If you keep playing games you're going to be playing them alone.” — Sonya Parker “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” — Mark Twain “A lie cannot live.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

1. HAWAIIAN COMMERCIAL & SUGAR COMPANY (HC&S)
DIVERSIFIED AGRICULTURE
WE HAVE A PLAN
WE NEED TIME - WATER - $$$$$$
November 2016
HC&S General Manager, Rick Volner tells Maui Now that each of the crops and
projects that are being tested for diversified agriculture have different timelines.
“Some of these are really early on in the research and development. A lot of the
crops that we’re looking at for bio-energy production, as an example, really haven’t
been grown in Hawai`i in large acreages. They may have been grown in the past in
very small quantities. We’re talking about growing these on much, much larger
acres. So that research and development may take time–it may take a few years,”
said Volner.
Volner said that as part of the diversified agriculture plans, HC&S is also looking at
an additional agricultural park or expansion of the current ag park, which he said
could be on a much shorter timeline. He said, that once the land and infrastructure
are ready, “potentially we could have farmers on the land within a year or less.”
[Emphasis Supplied]
Source: Wendy Osher. Maui Now. Maui Sugar: End of an Era – Diversified
Agriculture Trials Underway. Posted November 11, 2016. Updated November 14,
2016. http://mauinow.com/2016/11/11/maui-sugar-end-of-an-era-diversified-agriculture-trialsunderway/#comments
Web Accessed: December 22, 2016.
MAUI NO KA OI – MAUI IS THE BEST
We envision a HI-TECHNOLOGY AGRICULTURAL PARK for
Maui Farmers and Agriculture Related Businesses
Designed Today, Planned for Tomorrow and Growing for the Future
THE WHITMORE VILLAGE PROJECT
Designed, Planned and Advocated By
SENATOR DONOVAN DELA CRUZ
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/memberfiles/Senate/delacruz/Documents/The%20Whitmore%20Project%20(REV%2002.18.2014).pdf

2. PLAN TAKES WAHIAWA BACK TO ITS ROOTS
Farming in Wahiawa is taking root again with the state initiative known as The Whitmore
Project
 Honolulu Star-Advertiser
 7 Dec 2014
 By Andrew Gomes agomes@staradvertiser.com
STAR-ADVERTISE R / OCT. 30 1984
A state initiative aims to revitalize the town’s farming industry.
Olive. Avocado. Mango. Peach. Plum.
The street names in Wahiawa reflect the Central Oahu town’s history rooted deeply in agriculture.
Recent history, however, hasn’t been as fruitful for the community with the disappearance of sugar cane,
the fading of pineapple and hit-and-miss endeavors with diversified agriculture. Yet now an effort to
reinvigorate farming — and the town itself — appears to be taking root.

3. The initiative is a multipronged one by the state. It includes making agricultural fields and farm-related
industrial and retail sites around Wahiawa available for longterm lease, developing affordable housing for
farmworkers and preparing area school kids for jobs and careers in agriculture.
Known as The Whitmore Project, the plan is being implemented by the state Agribusiness Development
Corp., or ADC, after pieces were largely aligned by Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz after years of sometimes
frustrating work in the Legislature.
This is big. This is huge. This is our kids’ future.” Bryan Pang Resource teacher, state Department of
Education
“It’s about the town’s economic development,” said Dela Cruz (D, Wahiawa-Whitmore-Mililani Mauka).
“You have to develop industry.”
Dela Cruz, who was born and raised in Wahiawa, said he grew concerned with the possibility that the
town would wither after pineapple producer Del Monte Fresh Produce shut down operations in 2006.
Del Monte’s decision cost 551 employees their jobs and put 2,000 acres of prime farmland up for sale.
More recently, Dole Food Co. moved to sell 20,000 acres of largely fallow farmland in Central Oahu and
the North Shore.
The Whitmore Project’s foundation was established in 2012 when the state acquired 1,200 acres of the
former Del Monte pineapple land from the George Galbraith Trust. The purchase was made possible
largely from $13 million in state bond financing, $4.5 million from the Army, $4 million from the city
and $500,000 from developer D.R. Horton.
Then last year ADC bought two more properties: a 29,000-square-foot warehouse in Wahiawa’s
commercial core from local supermarket chain Tamura’s for $4.3 million, and a 24acre largely industrial
site next to Whitmore Village from Castle & Cooke for $3.3 million.
A fourth land deal is expected to conclude for $4.6 million by the end of this year between ADC and
Dole, which is selling 258 acres of mainly farmland along with several Dole buildings including offices
and farm equipment garages.
So far, ADC has committed about 400 acres of its farmland for lease to three large local farms: 200 acres
to Larry Jefts Farms (also known as Sugarland Farms), 160 acres to Ohana Best and 50 acres to Ho
Farms.
ADC, which is improving the soil that was left with high acidity levels from pineapple farming, also has
reserved another 200 acres for another dozen or so smaller farmers.
Jimmy Nakatani, ADC’s director, said the agency received 40 to 50 responses to its request for proposals
earlier this year to lease the former Galbraith lands. “The interest was very strong,” he said.
The balance of the farmland will be made available after boundaries for the large initial farms are
established. Some additional irrigation sources will need to be tapped to supply water to the whole site,
though Nakatani estimated there is enough water from an existing well to irrigate up to 800 acres of
diversified crops.

