A storm system recently hit the Hawaiian island of Kauai. And if you are a regular reader or listener to the podcast, then you know that Kauai is my “hometown” and that one of the sponsors of Ento Nation is Sustainable Boost, with a farm located on the beautiful Garden Island of Kauai on which they raise crickets and other healthy, organic plants and herbs. This flooding pretty much wiped out their farming operation.
As I watched pictures and video coming out of my Kauai of the devastating floodwaters that were wiping out homes, businesses, and property, and stranding hundreds of people in remote pockets along the North Shore, I was reminded of Hurricane Iniki, which struck Kauai in 1992, and also Hurricane Iwa in 1983. Fortunately, this was not a hurricane, nobody was killed, and the economic impact won’t be quite as severe. But this was a hard blow to many on Kauai.
Especially the farmers. I read stories of papaya farms and banana farms just being swept away by the flash flood waters.
My friends at Sustainable Boost, Emilio & Lourdes, said that not only did they lose the crops they were growing. but the cricket farm was also hit. However, the good news is that only 20% of the cricket production was lost, and many he had at a separate location, came through unscathed. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that the property they have their farm on, Kealia Farm, was heavily damaged by the flooding. It is part of a co-op of farmers, and there were several others adversely affected by the flooding. Most lost everything. You can hear about this wonderful co-op in our podcast episode “Hawaiian Homecoming” which ran in January.
We want to help our friends at Sustainable Boost. According to Emilio Ruiz-Romero, they lost almost all of their equipment including water pumps, generators, gardening tools, and other things needed to run their farm. They estimate about $15,000 worth of losses.
We want to help restore them. Look for a Go Fund Me page or one of those fundraiser type pages to spring up here shortly, we’re talking with a friend on how to go about setting that up since I am not exactly all up to speed on those kinds of things. We’ll get that up as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, maybe you can begin to consider helping. Feel that Aloha spirit, baby!
Over on Kauai, there has already been some help for Kealia Farm itself…
Several hundred people of all ages gathered at the site of the Kealia Farms farmers market Sunday to caravan up to help the farmers and tenants of the Kealia Valley dig out following last weekend’s record-breaking rains. “I could think of 300 other places I’d rather be,” said Russell Haluapo of Anahola. “But these people need help, so this is the place to be.” …“Our farm is in Moloaa,” said Ku‘ulei Punua. “We lost a footbridge, but that got rebuilt Saturday. We come to help these farmers, some of whom lost everything.”
From “Hundreds show up to help flood-damged Kealia farms” by Dennis Fujimoto for The Garden Island.
