I am a tomato farmer on the Big Island's Hamakua Coast, and that's what I know - I know how to grow enough food to feed a lot of people. That's important in Hawaii, where we import more than 80 percent of our food and are vulnerable to shipping interruptions.

Lately, I also know that prices - for fertilizer, for packaging material, for most supplies - have skyrocketed as finite resources meet an increasing population. Construction is also slowing. Tourism is way down, and might never return to the levels our economy has become accustomed to. We are entering a new age.

The other thing I know is that our islands' sustainability and food security are important considerations that we should all be concerned about in these changing times. Could we feed our island population without imports if we needed to?

Let me tell you how this all relates to my being strongly in favor of the thirty-meter telescope (TMT) being located in Hawaii.

Bringing a new telescope to Mauna Kea - not situated at its peak; having every cultural and environmental safeguard strictly in place; and with the stipulation that some other, older telescopes come down - brings, too, a vast galaxy of benefits for the people of the Big Island.

Not only will most of the enormous projects' workers be Hawaii residents, which means much less impact on our roads and infrastructure than tourism brings, but discussion at high levels is about annually putting large sums of astronomy money into an education fund, which would benefit our Big Island children for generations to come.

  As for my own education, I flunked out of the University of Hawaii-Manoa many years ago, and I learned my important life lessons away from the classroom - in the jungles of Vietnam. One of those lessons was that “;leaving someone behind is not an option.”; We don't want to leave our keiki, our future generations, behind. We need to prepare now so that our children and their grandchildren can lead sustainable lives in Hawaii.

The educational funds gained from the TMT would be administered by a group of wise and competent community members who appreciate all manners of learning.

Two hundred million dollars of the more than $1 billion TMT project is funded by the Moore Foundation. Gordon Moore was a co-founder of Intel Corp., and his foundation's funding carries no risk of economic downturn. It's not a business. Its money comes from profits from the worldwide computer industry. The other partners would likely be foreign governments.

Compare this to the shutdown of Aloha Airlines, the sharp downturn in tourism and the economic bailout of our nation's financial institutions, as well as the prospects of rising oil and commodity costs threatening Big Island businesses. Very few communities in this country have such a safe source of jobs and benefits available to help them transition into a new economic reality.

  Times are changing, and the unknown can be a bit scary, but none of us is alone. We are a community and we are all in this together. Leaving somebody behind is not an option.

Keep in touch with your friends and stay close to your family. Help each other. Adopt a class at Keaukaha Elementary School so students can take excursions (see http://www.hamakuasprings.com). Come to the E Malama Aina Sustainability Festival on Nov. 7 and 8 at Hilo's Mooheau Park.

And, finally, support the TMT, which means you are taking action to help the generations to come. I am comfortable that future generations will look back upon my actions now and know that I did what I could. I am comfortable with that.

We all know that Hawaiians were ahead of their time in innovations and especially in all things celestial. Why not again?

Mauna Kea is a sacred place. We humans should elevate our behavior so that we are worthy of operating in that environment.

We need to be wise, and utilize all of the resources and opportunities that are available to us. If not, poho (wasted).

Wherever you stand, I invite you to join us in cooperation. Together we can lay the groundwork for a future we can live with, and one in which the next generations can thrive!