4. The industrial sites are also intended for lease so farmers can establish processing facilities that possibly
can be shared, making Wahiawa a processing and distribution hub for farms between the North Shore and
the Ewa Plain.
“In order for anything to happen it needs to be clustered,” Dela Cruz said.
Neil Ho, a principal of Ho Farms, has leased an old Meadow Gold dairy hay plant on the 24-acre
industrial site next to Whitmore Village with a plan to renovate the dilapidated warehouse into a $1.7
million processing facility with food safety certification that allows wider distribution of company
produce. A retail area that attracts consumers including tourists also is planned.
Ho said the new facility, which he expects to be finished in about 18 months, will handle produce grown
by Ho Farms in Kahuku, Ewa and Wahiawa. “It’s a perfect point,” he said. “That’s why Dole used it as a
hub.”
Wahiawa’s position as a central area for agriculture on Oahu was established with the founding of the
town in 1898 by farm families from California who named streets after fruits as well as their home state
(California Avenue).
James Dole, the founder of Dole Food predecessor Hawaiian Pineapple Co., started his pineapple empire
in Wahiawa in 1901 and built a cannery in the town in 1903.
Hawaiian Pineapple largely consolidated what had been 16 dispersed camps for its laborers into
Whitmore Village in 1947 with 120 homes, and the town continued as a centerpiece to farming for several
more decades.
Then a decline unfolded for plantation agriculture statewide. The last sugar cane plantations disappeared
on Oahu in the mid1990s, followed by a demise in pineapple farming a decade later.
Dole made attempts to diversify into other crops around Wahiawa, but not much took hold to stem the
downturn. In recent years the company put about 20,000 acres from Wahiawa to the North Shore up for
sale, excluding only about 2,700 acres on which Dole still grows pineapple and 195 acres planted in
coffee and cacao.
The future of farming around Wahiawa seemed dim enough three years ago that a University of Hawaii
College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources research station at nearby Poamoho faced the
possibility of being closed after helping farmers for more than 60 years.
UH, though a cooperative extension service, provides farmers with assistance and conducts research to
benefit the industry.
Through the Whitmore Project the state’s commitment to agriculture around Wahiawa helped reinvigorate
the 50-acre Poamoho research station, according to Jari Sugano, an extension agent at the station.
Recent and ongoing research at the station is wide ranging, though there is also a focus on developing
niche crops that can thrive in Wahiawa’s climate and soil, such as tea and blueberries.

5. An ongoing trial with tea is analyzing different soil acidity levels and how to best grow the plants without
pesticide. There are no big tea producers on Oahu, and the crop can be valuable, potentially generating $1
mil- lion per acre after five years.
“There’s a lot of money to be made,” Sugano said. “There’s a lot of future in agriculture.”
Added Dela Cruz, “The potential is so awesome. We could have Helemano blueberries and Wahiawa
tea.”
The state senator, whose grandfather was a truck driver for Dole, is so driven to see the Whitmore Project
succeed that he printed and hung up banner signs at the various sites, including one that reads “Whitmore
Annex” on the former Tamura’s warehouse that Dela Cruz envisions as a distribution and retail operation.
A sign outside the nearby 24-acre, largely industrial property proclaims it as the “Future Home of the
Whitmore Agribusiness Tech Park.”
Besides the banners, Dela Cruz has tried to elevate interest in and support for the project by leading about
20 tours of the different sites for various groups including school educators, state agencies and others.
Bryan Pang, a resource teacher for the state Department of Education’s Leilehua Complex of 11 public
schools, was excited by a recent tour.
“This is big,” he said. “This is huge. This is our kids’ future.”
To be sure, realizing all the pieces of the Whitmore Project vision will be challenging, as it is largely up
to ADC and other agencies to implement.
For instance, the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp., a state agency that facilitates
affordable-housing production, owns 2.6 acres of vacant residential-zoned land next to the Kemoo by the
Lake condominium on the edge of Lake Wilson. The site is identified for farmworker housing as part of
the Whitmore Project and could be developed with up to 160 residences under state affordable-housing
rules. However, the property lacks water and sewer capacity.
HHFDC signed a memorandum of understanding last year with ADC to explore housing for farmworkers
on the site.
Affordable housing will be a valuable resource if farming is to take off as envisioned in Wahiawa. For the
Ho Farms expansion alone, the company anticipates hiring 40 workers.
“It would help a lot,” Ho said of more affordable housing.
Another element of the Whitmore Project is establishing a foreign trade zone where farmers could import
and store supplies and equipment without paying customs duties until they remove the items for use.
Dela Cruz also wants to greatly expand the amount of state-owned land around Wahiawa leased to
farmers so that there is enough critical mass to support related industries like processing.
“We’re going to need more than 1,200 acres,” he said. “We need every bit of land.”

