The Hawai’i Farmers Union is hosting its annual convention in Waimānalo this weekend, giving the agricultural community an opportunity to come together to discuss how it’s weathering this year’s storms.
The union has over a thousand members across the state, and Vice President Christian Zuckerman said many are struggling to manage back-to-back disasters.
“There's many farmers who are going to be going — I wouldn't be surprised — going out of business in the coming months, or really struggling to make ends meet,” Zuckerman told HPR.
After the Kona lows in spring, farmers self-reported more than $40 million in losses. Zuckerman said that was a big hit, but farmers rallied.
“(They) got their farms cleaned up. They started getting their feet back underneath them. And then right when you get your crops in the ground, you get hit by that next storm,” he said.
‘Getting kicked while you’re down’
Matt Drayer tends to 25 acres in remote Wood Valley in Kaʻū on Hawaiʻi. His land has vegetable fields, chickens, dairy cattle, and māmaki tea plants.
Torrential rains during the Kona lows washed away 2,000 of his tea plants and all of his field crops. Drayer said he was still trying to recover from the spring storms when Lala washed over Kaʻū.
“We equate it to the old saying of getting kicked while you're down — that’s what Lala was. We had just replanted, and then Lala just buried all the next crops,” he told HPR.
Six bridges separate Drayer’s farm from the nearest town, Pāhala, and the road was impassable for days after Lala due to flood damage and debris.
Community members brought supplies to Drayer and his neighbors in four-wheel-drive trucks, via helicopter, and even on horseback before the road reopened. Drayer said many of the people who came to help were farmers themselves.
“Farmers are used to disaster in one way or another, so the response time was immediate,” Drayer said.
After his experience with the Kona lows, Drayer used a grant from the Hawaiʻi Farmers Union to invest in a generator capable of powering his entire house and several refrigerators and freezers for eggs and milk from his farm.
That purchase proved invaluable during Lala when the power went out — Drayer and his family had to rely on their generator for 21 days.
Since he couldn’t take anything to market, Drayer ended up giving eggs and milk to his neighbors, helping to keep them fed while the community was cut off.
As farmers contend with more frequent storms, Zuckerman said now is the time to think about how to make Hawaiʻi’s agricultural system more resilient — and the role local food can play in disaster preparedness.
“When we have these natural disasters, it's just not a disaster, it's also an opportunity. … It's an opportunity to rally around our farmers. It's an opportunity to come together and support our food system to take that next step forward,” he said.
This weekend’s convention will include a session on Saturday for attendees to discuss what resources are available during storms. On Sunday, HFU members will meet to discuss their policy agenda for the upcoming year.
