The Independent Voice
“Best Agricultural Newsletter in Hawaii”
Newsletter of the Kona Coffee Farmers Association
December 2019
PO Box 5436 Kailua Kona Hawaii 96745 USA
info@KonaCoffeeFarmers.org www.konacoffeefarmers.org
Contents
A Continued Call for Support
Action Needed
Don’t Prune Now
The Invasive Species Inspection Fee
Maintaining Organic Matter in the Soil
Save These Dates: January 26, May 9/10
EXPO 2020 – Expanded!
KCFA is Looking for a Social Media Guru
Coffee Flower Buds Self-Protecting
Recipe: Mocha Macadamia Nut Cookies
Editor – Clare Wilson
A Continued Call for Support
In response to the lead article in last month’s “Independent Voice”, fifteen KCFA members have stepped forward and contributed more than $1,300.00 to support KCFA’s 2020 legislative efforts to reform the Hawaii 10% coffee blend labeling law. Your KCFA has worked for years to create legislation to protect our Kona Coffee heritage from being misused by the blenders who want to take our quality coffee and adulterate it with other coffees they don’t even want to acknowledge to the 10% blend being sold around our State and elsewhere. As the Feldman study indicates, each year the average Kona coffee farm loses almost $20,000 because of deceptively labeled 10% Kona blends.
We coffee farmers need to join together to counter the economic and political power the Honolulu blenders have used for years in resisting truth-in-labeling reform in Hawaii. The KCFA budget can go only so far and in years past we have done our work with a minimum of expenses. NOW the board of directors has decided the time is ripe to make a MAJOR effort to change the blend law and have retained a lobbyist to support our work. This costs a lot of money. Our budget is stretched thin. We need your extra help for this extra work.
Please donate to KCFA’s “Legislative Efforts” with credit card via the KCFA Store here or with your check payable to “KCFA”. Please put “For Legislative Efforts” in the notation area and send the contribution to Kona Coffee Farmers Association, PO Box 5436, Kailua-Kona, HI 96745-5436.
This is important. We hope to add your name to the following list of those who have donated through the end of November:
for your donations to our KCFA Legislative Efforts!
Sammi Piasecki, Cecelia Smith, Colin Keola Childs, William Edwards,
Carolyn Witcover , Bruce Corker, Karen Kemp, Susan Dursin,
Phil Hodson, Deniz Tek , Sandra Scarr , Jim Monk,
Diane and William Shriner, and Clare Wilson
–Submitted by KCFA Legislative Committee
Kona Coffee Farmers – Action Needed
The preservation of brand integrity is an essential element needed in order for small farmers to prosper in Hawaii. It is not enough to simply have strong local demand. While local consumption is critical to provide base markets for local farmers, the true gravy for small farmers resides in the sale of high-value niche agricultural products – to visitors and for export.
It goes without saying that preserving brand integrity provides essential protections for both consumers and farmers. Maintaining and enhancing the quality of the product, and thus the price-point and marketability of that product, are essential to ensuring profitability.
Whether it be Kona coffee, Maui onions, Kauai Chocolate, Koloa Rum or any number of food and drink items whose marketing is based on locally grown agricultural products – preserving brand integrity is essential.
And who better to lead the fight for brand integrity than Kona coffee farmers?
Yes, once again the Kona Coffee Farmers Association (KCFA) will be leading the fight at the state legislature to strengthen Hawaii’s laws and require a minimum of 51% real Kona-grown coffee before any product can be sold under the Kona name.
Our goal is to form a coalition of farmers large and small from all islands and from all coffee growing areas who share our goal of preserving our individual and hard-earned “geographic brand identity”. After-all, every coffee-growing area in Hawaii is at risk of large blenders entering their markets and capitalizing off their good name, but including only 10% of the real thing.
To be successful during the 2020 legislative session means starting now and requires each of us to step up to help.
There are three things you can do today that will help tremendously.
- Send an email or make a call to your state legislator (House and Senate) and let them know that brand integrity and the passage of a 51% minimum threshold for coffee blenders are critically important to you. Contact info is at https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov
- Write a letter to the editor to our local paper and to the Honolulu Star Advertiser supporting the preservation of brand integrity and the 51% minimum threshold for blenders.
- Contact coffee growers and other farmers who live on Maui, Oahu, and Kauai and ask them to join us in the effort.
Thank you in advance for your help and support with this effort. It is a just cause and winning is critical to maintaining Kona’s world-wide and widely respected reputation as Hawaii’s premier coffee-growing region.
