[ OUR OPINION ]
Agriculture is the
step-sister in state’s
economic familySHOWCASING Oahu's North Shore usually focuses on surfing, but mauka of the area's famed beaches lie thousands of acres of agricultural land where farmers and small businesses produce sought-after foods and plants. These enterprises will get a well-deserved spotlight next month through a promotional effort by Daiei USA.
THE ISSUE
Daiei USA will team with more than 40 small businesses, farms and ranches from Oahu's North Shore to promote agricultural products.
Daiei regularly stocks a variety of local produce and its staging of North Shore Agriculture Days is the kind of attention Hawaii's agriculture industry needs. It is an underestimated part of the state's economy, existing in the shadow of the tourism behemoth.
Part of the problem is that agriculture's economic value is measured at the wholesale level, where so-called "multiplier effects" -- such as the processing of products and relationships with support industries -- are not included in the accounting. Without that yardstick, agriculture's contribution to the economy is pegged at about 2 percent of gross state product. However, recent studies by the University of Hawaii's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources indicate agriculture contributes as much as 18 percent.
Across the country, consumer appetites for local food products are swelling. Reasons vary from nostalgia, quality and environmental and health concerns to favoring small farms over giant agricultural corporations. Whatever the case, farmers markets are sprouting in many regions and Hawaii is no different. On the Big Island, communities like Pahoa and Keaau have welcomed new markets and long-established venues like Hilo's are growing. Even Honolulu has seen the launching of one on Fort Street Mall this week.
The North Shore's Country Market near Pupukea has expanded considerably since its modest beginnings in 1994, drawing hundreds of shoppers to the area on Saturdays. Daiei's promotion at its four stores will give urbanites a convenient way to sample what is being grown by more than 40 small enterprises in Oahu's "golden triangle" that extends from Kunia to Waialua and Haleiwa.
Since the demise of sugar and pineapple, agriculture has struggled for even footing. Politicians have provided little more than lip service, lamenting the lack of economic diversification while giving financial aid to well-established industries like tourism. Protection of agricultural land and water resources farmers need is assigned lesser importance than other land uses like housing developments.
Agriculture in Hawaii will not likely return to the plantation heydays, but it can be a sustainable economic force. Promotions like Daiei's are exactly the marketing initiatives the industry needs.
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Hawaii needn’t fear
big population drainHAWAII'S dubious distinction of having the nation's largest rate of residents moving to other states in the late 1990s does not mean the islands' population is shrinking. Quite the opposite: Hawaii's population is expected to experience among the nation's largest rates of growth during the next 20 years, although perhaps not as rapid as forecast a few years ago. The high cost of living will drive many families to the mainland, but they will be replaced by even more from foreign shores.
THE ISSUE
The U.S. Census Bureau has reported that Hawaii led the nation in the rate of net loss of people moving to other states from 1995-2000.
The Census Bureau reports that 201,000 Hawaii residents moved to other states from 1995 to 2000, while only 125,160 mainlanders moved here, for a net domestic outmigration of 76,133. Not surprisingly, California was both the favorite destination for wayward islanders (44,192) and the most bountiful source of malihini (32,321).
The assumption that hordes of Hawaii residents retire to the mainland for financial reasons may have been exaggerated. That consideration is an obvious reason for budget-cutting Nevada becoming the destination of 12,079 islanders over 65 years old relocating to the mainland while only 1,853 Nevada seniors moved to Hawaii. However, 5,719 mainlanders over 65 actually moved to Hawaii during that five-year period, largely offsetting the 6,671 in Hawaii who picked up stakes for the mainland.
Hawaii's main population-growth factor is immigration, mainly from Asia. Hawaii's foreign-born population in 2000 was 212,229, nearly 50,000 more than in 1990. That trend likely will continue.
In 1997, the Census Bureau predicted that Hawaii's net domestic outmigration would be 15,000 from 1995 to 2000, less than one-fifth of the actual margin. Factoring in other elements, such as foreign immigration, the bureau projected a 2000 Hawaii population of 1,257,000, about 45,000 more than those actually tabulated in the 2000 census.
Looking further ahead in its 1997 report, the Census Bureau projected Hawaii would be the third-fastest growing state in the nation during the next quarter-century, with a 2025 population of more than 1.8 million and a growth rate behind only California and New Mexico. That projection included a net migration of 21,000 people from the mainland and 209,000 from foreign countries. If the bureau's underestimate of domestic outmigration continues, Hawaii may not be so crowded after all.