6. For the past two years, Dela Cruz unsuccessfully introduced bills at the Legislature to acquire the 20,000
acres of Dole land through a purchase or land swap. Next year Dela Cruz will try again, saying it needs to
be done before the opportunity is lost.
“There’s a sense of urgency that people don’t get,” he said, noting that private buyers can turn Dole
parcels into residential estates with little farming under lax state and county regulations governing
development of homes on farmland.
Nakatani said acquiring all the Dole land on the market is something the state shouldn’t pass up. “I think
it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said. “In Hawaii there’s no losing when you buy land. It’s just
how much is it going to cost us. It’s just a matter of political will and resources.”
If the Whitmore Project succeeds, Nakatani believes it could serve as a model for other rural
communities, especially on the neighbor islands, where farming has largely disappeared. “It’s a great
project,” he said.
Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser. December 7, 1984. Web Accessed: December 22, 2016.
https://www.pressreader.com/usa/honolulu-star-advertiser/20141207/281479274744532
_____________________________________
State agency gets $31.5M to buy 900 acres of farmland
 Pacific Business News
 6 Oct 6, 2016
 By Duane Shimogawa dshimogawa@bizjournals.com
The state Agribusiness Development Corp. has received $31.5 million to buy nearly 900 acres of
agricultural land in Central Oahu to be used as part of the Whitmore farming project in the area, Pacific
Business News has learned.
The state agency aims to facilitate and provide direction for the transition of Hawaii’s agriculture industry
from a dominance of sugar and pineapple to one made up of a diversity of crops.
BRUCE MACGREGOR FOR MERCY CORPS NORTHWEST
The state Agribusiness Development Corp. has received $31.5 million to buy nearly 900 acres of
agricultural land in Central Oahu to be used as part of Whitmore farming project in the area.

7. This past session, the Legislature appropriated the funds to the ADC with state Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz,
D-Mililani Mauka, Wahiawa, Whitmore Village, being instrumental in building support for the funds to
be included in the state budget.
Gov. David Ige recently signed the release of the $31.5 million. When the acquisition is completed, these
lands, along with other parcels pending transaction, will increase the farmable acreage in the Whitmore
Project from the initial 1,200 acres to more than 2,800 acres.
Neighboring state-owned properties also include facilities in Wahiawa and former Dole Food Co. Inc.
warehouses in Whitmore Village that will be retrofitted for processing and packaging.
"Under ADC’s management, these lands will be protected in perpetuity for farming,” Dela Cruz said.
“Access to good farmland is needed to help farmers scale up their crop production, which decreases our
reliance on imported foods.”
The governor recently announced his plan to double local food production, and replacing just 10 percent
of the food Hawaii currently imports would amount to about $313 million remaining in the state.
A recent summer harvest by Sugarland Farms, a tenant of the Whitmore Project, produced an estimated
2.7 million pounds of watermelons and 750,000 pounds of bell pepper.
Other components of the Whitmore Project that have either been completed or are currently being worked
on include an agriculture foreign trade zone to defer duties on imported materials, tax incentives through
the redesignation and expansion of Enterprise Zone No. 1, creation of an agribusiness technology park to
consolidate processing and packaging facilities, construction of workforce housing for farm employees,
establishment of K-12 workforce training and reclaiming wastewater for irrigation from the Wahiawa
Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Source: Pacific Business News. 6 October 2016. Web Accessed: December 22, 2016
http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/news/2016/10/06/state-agency-gets-31-5m-to-buy-900-acres-of.html
______________________________________