Joe Kent interviewed Randy Cabral, President of the Hawaii Farm Bureau, at the legislature’s annual agricultural day. The interview was recorded as part of the Grassroot Institute with Dr. Keli’i Akina, a radio show on KAOI on Maui, and KKNE on Oahu.
Currently, Hawaii’s agricultural climate is in a decline. “If you look at the last report put out by Melrose, it showed that agriculture actually slacked off a bit, lost acres,” Randy began, “I’m the typical age of the average farmer for Hawaii, 60+ years. We need to get more young people involved… but it’s hard to start from scratch. You need affordable land, affordable water, you need a good product, you need a viable business plan. It’s tough being in [agriculture], there are a lot of obstacles.”
These obstacles, however, disproportionately affect small farmers. “Take the Food Safety Modernization Act,” Randy elaborated, “The larger farming operations can weather the cost, the small farmer may not be able to.”
Listen to the full interview here:
