• Dairy could help Kauai’s sustainability • Stop whining about everything Dairy could help Kauai’s sustainability With all the talk about “sustainability” for the Garden Island, an impartial observer would find the establishment of a new dairy would be a wonderful idea. In my own case, I’d see
• Dairy could help Kauai’s sustainability • Stop whining about everything
Dairy could help Kauai’s sustainability
With all the talk about “sustainability” for the Garden Island, an impartial observer would find the establishment of a new dairy would be a wonderful idea. In my own case, I’d see far fewer gallons of milk turning sour in the refrigerator, after 10 days to two weeks of shipping from the Mainland. We’d know if there was a shipping disruption from the Mainland, Hawaii would have an assured supply of milk with all of its critical nutrients.
Certainly, we, as a relatively isolated island, need to grow as much of our own food as we possibly can. This could be cost effective, because locally grown food would have much lower shipping costs. At the moment, we probably only come close to meeting local demand with grass-fed beef and taro production. And our fishermen seem to be doing a fair job, as well. But we need to do a lot more, and I believe the dairy is a big step in the right direction.
Yes, there has been an outcry against the thought that there might be some sort of smell, a mere two miles from the dairy. My own personal experience is that my parents raised grass-fed cattle at about the same density per acre as the dairy. We lived about 100 feet from the pasture and there was virtually no smell! What we need to remember when considering the proposed dairy, is they are proposing a grass-fed herd, not a feedlot operation. And I’d be the first to agree that feedlots are smelly! In the case of the proposed dairy, the cattle poop will be readily absorbed into the soil, and used as nutrients by the grass which feeds the cattle. Does the dairy want to see this run away from the property? Certainly not! They’d have to pay to bring in expensive fertilizer instead.
I believe the permitting process should be expedited. If they eventually want to build a processing/bottling plant, we should work with the dairy to ensure it happens. It would further cut shipping times (and costs). Yeah, the dairy is a for-profit organization and rightly so. It gives the owners an incentive to provide quality milk products at a reasonable price — at the very least, competitive with milk from the Mainland and other islands.
Certainly the Garden Island has a poor recent history of encouraging agriculture. One action which immediately comes to mind was the clumsy attempt to site the proposed landfill in the middle of a 20-year-old coffee orchard, under the illogical theory that all agriculture land is the same! I’m sure the reader can remember others. Kauai used to produce virtually all its own food; we can do so again, if we make an effort. Trying to shoot down a proposed world-class dairy, which will utilize the latest in best practices, would work against that effort.
But if you really do want to shoot it down, perhaps it is still not too late to move the proposed site of the new landfill.
William Georgi
Eleele
Stop whining about everything
Pau with your illogical fear mongering. Our laws are tight as is, we have some of the smallest statistics in gun crimes as well as murders in the nation. It bothers you that guns are on display? Get over it already, you cry for people to use common sense? Try get some of your own. Kauai, in comparison to the rest of the nation, barely even makes a ripple when it comes to gun crime. You don’t like the kind of rifles they have available? Boo hoo. We’re not really an open-carry state, we don’t have shootings left and right, it’s always been possible to get these firearms. There are websites for gun auctions, other stores, people with federal firearms licenses, enough with your drama already. This store is nothing new, at least now we don’t have to go off-island. You’re probably the same kind of person who nervously keeps looking at my work knife I keep on my belt when I’m standing next to you, waiting in line for the cashier. You’re probably uncomfortable with that big truck behind you in traffic, and you probably cringe at every mixed martial arts mention you see on TV. The world can only baby you so much, and a lot of people would rather focus on legitimate issues. You make me sick with your sensationalist attitude, and I wonder how many of you have even bothered looking at our gun laws before demanding action.
Will Sexton
Kilauea
