Though he operates in the shadow of perhaps the state's largest tourist attraction, Big Island farmer Bob Raley points out there is more to the island than just the Kilauea Volcano. Lawmakers debate bills
to define farm tourismBy B.J. Reyes
Associated PressThere are macadamia nuts, coffee, sugar, honey, pineapple, flowers and livestock that all support the island's diverse agriculture industry.
"We on Hawaii have a lot of unique types of farming, and it's kind of interesting to people," said Raley, the owner of Volcano Isle Coffee and Tropicals and one of a growing number of state farmers showing off their products through tourism-related activities.
It's called "ag-tourism," and it's seen by many as a natural marriage between the traditional farming activities that helped build the local island economies and the tourism sector that currently drives the state.
"It has basically been an evolutionary process," said Paula Helfrich, president of the Hawaii Island Economic Development Board, which has taken a lead role in promoting ag-tourism venues.
While counties can regulate ag-tourism, Hawaii lawmakers are debating legislation that would define the practice statewide -- a move that Helfrich said might persuade more farmers to open up their land to visitors.
"There is hesitation," she said. "There is a lack of understanding -- a sense that agricultural tourism is an excuse to put hotel development on agricultural lands, and it unequivocally is not."
Advancing in the House is a bill (HB 523 HD2) that would allow tourism activities as part of a working farm or farming operation on agriculturally zoned lands, provided the activity does not interfere with surrounding operations. A companion bill has been tabled by Senate committees.
Activities designed to attract visitors and generate supplemental income for farmers range from conducting tours and selling products directly from the farm to operating a bed and breakfast, allowing horseback riding or holding festivals on the land.
"It has to be a working farm or agricultural concern that encourages access to visitors," Helfrich said. "It cannot be a bed and breakfast with a cow out front. That's not agricultural tourism."
A 2000 study by the Hawaii Agricultural Statistics Service pegged the value of ag-tourism-related activities statewide at $26 million -- about one-third of which was generated by direct sales of farm products.
That year, the latest for which figures were available, 126 of the state's 5,500 farms generated money from ag-tourism. Another 84 farms had either started or planned to start similar ventures.
The majority of the ag-tourism farms, 60, were on the Big Island. Maui County had 31 such ventures, the City and County of Honolulu had 19 and Kauai County reported 16.
Raley was among those who added the tourism component to his operation around 2000.
He purchased Volcano Isle Tropicals, a flower farm, in 1987, and nine years later began growing coffee. Today, the operation boasts one acre of anthuriums and other flowers and some 1,500 coffee trees across two acres.
"They can tour a whole coffee field," Raley said of visitors. "Certain times we'll be processing, and we can explain to them how it works.
"It seems to be fairly interesting to most people, especially people from the mainland who all they know is going to the grocery store to buy coffee," Raley said. "Being the only state in the U.S. that grows coffee, it's different from anything they can see anywhere else they could go."
Opponents of the ag-tourism legislation argue that unscrupulous developers may try to take advantage of the law.
"Clearly, if someone has a working ag operation, it makes sense for them to be able to augment their income," said Jeff Mikulina, director of the Sierra Club, Hawaii Chapter. "What we're worried about is further erosion of our land-use laws."
Senate Tourism Chairwoman Donna Mercado Kim, who introduced the Senate bill, noted that Mikulina's concern was among those that prompted her colleagues to hold the bill in committee.
"The language in the bill has to be very tight if, in fact, we're going to make those exceptions," said Kim (D, Kalihi Valley-Halawa).
Although senators were unable to agree on such language, Kim said she still sees promotion of agricultural products as a worthwhile effort.
Legislature Directory
Legislature Bills & Hawaii Revised Statutes