For most Americans, crickets are insects that provide a pleasant sonic backdrop to warm summer nights, but for Emilio Ruiz-Romero and Lourdes Torres, crickets are a tasty food that can help change the world … if only we could get past the ‘ick factor.’ Ruiz-Romero and Torres are the first farmers to raise crickets for […]
Underneath a series of awnings amid an old lava flow along the Kona Coast, dozens of long troughs are organized in neat rows. Each is constantly refreshed by bubbling streams of water—close your eyes and listen, and you’d think you were standing in front of a soothing fountain. Look closer, and you’ll notice the troughs
David Chai, an aquaculturalist at the exclusive Hualalai Resort on Hawaii Island, zips around the expansive 865-acre property in a golf cart—fitting, as his prized crop is raised in a golf course water feature. “We’ve had oysters in here since 2003, but they were more for a purpose,” he said. “We tried to raise fish here and oysters were actually the
On the North Shore of Oahu, a 200-acre orchard of 10-foot-tall trees on former Waialua Sugar lands stand poised to shake up Hawaii’s ag scene. Planted in 2015, the experimental plot holds hundreds of pongamia (also called Indian beech), trees native to Asia. The planted acreage is experimental not because pongamia are new to Hawaii—you
Farming isn’t what it used to be. In the information era, probes monitor growing conditions and aid decision-making, unconventional growing systems like vertical, rooftop and indoor farming are becoming increasingly commonplace, and customers are as hungry for specifics about what they consume as the produce itself. Mari’s Gardens, an 18-acre aquaponics farm in Mililani, has
