2018-04-05 Hearing Transcript - Kelly & Joanne Jarneski REZ 18-226

Home

increasing area of growth, but lacks sufficient infrastructure, would do this lightly. It opens the door for speculation, and for one thing, these are like gentlemen farm kind of tracts that would be opened up even if they were initially sold to families. That doesn't guarantee that they will stay in that kind of conscionable stewardship. But, moreover, I hope you'll really consider the expertise of the neighbor who brought up some important hydrology issues, that, you know, quick fixes aren't easy to figure out what to do or how to pay for them, and the County has a lot of obligations in many areas to fix things in Puna. So, before this designation is decided, I hope you'll really consider with the expertise that exists in our County now through the extension offices and Korean Natural Farming. There's ways to take these 20 -acre tracts or 40 as they were and make them serve multiple needs for families and communities and support our number one goal of, you know, food sovereignty and food self- sufficiency on the island. So, while it will certainly be profitable and perhaps have some good outcomes, I hope you won't take this decision lightly to divide up big tracts of agricultural land that has a lot of potential to meet our greater needs. Thanks. CLARKSON: Thank you. Are there any questions for the testifier from the IKEDA: I'd like to comment on that. CLARKSON: Okay. IKEDA: You know, like what you're saying is really true because they had a new subdivision in our area called Haleloke, and the developer did a good job where their land used to flood and used to go all the way down to Ainako. They did swales, and they diverted some of the water, and it doesn't flood anymore, and so I have a lot of confidence in the County. Also, on the natural farming, I was one of the founders of the natural farming so I understand what you're talking about, and I think six acres is quite a lot because I do some farming on my one -acre, and I do mine little different. I have some in the ground but lot of—because my land is very poor. It's rocky, and I do hydroponics, so, you know, there's other ways of farming also. So, thank you. CLARKSON: Any other questions? REPLOGLE: I would like to. I agree with you. The idea that they have presented in having their friends farm around them, that lifestyle producing food is good, but down the road, is the six -acre parcel going to become six different parcels? And, the idea of food sovereignty is a very serious thing facing the State of Hawaii, and I don't know that there's anything that can be done to protect our agricultural land. I agree with Mr. Ikeda. Six acres is a lot to farm, yet we have to be careful we don't today say go ahead and tomorrow the farmland, the ag land is lost. And, an interesting thing, the population of the State of Hawaii today is equal to what it was in the islands at the time of the arrival of Cook. The big difference is when Cook got here, we fed ourselves. Now, we don't feed ourselves. We have a week or two of food in the State, and these 10V1111.11 1.1