THIS list is long, but it may be worth scanning. All these goodies are available, locally grown and at bargain prices, at the Hilo Farmers' Market, opposite the Hilo waterfront park, on Wednesday and Saturday mornings: Diversified agriculture
blooms in HawaiiTaro, ginger root, cabbage, gobo root, green onions, eggplant, spinach, Chinese parsley, tomatoes, string beans, lemon grass, chard, basil, salad herbs, mint, fiddlehead ferns (a special delicacy), bell peppers, cucumbers, white pineapple, oranges, mangoes, pumpkins, bamboo shoots, sweet potatoes, squash, winter melons, bananas, avocados, leaf lettuce, sweet corn, watercress, guava, maca-damia nuts, coffee -- plus a whole family of beautiful plants and flowers.
Hawaii's No. 1 Salesman of Just About Any Year, J.W.A. (Doc) Buyers, uses the list to open eyes to his belief that "the best is yet to come" for diversified agriculture in Hawaii.
With some of the best growing conditions in the world there is little we can't grow. Mass production crops like sugar and pineapple, fading from our scene, already are well out-dollared by our total diversified agriculture.
Hawaii's niche crops have an open door to the future, Buyers believes.
He separates them into two categories: those appropriate for development by large corporations like C. Brewer and Co. Ltd., which he heads, and those that require no expensive investment. Strawberries, for example, "can go from soil to shelf with practically no additional capital (until) they show up in grocery stores and in luxury hotels as a unique product of the Big Island."
Strawberry-type crops require labor, time and often the commitment of a whole family, but just about all the revenue stays with the family.
Brewer this year moved its company headquarters to the Hilo waterfront after 172 years in downtown Honolulu, in part to dramatize its growing commitment to diversified ag. The only bad result so far, Buyers says, is that staffers behind its view windows in a beautifully restored sugar warehouse get distracted by cruise ships passing close by and sometimes by whales jumping in the harbor.
Crops on Buyers' list that require corporate help for harvesting, processing and marketing include macadamias under the Mauna Loa label, Kona coffee under the Royal Kona brand and frozen guava puree under the label Hawaii's Own. Brewer is the world leader in all three categories, often buying from small farmers.
Brewer has its eyes on a fourth major product -- extracts from many of the vegetables and plants mentioned in the farmers' market list above to sell to companies producing health foods, cosmetics, vitamins and mineral supplements. Buyers says Hawaii extracts can tap into the growing world demand for these with as much success as with macadamias.
Late this year Brewer will start up a neutraceutical processing facility to make extracts. An old sugar warehouse up the coast from Hilo at Hakalua will house the operation. It will offer Big Island small farmers an entirely new market for a number of crops.
THERE are significant non-Brewer successes in diversified ag, such as flowers and papayas, with strong export volume. Other growers are doing well with bananas and melons marketed in-state. The cattle industry has survived the closure of slaughter houses by shipping young cattle to Canada for fattening and slaughtering. Brewer has strong competition in Hawaiian coffee from Alexander & Baldwin Co., among others. Brewer lands leased to others may help in timber development.
The United States, Buyers notes, is No. 1 in the world in aerospace, entertainment, computers and -- perhaps surprisingly -- agriculture. In ag, a fascinating cross-trend is developing.
The U.S. mainland is moving to feed the U.S. and a number of other countries through labor-saving corporate farming. Hawaii is moving to success in labor-intensive small farming.
A.A. Smyser is the contributing editor
and former editor of the the Star-Bulletin
His column runs Tuesday and Thursday.