The state auditor recently completed a long-awaited audit of the operations of the state Agribusiness Development Corporation, declaring: “We found that ADC has done little — if anything — to facilitate the development of agricultural enterprises…the ADC has yet to develop an agribusiness plan…ADC did not follow the state procurement process…the ADC has yet to provide the necessary leadership to facilitate the transition of agricultural lands…after almost 30 years since its creation.”
Read the complete audit at files.hawaii.gov/auditor/Reports/2021/21-01.pdf.
The ADC is a quasi-public/private entity responsible for managing between 21,932 acres and 37,837 acres of state-owned agricultural land. Some 57% of the lands they manage are in Kekaha, 28% in Kalepa, the east side, and 15% located in central O‘ahu.
Note: The ADC claims 28,000 acres for the Kekaha lands in their 2018 annual report and 12,000 acres for the same Kekaha lands in their 2019 annual report. As the audit states over and over again, the ADC records are incomplete and in disarray.
According to the audit: “…the Agribusiness Development Corporation was created to develop an ‘aggressive and dynamic’ agribusiness-development program to fill the economic void created by the closure of sugar and pineapple plantations; the agency has done little to fill the void…”
The ADC’s failure to grow and diversify local agriculture here on Kaua‘i, where a majority of the state-owned land they manage is located, is painfully obvious.
Instead of transitioning the former sugar lands of Kekaha into local food production with the prime agricultural lands leased out to local farmers and ranchers, the ADC has just converted the land from sugar plantations to GMO plantations. Rather than develop these lands into what could have been a thriving mecca for diversified local food production, the ADC chose the easiest and most profitable path forward and simply leased most of these lands to DuPont, Dow, Syngenta and Becks. In recent years these companies have all changed their names, but not their business models.
The vast majority of corn grown by these companies is not for food, but rather for research and/or for seed production that ends up on the mainland as cattle feed, high fructose corn syrup and ethanol.
Meanwhile, local farmers and ranchers who actually do produce food for local consumption are stuck in a frustrating and perpetual search for good agricultural land, reliable irrigation and affordable long-term leases. To their credit, Hartung Bros. (formerly Syngenta), which is a major ADC tenant, has begun growing actual food for local consumption, albeit in very small amounts relative to their total acreage.
The audit is a damning expose of mismanagement, misdirection and misapplication of state resources that has gone on for over 25 years. The mission of the ADC is to strengthen and diversify agriculture, and to efficiently manage state-owned agricultural lands. Clearly they have failed.
Actual findings from the audit include:
• ADC has yet to create a meaningful Hawai‘i agribusiness plan;
• ADC does not conduct market research, a statutory requirement;
• ADC’s land management is inconsistent, incomplete and, in many cases, there is non-existent record keeping. For example, prospective tenants occupying lands without signed written agreements;
• ADC does not keep a land portfolio inventory nor a complete list of projects;
• License terms and conditions are inconsistent with board approvals;
• Vacant properties are home to criminal activity;
• The ADC board is aware that ADC is not fulfilling its statutory requirements, but it does not hold its executive director accountable.
Kaua‘i legislators have so far been quiet on the issue.
Not so for House Speaker Scott Saiki, who less than seven days after the audit was made public launched a probe clearly intended to remove the state auditor.
That’s correct. Instead of demanding the removal of the ADC executive director and a restructure or dismantling of the ADC, Saiki has announced an investigation of the state auditor, and has proposed to kneecap their operations via a 50% budget cut.
It’s not entirely clear that Saiki’s displeasure with the auditor is directly tied to the ADC audit. The truth is we will never know for sure.
But if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, then, yes, it is probably a duck.
To say the optics are bad is an understatement. Either the timing of his announcement was just extremely unfortunate and the issues are not connected, or the state auditor is being punished for calling out the failures of the ADC.
The primary question now is for our own three representatives and our state senator, who also happens to be the Senate president: How will they vote on ADC bills headed to them in the coming weeks?
Will our legislators have the courage to abolish the ADC and transfer its responsibilities back to the state Department of Agriculture? Or will they support reforming or restructuring the ADC, placing Band-Aids over the ugly parts and give them another 25 years? Or will they do nothing?
My personal hope is that they will support the independence of the auditor’s office, abolish the ADC and focus 100% on helping our local farmers and ranchers.
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Gary Hooser is the former vice-chair of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, and served eight years in the state Senate, where he was majority leader. He also served for eight years on the Kaua‘i County Council, and was the former director of the state Office of Environmental Quality Control. He serves presently in a volunteer capacity as board president of the Hawai‘i Alliance for Progressive Action and is executive director of the Pono Hawai‘i Initiative.
Enlightening and informative info on the failures of ADC, but, Gary, why is it necessary to inject your relentless and tiresome anti-GMO biases…? GMO’s have nothing to do with ADC’s mismanagement. Your decided inability to curb your bias weakens the point of this story.
Thank you Gary, great explain of our vast State ag lands. And yes remind us every time about GMO’s and their cousins the co-morbid poisons put onto our foods, or even the far off farmlands across the sea and continents inheriting poisoned Kauai food seeds.
