LIHU‘E — Waimea High School students taking Early College agriculture were tasked with finding the most-common crop at the Pau Hana Market, a partnership between the Kaua‘i County Farm Bureau and Kukui Grove Center in Lihu‘e, during their class’s field trip.
Laurie Ho, the Kaua‘i County Farm Bureau president and a weekly patron at the market, was pleased and surprised by the group, which was not aware that this week is National Ag Week, sponsored by the Agriculture Council of America.
“This is hands-on education,” Ho said while visiting the students and their Kaua‘i Community College instructor. “Spend one day of this week to eat local. This is local. Look at how many of you have items you’re bringing home.”
Ag Week, and more specifically Ag Day, is celebrating its 49th anniversary this week to honor the efforts of people related to agriculture and promote awareness about the efforts of agriculture producers like farmers, ranchers and fishers.
The week-long effort to raise awareness about agriculture and the impact it has on the community wraps up Saturday at KGC, where the U.S. Pacific Fleet Band’s Big Wave Brass Band will be performing at the food court center stage as part of its Kaua‘i Outreach Tour that included concerts at KCC and the U.S. Navy Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands, and music-education clinics at Waimea Canyon Middle School, Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School, Kapa‘a Middle School and KCC.
The band takes the stage at 11 a.m. Saturday.
“How appropriate that we celebrate not only agriculture, but the start of the Kukui Grove Center’s spring activities that will take place starting with Easter,” said Melissa McFerrin-Warrack, special-events coordinator at KGC. “For agriculture, it’s the start of spring with the spring equinox taking place at the start of Agriculture Week.”
The musical presentation launches free giveaways of plant starters, seeds and more by the Kaua‘i County Farm Bureau, KGC and a host of collaborative partners like the University of Hawai‘i College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, Kekaha Agriculture Association and others.
Some of the many vendors available include Heavenly Haku with Elvrine Zeevat Chow, the Kaua‘i Family and Community Education, Sue Okada and her line of jewelry, succulents by Hale Botanic, and more.
“Margo Hashimoto, a KFCE member, is going to make her mini floral arrangements, and I asked her to add a few herbs in her arrangement because it is an agriculture event,” Ho said. “Kay Nakata will have her hand-crafted scrubbies for spring cleaning.”
Jean Souza, on-site manager for Kaua‘i Ocean Discovery, will be hosting an outreach station outside the KOD at KGC starting at 11 a.m., with free temporary tattoos and information on the impacts of climate change on honu, or green sea turtles, and kohola, or the humpback whales.
“Our ties to this land run deep,” Ho said. “We are all reliant on agriculture.”
