KEKAHA — Agriculture is more than digging a hole in the ground and planting something, said Judith Rivera, Corteva Agriscience Hawaii research lead Friday at the dedication and blessing of a new lab building in Kekaha.
“This is a new era in agriculture,” Rivera said. “I’m happy to have found continuing use for agriculture on lands that used to grow sugar cane. This is high technology, but it trickles down to agriculture. This is using the ground to help put food on the table.”
Corteva Agriscience, agriculture division of DowDuPont, celebrated the near-completion of the updated lab building in the shadow of greenhouses rising on the Kekaha plain. The $3 million building renovations of the former seed operation will accommodate the growing research needs of the company.
“We’re excited to unveil a new lab building that will expand the research capabilities of Corteva in Hawaii,” Rivera said. “It’s the first step in an ongoing project that will increase our capacity to conduct research operations indoors, which will, in turn, provide environmental benefits while reducing the need for additional lands.”
The renovated building will include office spaces and a lab to support the activity in the shade houses, the first phase of which is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
The lab will also create 20 to 30 jobs.
“You folks are walking the talk,” said Kauai County Council Chair Mel Rapozo. “Politicians talk, but you folks are the ones doing the work and walking the talk. This is another opportunity for our kids to stay at home with good jobs.”
Ryan Oyama, Global Population Development, Hawaii lead, anticipates the first houses to be completed by the end of this year. Additional structures are expected to be built over the next several years.
Corteva Agriscience broke ground on the shade house project in February after receiving approval from the state Department of Agriculture. The structures will increase capacity and incorporate new, more efficient technologies.
The additional $12 million worth of expansions and improvements for the shade house project will benefit the local economy and enhance the Corteva Agriscience research network in Waimea and Kekaha.
Four new shade structures are expected to be completed by the end of the year, with additional structures expected to be built over the next few years.
The project’s general contractor was Shioi Construction.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
Call it what it is. Pesticide research.
This news article by a staff phtograher, wish there was at least one photo of the shade buildings.
For 100,000 years at least, God didn’t need a science lab to feed the humans, so why now? Say, same ‘ol trusty Dow DuPont Chemical isn’t gonna bring us more GMO FOOD, are they, and more cancer causing petrochemicals like Glyphosate and already banned Chlorpyrifos.
You know more simple sounding petrochemicals that take years of study before they need to be banned to protect the unborn, the keiki and the parents and Tutu.
Some of us are already shivering reading and another drug “sounding” name like CORTEVA, wherein the side effects of other same sounding (drug) words are enough to choke a herd of horses.
Is another 25 jobs worth violating the Laws of God and Mother Nature as Chlorpyrifos did?
Who would you place your TRUST in? God and Mother Nature with a reliable Eternity of a track record feeding the creatures and humans of our planet or some recent in time “pop-up” for profit modern unreliable science company following in the slippers of Monsanto and their banned cancer causing chemicals. I’ll take the Lord any day or night…! ! ! Let’s buy these chemical companies a ticket out, Mars is waiting for them, er, uh, maybe that’s not far enough.
In a word, Dennis, your article was rather VAGUE, but we love your photos, and we missed the 1 or 2 of your photos that could have brightened this article with.
Mahalo,
Charles
Glyphosate and Chlorpyrifos are not petrochemicals……….not even close!
Aloha Dennis Fujimoto, Please accept my apologies for my incorrectly stating that there were no photos in your article. The many photos were very thorough as to the article.
For some reason my computer did not show them at first.
But after seeing the pictures I must say that in the millions of years corn has not only been on earth, but in the last 100,000 years (my guess), Mother Nature never needed no $3 Million dollar science lab to feed the zillions of people over time with the original natural nutritional God given ingredients that sustained life in many cultures of humans on earth.
So why now? Is this another “take food from God” and put a man made Patent on it? For PROFIT PURPOSES…?
Would you mind elaborating on it. It seems those young science minds of the youth in the pictures could be doing something more worth while than messing with God’s food chain.
Maybe they should spend their time eliminating the pollution that is killing our planet…remember it is out planet, not their corporate planet.
It’s maybe hard for Kaua’i people to appreciate how badly polluted our Earth has become in just the last 100 years, but if you were able to visit so many places in the world where an air filter mask is necessary to breathe on the streets; or the chemical stench filled waterways where children bathe and get water from…this more need of chemicals laboratory may not be what we seek.
Mahalo for the pics,
Charles
However advanced we may become with new technologies and approaches to agricultural endeavors, it is important to maintain the realities of protecting and preserving the finite resources that come with an island-environment! The land, air and water quality should not be abused and/or depleted unconscionably.