COM 0882.013 2006-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

UH-CTAHR Hawaiian Kalo, Past and Future SA-1 - Feb. 2007 tion, areas under its cultivation covered more than 20,000 acres (about 31 square miles) over six islands.o0' 1 r~, I Decline of kalo production Since the early to mid-1800s, following the arrival of Captain Cook and the subsequent immigration of non- Polynesians, kalo cultivation and the demand for kalo t has markedly declined, and many of the ceremonial, me- I dicinal, and upland kalo cultivars became neglected and were lost. The reduction in kalo cultivation can be at- tributed to a variety of causes, including the following: • Diseases introduced with the arrival of foreigners dra- matically reduced the Hawaiian population, which affected both the supply of and demand for kalo.00• "91 f • Much agricultural knowledge was lost with the pass- ing of Hawaiian elders as a result of natural causes or the new diseases.(4"") • Alternative foods arrived, and starches such as rice, grown in flooded areas formerly used for kalo, and imported wheat supplanted kalo, sweetpotato, and 1 breadfruit as dietary carbohydrate sources. s f • Beginning around 1819, many Hawaiians were di- I rected to the harvest of sandalwood, which left kalo crops poorly attended.t't • The breaking of the kapu system after 1820 allowed ' Hawaiians more individual freedoms, including be- ing allowed to eat the kalo previously reserved for 5i ali' i and to undertake other means of obtaining suste- i nance than working in the lo'i (1"1 W r + • After the Great Mahele of 1848, some Hawaiians ,~5`dltce)'S~A ~1a - - walked away from traditional lands to pursue other opportunities, some rented out their lands, and some were forced off the land by those who had been granted it or who used the court system to acquire it92• 141 Expansion of kalo production In Hawaii • Extensive subsistence kalo production by Hawaiians Early settlers probably brought only a few varieties (cul- in small lo'i was replaced by intensive commercial tivars) of kalo. During the early years of colonization, production in larger, rice-paddy-shaped kalo patches production was mainly confined to the wet, windward patterned on the agricultural styles of immigrant farm- sides of the islands. As the population increased, people ers from Asia, who began farming the available agri- spread throughout the island chain, again mainly on wet cultural land."', 12) windward sides, and kalo still was mostly grown under • Many kalo lands were converted to produce other flooded conditions. From 1100 to 1650 AD, the Hawaiian crops (mostly sugarcane grown by plantation compa- population expanded to over 400,000 people,'30, 49, 56) and nies, but also rice grown by immigrant farmers), or in settlements were dispersed throughout windward zones some cases to housing!", '2,19) of all islands and extended into dry leeward valleys and • Plantations used the courts to acquire rights to the coasts.'30, 3j It is estimated that at the peak of kalo produc- water that had fed lo' i.t601 3