Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 26, Number 7, 1 July 2009 — 'A stream has a right to its own life' -- Maui taro farmer [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

'A stream has a right to its own life' -- Maui taro farmer

Ourfocusfor the months ofJune, Juīy and August will he kaīo. In May our Kaīo Task Force visitedWaipi'o VaIIey on Hawai'i Island. In .lune the group visited with kalo farmers in Ke'anae. Penny Levin, who Iives in Wailuku andfanns in Ke'anae, was kind enough to do this feature for our enlightemnent and edification. For the last seven months, OHA has been engaged in a unique opportunity to venture directly into the heart of the kalo-farming conununity as a member of and administrator for the Taro Security and Purity Task Force. This legislative body is a first for kalo farmers. It is the first time they have had not only a true voice in guiding policy and agency decisions regarding kalo, but also in taking the lead in defining what is important, as well as meaningful and specific actions to improve conditions. The task force is illuminating why such clarifications are necessary. Jim Cain, chair of the task force and a farmer in Waipi'o Valley, Hawai'i, indicated that one of the reasons for this effort is to strengthen the work and the voice of eaeh taro-farming community. "We all know we can't pull taro without water," he says. "We're also building and improving relationships with eaeh other and the agencies. The most important question we ean ask is, 'What ean we do to help?' " In Wailuanui, Maui, the farmers need a stream monitor - someone with integrity that ean access the mauka diversions and monitor how mueh water is being taken out of the system and respond to concerns on a daily basis, reporting back to the community and the Water Commission. This is necessary for the commission to be able to make informed decisions about water allocation. State law designates the streams and the kalo as top priorities. While most people know that water is a significant issue for taro farmers, the community meetings have brought this issue into sharper focus. Looking out over the expansive lo'i kalo lands that grace the peninsulas of Ke'anae and Wailuanui through the eyes of the task force illuminates what the "tourist eye" cannot see. The first thing that rises up past the beauty of the scene that stretches before you is the outline of hundreds of lo'i kalo visible under a

thick covering of California grass. They are fallow because of the laek of water. There was onee enough water flowing from the mauka streams to support all of these patches. Yet, looking a httle deeper, you ean see new patches being opened, the leaves of the kalo tracking the sun. The persistence of kalo farmers is legendary. On Maui, 150 years of water diversion has been a challenge like no other. Not just one or two streams, but every stream from Waihe'e to Waikapū and around Lahaina side on the West side and from Māliko to Makapipi on the East side. From old pictures brought out by the community, we learned that the patches supplied poi mills with enough taro to produce thousands of pounds of poi a month right up to the 1950s. Moses Haia of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. describes how when the original inhabitants of East Maui learned that their water was being taken out of the area, they protested. The current generation of farmers eontinue that battle for return of the water to their lo'i. One farmer questioned, "Why do I have 12 lo'i, but only water for two?" Another demonstrates the 'ike that taro farmers carry about how the streams give life to reefs where they fish by simply saying, "A stream has a right to its own life." With the decline in water levels and increase in water temperatures in streams and lo'i, fungal diseases in the kalo have increased. A monitor for the streams has been elusive. Agency budget excuses abound. In the true manner of taro farmers, one person suggests they take up a collection to pay for it, whieh gets a wry laugh out of everyone. Taro farmers are used to doing things on their own. Still, the oldest farming families continue to plant. People wonder who would want to do such hard work? The answer comes in the responses. Thoughtful discussion about how to reduce the disease levels in their kalo - harvest a little earlier so the disease doesn't transfer to the huli, for example - and how to reduce aggressive apple snails in their patches with organic rotations of cover crops, rotating wet to dry patches, and restoring vigor to the soil. "Can someone, please, make the snail sterile?" requested one farmer. I know that taro farmers work hard, but I never knew that we were at such risk for lifethreatening heahh issues because of it. Kalo farming used to be a eommunal and family thing with many hands. More often than not See LINDSEY on pagE 28

Robert K. Lindsey, Jr. TrustEE, Hawai'i

LINDSEY CūntinuEd fram page 25

these days, a single farmer is working many patches on his or her own. The wear and tear on the body leads to plenty of aches and pains. Lorrin Pang, heakh specialist at the Department of Heahh on Maui who joined the task force for the Ke'anae-Wailuanui meeting, warned farmers to be careful of pain relief medications (anti-inflammatories). He shared that inflammation means the body is blocking infections and that these medications ean kill the fluid in the joints and eventually the entire joint. To survive economically, taro farmers are returning to small family-operated poi mills, but the permitting process is eomplex. A request to the task force to investigate how that might be simplified or supported is made. There isn't a lot of profit in poi production, and what we're finding out is that smaller appears to be better. For young farmers, I wonder what the future might be for them if that is their sole business. Many acknowledged they have a job to support their return to the lo'i; they'd rather not have to. Most would just like to farm. There's another group who've retired and have returned. And there's the steadfast few who have been full-time growers all their lives. After a night of engaging community dialogue about water, heahh risks from diseases and back-breaking work, snails, poi factories, and markets for taro, I ean now look down from the edge of the road and see some of those newly opened patches represent a new generation of young farmers wkh a desire to return to the lo'i and to make a living from it. They need and deserve help from all of us for the aloha they carry for the kalo, for providing us with such a pure and healthy food, and for perpetuating the lifestyle that is such an integral part of Hawaiian cultural identity. The task force represents a clear opportunity for change if the mana'o that comes out of the group is heeded by agencies and the Legislature. Like the enviromnent in whieh they live, the 14 taro farmers that sit on this legislative body recognize the issues and the recommendations are connected to eaeh other like the flows of water in an ahupua'a. Ka wai ola is the koko that runs wkhin the veins of nā mahi'ai kalo. Without it, the kalo and the farmer do not survive, and neither do we. ■

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