. “Damage causes significant losses in yield and alters the flavor profile of salvageable coffee beans. If left unmanaged, CBB can damage ˃90% of the crop.”

Coffee farmers have been using the microbial insecticide Beauveria bassiana to combat the CBB pest.



Comments on the draft EA are due by January 9, 2023.

 

 

USDA Accepts Applications for Rural Energy for America Program

 

USDA Rural Development is in a unique position to make climate-smart investments in rural infrastructure. The Inflation Reduction Act represents the largest ever federal investment in clean energy for the future. This historic funding will strengthen our energy security, create good-paying jobs, and save Americans money on their energy costs.

 

USDA is seeking applications for Fiscal Year 2023 funding. Two significant changes to this additional funding include an increase in the maximum Federal grant share from 25% to 40% of total project cost and an increase of maximum grant amounts from $250,000 to $500,000 for energy efficiency projects and an increase from $500,000 to $1,000,000 for renewable energy systems. Projects in underserved areas are prioritized for funding under this notice.

 

USDA will host an informational webinar for applicants and stakeholders on Wednesday, December 21, 2022, from 3:00 - 4:30pm Eastern Time. To register, visit: 

https://www.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_BSQ3b8K6Sz-sbpdJluEtfw.

 

Agricultural producers and rural small businesses are eligible applicants for loan guarantees and grants to develop renewable energy systems and to make energy efficiency improvements. State and local governments, federally-recognized tribes, land-grant colleges or universities or other institutions of higher education, rural electric cooperatives, public power entities, and Resource Conservation & Development Councils (as defined in 16 USC §3451) are eligible applicants for grants to conduct energy audits and provide development assistance.

 

Interested applicants are encouraged to contact their local USDA Rural Development State Energy Coordinator well in advance of the application deadlines to discuss their project and ask any questions about the REAP program or the application process.

 

For more information

Kona Coffee Farmers Association Conference Feb 2023

Aloha Members & Friends of the KCFA, 

 

On behalf of the Kona Coffee Farmers Association (KCFA), I would like to invite you to participate in our first Annual Conference and Member Meeting. The conference is scheduled for Friday, February 24, 2023 from 9 am-4 pm at the Outrigger Kona resort & Spa, 78-128 Ehukai Street, Kailua Kona, Hawaii, 96740. Setup starts at 7am and take down its 4 pm-5 pm.

 

Please see the next page to learn more about our different sponsorship levels (updated). We are anticipating about 100 attendees. While the COVID-19 pandemic impacted many businesses, the demand for coffee continues to be very strong. COVID-19 protocols will be followed in accordance with CDC guidelines and the policies of the Outrigger that are in effect at the time of the event.

 

We are inviting you to participate as a sponsor to help support this new event and the growth of KCFA. The conference will cover many topics pertaining to farmers including soil health and ways to increase profitability.. General sessions will take place in the Bayview Meeting Rooms with lunch provided outside of Ray’s on the Bay. Vendor displays will be in the hall and lanai and will open at 7:00 a.m. for setup. Sponsors will receive lunch tickets associated with the sponsorship level they have chosen. We are also excited to offer our top tier sponsors five minutes to talk to the membership ala an infomercial!

 

For questions and to RSVP, contact Carolyn Witcover (Conference Committee Chair) at 808-640-1647 or carolyn54@gmail.com

Western Region Sustainable Agriculture and Education Program (WSARE)

Western Region Sustainable Agriculture and Education Program (WSARE)

 

Fresh Growth Podcast

We talk with Tangy and Matt Bates who operate Blue Creek Livestock in Delta Junction Alaska in Episode 6. Since the beginning, Blue Creek Cattle has been building soils and herds. Tangy and Matt talk about the opportunities and challenges of farming in Alaska. Cover crops and building their own butcher shop are only two of many topics discussed in this episode.

 

Listen to Podcast

 

Organic Transition

A Business Planner for Farmers, Ranchers and Food Entrepreneurs

 

If you are interested in transitioning, Organic Transition: A Business Planner for Farmers, Ranchers and Food Entrepreneurs is the perfect tool to help. The Organic Transition Planner will walk you through the development of an actionable business transition plan that is suitable for yourself, your management team or a lender.

While not a comprehensive guide to meeting certification requirements, the Organic Transition Planner will help you explore organic transition strategies and decide whether going organic makes sense for your farm or business. It can help you explore critical questions such as:

  • What are your long-term business goals?
  • What organic market opportunities are you in a position to exploit?
  • How will you acquire the resources you need to make the transition?
  • How will you anticipate and deal with challenges as they arise?

The Organic Transition Planner contains explanations of key concepts, real-life examples from transitioning farmers and detailed worksheets covering farm operations, marketing, human resources and finances. For ease of use, electronic spreadsheets and fillable PDF worksheets are available online with the Organic Transition Planner through the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture. A business planning software program recommended for use with the planner, AgPlan, is also available online.

The Organic Transition Planner can be used as a companion to SARE’s popular business planning guide, Building a Sustainable Business: A Guide to Developing a Business Plan for Farms and Rural Businesses.

Download the book

 

 

Since 1988, the WSARE program has been supporting agricultural profitability, environmental integrity and community strength through grants that enable cutting-edge research and education to open windows on sustainability across the West, including Hawai'i. The goals of WSARE are:

 

  • Promote good stewardship of our natural resources.
  • Enhance the quality of life of farmers and ranchers and ensure the viability of rural communities.
  • Protect the health and safety of those involved in food and farm systems.
  • Promote crop, livestock and enterprise diversification.
  • Examine the regional, economic, social and environmental implications of adopting sustainable agriculture practices and systems.

 

For more information, please see: http://www.westernsare.org/ or contact Hawai'i WSARE co-coordinators Jensen Uyeda (juyeda@hawaii.edu) and Sharon Wages (smotomur@hawaii.edu). 

This e-publication has been prepared by CTAHR research scientists and extension staff to deliver science-based information about sustainable and organic production systems to serve Hawaiʻi's farming community.

 

  • To continue receiving this newsletter, please confirm your interest by subscribing or updating your profile/email address.
  • If this publication has been valuable, please forward it to others
  • Send in your suggestions for what you want to read about in our articles
  • Tell us about your research needs.

 

Mahalo nui loa,

 

Eric Collier Education Specialist and Managing Editor

Amjad Ahmad, Kylie Tavares & Emilie Kirk Co-Reviewers

Sharon Wages Jensen Uyeda WSARE Content Reviewers

Jari Sugano & Giselle Bryant Editors Emeritus and Reviewers

Ted Radovich Editor-in-Chief

 

Sustainable and Organic Agriculture Program

Cooperative Extension Service

College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources

 

On-line version of newsletter as well as archived issues available at:  

http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/sustainag/news/ 

 

Hawai‘i Cooperative Extension is an equal opportunity/affirmative action institution providing programs and services to the people of Hawai‘i without regard to race, sex, gender identity and expression, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, disability, marital status, arrest and court record, sexual orientation, or status as a covered veteran.

 

Eric Collier | Education Specialist, Social Media & Web Manager | colliere@hawaii.edu

Copyright ©2013 University of Hawai‘i - College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. Updated 4 Nov, 2021

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CTAHR Sustainable and Organic Program

at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa

 

Dr. Theodore Radovich

 

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