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It's strangely ironic to me that KSBE and Bishop Estate, who are the caretakers of the crown lands, are actually putting business and profits before the needs of the people of Hawai'i by agreeing to sell 87 acres of farmland to a developer.
At a time when Hawai'i needs to start thinking about being able to sustain its population with more locally grown food, KSBE wants to turn the farmland, which is currently being used by small farmers into more houses in Hawai'i Kai.
"...Kamehameha Schools plans to honor its deal with a developer who wants to turn Kamilonui Valley farms into house lots as long as the developer meets certain benchmarks written into the contract, a representative of the land trust told a community meeting Tuesday night that drew more than 100 people.
At issue are farm lots leased to the Kamilonui Farmers Cooperative, a group of mostly elderly farmers who were located at the back of Hawai'i Kai on leased land some 30 years ago by Henry J Kaiser, the original developer of Hawai'i Kai. Some of these farmers want to retire, but only have a few years of fixed lease rent left on their farms and cannot sell them.
The land trust says the land is not making enough revenue from farming and will most likely be sold because it does not meet the five mandates of the trust over its land holdings: cultural, economic, environmental, educational or community capacity for Native Hawaiians..."
It's not like KSBE really needs the money they would get from the developer. But I'm not sure that it's proper stewardship of the land to want to develop it in this way.
Miulang
At a time when Hawai'i needs to start thinking about being able to sustain its population with more locally grown food, KSBE wants to turn the farmland, which is currently being used by small farmers into more houses in Hawai'i Kai.
"...Kamehameha Schools plans to honor its deal with a developer who wants to turn Kamilonui Valley farms into house lots as long as the developer meets certain benchmarks written into the contract, a representative of the land trust told a community meeting Tuesday night that drew more than 100 people.
At issue are farm lots leased to the Kamilonui Farmers Cooperative, a group of mostly elderly farmers who were located at the back of Hawai'i Kai on leased land some 30 years ago by Henry J Kaiser, the original developer of Hawai'i Kai. Some of these farmers want to retire, but only have a few years of fixed lease rent left on their farms and cannot sell them.
The land trust says the land is not making enough revenue from farming and will most likely be sold because it does not meet the five mandates of the trust over its land holdings: cultural, economic, environmental, educational or community capacity for Native Hawaiians..."
It's not like KSBE really needs the money they would get from the developer. But I'm not sure that it's proper stewardship of the land to want to develop it in this way.
Miulang
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