For the next few days, I’m at the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation Annual Conference. This is my first time attending this event and I’m blessed to be a part of this community.

Some 15 years ago, the farm community was under attack by well-funded disinformation campaigns. As I look around the room and I still see long time allies around supporting agriculture. We are still here and still working on producing food, flowers, and other commodities. We aren’t protecting or working on shutting down family businesses but collaborating on a shared vision for Hawaii.

We are all asking the same questions about how we will preserve and sustain our farms. Where are we going to get workers? How do we deal with ag crimes? How do we advocate to the legislature on ways to sustain us? Who will support our endeavors? How will we feed our people?

There are so many tough questions and issues upon us. The beauty is that we have a core group of supporters to help build the vision for the future. They are aging and a younger generation has to start stepping up to the plate soon.

We not only need to grow farmers but also leaders to fulfill the vision of those trying to build up agriculture again. We have to all get in that canoe and steer it in the right direction.

Community=common unity

I started to advocate for agriculture for nearly 2 decades now because it is part of who I am, and like so many others here across our state. We came together these past few days and remain committed to preserving our agricultural legacy.