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TODAY'S PROBLEMS CANNOT BE SOLVED BY YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS. <br /> Plantation monocrops are yesterday's solution. What is needed are new <br /> approaches to our modern problems. What are some of these approaches? <br /> Principles of Economic Renewal: <br /> 1) Plugging the economic leaks: Recirculate money that's already here in our <br /> economy. Stop giving subsidies to Bishop Estate and off-shore corporations. <br /> 2) Support existing businesses: The Five Mountain Medical Community is trying <br /> to expand its business network to increase Hawaii Island's profile as a World-Class <br /> Healing Center. This is a growing global market that we should support and recruit. <br /> The polluting nature of the pulp industry may effectively kill the opportunity to fully <br /> develop these kinds of enterprises. Eco-tourism is another expanding global market <br /> that is incompatible with the pulp industry. <br /> 3) Encourage new, local business: Provide public lands for lease to local farmers <br /> and entrepreneurs for the establishment of new agricultural and diverse forestry <br /> businesses. Eco-village campgrounds would tap into eco-tourism, the fastest <br /> growing segment of the tourist industry. Research into bamboo, neutriceuticals, and <br /> host of other products will be possible if our pubic lands are available for lease. <br /> 4) Recruit compatible businesses„ The pulp industry is NOT compatible tourism, <br /> with healing and wellness, with retirement communities, and it removes land which <br /> is needed for new agricultural and diverse forestry enterprises. <br /> Community-based Planning: This is a new way of deciding how the community's <br /> resources should be allocated. The local community is made an integral part of the <br /> decision-making process. This new role for the community is not just opposing <br /> unsound projects, but creating its own proposals which will help solve the <br /> community's problems. This is the strategy adopted by Councilman Dominic <br /> Yagong and his constituents here in Hamakua. <br /> Two proposals: <br /> Two nights ago, I went to a meeting of pig hunters in Kona. Hunters Island wide <br /> are worried about both declining numbers of pigs and a decrease in areas <br /> available for their subsistence hunting lifestyle. Most State Ag lands don't <br /> generally allow animals on them. These County lands have no such restriction. One <br /> use for these lands could be an integrated agroforestry system planted with <br /> <br /> various trees that would supply pigs (as well as people) with food. Once <br /> <br /> established, organic matter would be restored to depleted soils, and they would <br /> remain productive for decades, providing both food and recreation for hunters and <br /> <br /> their families. <br /> <br />