GMOs have everything to do this with this and the ADC failure. It’s purpose was to help get land planted in food for local consumption. The GMO seed companies, which you seem to support, did not do that except in one small case.
Right, cause there are LINES of local, organic farmers chomping at the bit to front thousands of dollars to farm the 30 thousand + acres of land ADC is responsible for… The seed companies lease a FRACTION of that land, and pay the thousands of dollars required to farm and maintain it.
Again, ADC’s failures have nothing to do with the seed companies. The seed companies are the only ones with the ways and means to be able to acquire land leases. THAT, in part, is the problem, which stems from an inadequate, inept system.
Thirty years ago the hope was that the ADC could both maintain and renovate the vast water ditch system and lease valuable agricultural lands- valuable because water is the key to agriculture. But not one ditch has been maintained and not one farm has been leased. Instead they sit in an office in Honolulu and scratch their heads to what “new industries” they can bring to ag lands.
If cheap arable water-ready lands were available you couldn’t stop people from developing truck farming. Instead they wait for someone to come to them a lease 1000 acres for some as-yet undiscovered industry
It seems, relatively recent immigrants to Kaua’i from Asia are taking advantage of fallow farm lands and putting in food crops on Kaua’i and are represented by the pop up food stands they have gratefully located for us island wide. If food stops coming we will need thousands more of them, just please truthfully exercise “NO SPRAY” poisons on the foods.
That’s why marigolds should be sewn staggered in the fields of crops, marigolds are a reflexión of the color of the sun and ward off insects who just want to share our foods. After all insects are God’s creatures too, and they have their own inborn intelligence that directs them to eat non-poisonous foods for their own nutrition.
After all a few insect bites doesn’t destroy a fruit or vegetable. Just think of it as sharing.
Thge problem with the Kekaha farm land, formerly marsh land, is that the saline water table is close to the surface. To make the land descent for farming, the salty ground water has to be constantly pumped out which requires constant pumping and KIUC’s expensive electricity to accomplish that. This brings up the cost of farming to a point where most farmers cannot afford to farm there profitably. Farming is economically precarious without these added challenges. Here’s an article you can read to learn the history of farming there: https://www.environment-hawaii.org/?p=3154
Is the private sector willing to take on the load should these lands that are state owned, be willing to do an EIS for further development in commercial use? Since this is state land, I see no issue in the cause for debating what was the land used for. Agriculture. It seems to me that the county is not qualified to work on behalf of the state to facilitate the construction of any use of these lands, other than just agriculture. I would say so. Now what? Stuck with wasted land. I don’t think GMO would mind sharing these lands and leasing it to the state for further construction. I guess in a nutshell, whether disinterested state officials or unqualified county official to be the case, however defined, still remains a venture for private sector to decide. Considering it is the private sector that brings in profits and not government. Wouldn’t you agree?
Are you kidding us right now, AGAIN? The more we say NO, the more THEY say GO! When was the last time you went to Lydgate “campers” site! We asked council woman to address the school children and working adults need for clean clothes! Ive got two stored working washing machines that i had plans to place on my T-100, installing them at lydgate comfort station for that purpose, and Nothing! We know and see how the 99%’ers are rolling out so many back-to-back agenda that has nothing to do with the current mess that continues on with the ways and means of the purely ruthless, nonsensical “movers” against the We the people or children, 138 -years! What part of collusion do you not see OR understand? Too many of your kind that has back history, having Zero integrity, much less being truthful, and there are many kingpins that need to be charged, courted, and incarcerated for the insatiable greed they EXude! Wake up you dumb FAhKas! We are no longer your slaves and we plan to prevail against evil minds, maneuvers, and manipulations! The “power couple” example includes ALL that would have us “cut bait” as the mayor stated, If we don’t follow Kauaʻi prosecuting attorney “covid rules”. Skankin much?
We need to let Kekaha farm land go… the cost to keep it useable is just too much- and how can you grow a healthy microbe soil if dealing with salt issues? We have other agricultural lands that are great for development. Kauai please take steps to support organic farmers on smaller lots of land – that can improve the soil to truly improve the quality of food produced.
One thing farmers also need is affordable housing- please return the ADU for Agricultural lands.
… Yes need to fully fund the State of Hawaii -Audit office, we need transparency to understand how our state is operating.
No thanks to Gary we still have Agg jobs on the west side providing diversity to the local economy. Maybe you haven’t noticed yet but the tourist industry has been completely wiped out and now you want to destroy the few jobs( besides state jobs) that are still left. The west side is doing fine without you folks thank you very much. Oh and weren’t you(Gary) in government state and county for close to 20 years? Why didn’t you do anything about the ADC then? ADC needs to be completely over hauled and make more land available to people who want to grow food but don’t get rid of the company’s that provide jobs to local people.
Abolish the Hooser!
ADC Had it happened as it was intended, Kauai would have been less dependent on Tourism. We’d be self sustaining through agriculture which would be beneficial Community wide.