I received this e-mail from the Kona Coffee Farmers Association yesterday regarding today’s Kona coffee berry borer infestation meeting.
“With thanks to State Representative Denny Coffman, below is a glimpse of the reality of Hawaii’s agriculture politics.
The first meeting in Kona of legislators, HDOA and UH-CTAHR since confirmation of the CBB infestation is not with the farmers who are confronted with this new pest in their orchards.
Rather, the first meeting at 10:00 am tomorrow is BEHIND CLOSED DOORS and is with the blenders and their processor allies who each year have brought millions of pounds of green coffee into Hawaii from CBB infested regions.
It is only after the closed session that there will be a 2:00 pm show meeting for the media and the public.
NOTE: The two meetings are not being held at public venues such as the CTAHR conference room, Yano Hall, Hale Halawai or Old Airport Pavilion. The legislators, HDOA and CTAHR have scheduled these meetings in Kainaliu at Captain Cook Coffee Company, the California owned processor allied with the 10% blenders.”
I forwarded this e-mail to the University of Hawaii and received this response from Mr. Ken Grace, Chair, Department of Plant & Environmental Protection Sciences, CTAHR-University of Hawaii at Manoa:
“Mr. Stene,
I originally sent this email to Miles Hakoda to forward to you, but realizing it is getting late on a Sunday night, I thought I should send it directly to you too. I want to thank you for your interest in our efforts to mitigate coffee bean borer. There are no secret agendas at work in CTAHR, or to the best of my knowledge in any of our partner agencies in addressing the coffee bean borer threat to Hawaii. The email to which you referred in your enquiry was from Mr. Bruce Corker of KFCA, and on behalf of Dr. Lyle Wong at HDOA, I’ve also invited Mr. Corker to attend the Monday morning technical workshop to represent KCFA if he would like to.
I know that this is a very serious issue to all coffee growers in Hawaii, and emotions can run high. I hope that this response will help everyone to understand that all of us are working as best we can to help everyone in the coffee industry.
In addition to the 2 PM meeting organized by the Hawaii Department of Agriculture, UH-Manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, and USDA-ARS Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center to discuss the current status of coffee bean borer efforts with all interested parties, HDOA and the state-wide Hawaii Coffee Association have also scheduled a small technical workshop that same morning. It’s my understanding, which was confirmed by Dr. Wong at HDOA, that this is largely to agree upon sampling procedures, since mills are the most efficient locations for sampling to help determine the extent of the infestation in the Kona area, and also to discuss measures to prevent inter-island shipment of any possibly infested green coffee for roasting that might spread CBB in the state. Several CTAHR staff are attending to provide information on beetle biology and management options.
CTAHR, HDOA and USDA-ARS-PBARC are scheduling grower workshops statewide during the next month on CBB detection and management. In collaboration with HDOA and PBARC, CTAHR is also conducting research to understand the biology of the beetle in Hawaii, identify possible quarantine measures, and improve control methods. We will continue to distribute new and improved information on CBB management, as soon as it becomes available. I have attached the bulletin completed since the beetle identification was confirmed 4 days ago, and we are already working on an update. Our agencies are working closely together with everyone in Hawaii’s $25.6 million coffee industry to mitigate this new threat.
Best regards,
Ken Grace”
(Related items:
Kona Farmers, Officials Squirm Over Coffee Beetle
Rep. Cindy Evans e-mailed me this update regarding the Palamanui project today. Palamanui and the University of Hawaii have verbally agreed to a memorandum of understanding. The UH has written this document and transmitted it to Palamanui for their signature.
Keauhou Kona Construction Corporation can start construction on the initial campus infrastructure after this MOU is executed.
The district seven and six county council races will be very interesting. Both races have candidates supported by special interests (e.g landowners, developers, contractors) Guy Enriques (2008 campaign donation filing) (Note: Mr. Enriques received approximately $26,000 in 2010 public campaign funds), and Enock Freire.
Firstly, Mr. Freire accepted an illegal campaign donation from a non-profit entity.He ultimately returned this donation back to Servants Nest Ministries Inc. However, Mr. Freire received an identical $2,000 donation from Nicholson LLC.
Winton Nicholson, owner of Nicholson LLC, is both Mr. Freire’s campaign manager, and Vice President of Servants Nest Ministries Inc. In addition, Mr. Freire’s list of current campaign donations reads like a who’s who of local special interests.
I hope the voters in district six and seven vote for Brenda Ford, Brittany Smart, or Maile David. These candidates will be responsive to the citizens of this island, not to off island individuals and businesses.
Councilman Enriques’s office e-mailed me the official Hawaii DWS water flow rate for the soon to be completed HOVE water facility.
“We anticipate that the fill time from the HOVE system will be similar to that of the Naalehu system. There shouldn’t be any pumping directly from our system so the haulers should just allow the system to fill their trucks. If they are utilizing a pump to fill their trucks then they will see an increase in the flow rate but we do ask that they discontinue the use of the pumps as it may cause adverse effects on the water system. Also, for their information, the meters at the Naalehu site and the HOVE site will be of the same capacity.”
Grace Pacific has one more contract item to complete on the Queen Kaahumanu Highway resurfacing project between Lako Street and Henry Street. The HDOT will schedule a final inspection when the contract item is completed. Then they will compile a punch list of any issues uncovered during this inspection. These issues will have to be resolved before the project is accepted by the HDOT.
Lastly, Stephens Media’s legal assault against bloggers has evidently hit Hawaii.
September 14th, 2010 at 4:53 PM
I found your posting of Enoch Freire’s campaign contributions to be very interesting.
I note that he received a donation of $1,000 from a James Lovell who lists himself as the Kona Marathon Director. Interestingly enough, he does not list himself as the owner/operator of JTL Timing Systems which also seems to have endorsed Freire along with the Kona Marathan in Freire’s WHT ad today. Mr. Lovell also did not list his other occupation–that of aquarium fish collector.
It is very telling that he is supporting Mr. Freire.
September 16th, 2010 at 9:42 AM
Very interesting and kind of disheartening how much politics plays into something seemingly harmless like coffee beans.