Access to land is one of the most significant barriers for farmers’ success on Oʻahu, according to an interim report from the Honolulu City Council's Agricultural Development Task Force.
The council reconvened the task force in late 2024 to recommend strategies and policies in the city to promote island agriculture. It published its interim report in July with three key findings, one of the most significant being the “availability, affordability, and long-term protection of agricultural land.”
Racquel Achiu, a North Shore farmer and a member of the task force, said agricultural land on the island is sold and turned into so-called “gentleman farms.”
“We have a significant amount of agricultural land and acreages that are being sold off to developers, and they all come with the story about agriculture,” Achiu said. “But that's not what ends up happening. Those lands end up getting chopped up and sold off to those that claim they want to be in agriculture, but it really ends up leading to this big pretty house with a big old mango tree and a horse.”
Developers benefit from reduced property taxes for agricultural land, but don’t actually produce food. Achiu said landowners know those types of developers will buy that land at a premium, so they limit legitimate farmers to short-term leases to preserve flexibility.
“I know people that have been on month-to-month (leases) for years. How do you invest … month-to-month, year-to-year? You know the amount of money it costs to just fence a property?” she said. “It's crushing when you cannot guarantee that you'll be there for that long period of time. Your operation is always being run on a short-term basis, so how do you expand?”
Gentleman farms have been an issue for years, but Achiu said it’s still a fundamental issue now.
The task force's two other key findings recommend incentives for farmers that are tied to “meaningful agricultural production,” and stronger markets for locally grown food.