Submitted by: Gary Hooser
http://www.garyhooser.com
Former Hawaii State Senator
Proud to be working on behalf of the KCFA
Don’t Prune Now!
After harvesting season our coffee trees look a little worn out, but give them time to rest because this a naturally dormant time for coffee. If you prune now, you may be hurting the tree.
Pruning should only be started in January, providing the trees are not suffering from lack of moisture. If this is the case wait until the rains come back.
Pruned early, you are stimulating the worked-out tree to start producing new growth.Give them the break they deserve!
–Submitted by Bob Smith
Hawaii Needs an Effective Invasive Species Inspection Fee
We all know the myriad problems of invasive species in Hawaii. This Civil Beat Op Ed discusses the problems of properly funding the invasive species inspection program. In particular “The fee is paid by the shipper, collected by the transportation company, and then paid over to the state. The fund pays for operating costs of pest inspection, quarantine, eradication, and monitoring programs and related purposes. But the fee is collected only on shipments by water.”
Read the entire Civil Beat article here: https://tinyurl.com/tac9bmp
–Submitted by Cecelia Smith
Maintaining Organic Matter in Soil
Sir Albert Howard made a radical observation. When farmers returned all the agricultural wastes to their fields and grew cover crops to maintain the organic matter in the soil, the crops were healthier. |
-Submitted by Chet Gardiner
Two Important KCFA Events- Save the Dates Now!
January 26, 2020– Annual General Membership Meeting-Honaunau Rodeo Grounds, south Kona-everyone invited!! lots more info to follow
May 9 and 10 – EXPO 2020- Two days- brand new EXPO! Honaunau Rodeo Grounds, south Kona- for more info Chet Gardiner <chet@cassandrafarms.com>
Expo 2020 – Expanded!
The Kona Coffee Farmers Association will be holding its 13th Annual Kona Coffee and Small Farm EXPO on Saturday and Sunday, May 9th & 10th, 2020 at the Honaunau Rodeo Arena and Pavilion located at 40 Honaunau Rd, Captain Cook, HI 96704.
This event will gather a broad range of attendees including Kona Coffee farmers and other small farm owners, interested community members and vendors of farm specific goods and services in a festive and supportive environment. Our EXPO is designed to support buying local produce, provide educational opportunities to all small farmers, attract new KCFA members and build stronger local community networks.
We are recognizing the fact that many of our members and fellow small farmers grow and market other crops as well as coffee and have expanded the scope of our EXPO to include subjects of interest to all of West Hawaii’s small farmers.
On Saturday May 9 we will be presenting a local foods dinner and music performance/networking event from 2pm to 6pm as a fundraiser for the EXPO and KCFA.
On May 10 we will present an expanded and extended version of EXPO. This will include a number of presenters/affinity groups at the tables under the pavilion, space for a number of tents for presenters/vendors all around the venue, food vendors and food trucks around the grounds and space for numerous speakers and presenters to “gather a crowd” and make presentations or hold conversations in the bleacher area. There will be entertainment provided throughout the day on the Main Music and Speaker stage as well as activities provided for the keiki.
We have already qualified for a significant state grant and are actively seeking additional sponsors to help us finance and advertise the EXPO.
We would like to invite your suggestions about potential sponsors, presenters, vendors and subject areas you would like us to cover during EXPO 2020.
As you know from previous years, we will also need a number of volunteers to help run our Expo.
If you would like to contribute suggestions, ideas and/or volunteer to volunteer to work at the dinner and EXPO, please contact our EXPO coordinator:
Ally Brown, Event Coordinator
808-796-1340 or kcfaexpocoordinator@gmail.com
We eagerly look forward to your participation.
–Submitted by Chet Gardiner
KCFA Needs Social Media Guru
KCFA has a Facebook page that updates members and coffee lovers on our news and events. It needs a web master who can make its design more compelling and, most of all, communicate our passion to protect the gourmet Kona name and coffee heritage. Our media presence also needs to expand to other platforms.
Many visitors are not informed about the vast differences between 100% Kona and 10% blends (90% foreign beans). The public is not aware of our battle to get legal protection for Kona coffee. We need more public awareness and support for our legislative agenda.
If you, or someone you know, loves to post on social media about daily and weekly stuff, you could be just the person KCFA needs.
If you are interested, please contact sandrascarr@gmail.com. Need not be a KCFA member.
-Submitted for the Legislative Committee
Coffee Flower Buds Develop Self Protection
From Coffidential Newsletter
A white skin/crust that partially covers coffee flower buds and then crumbles is being observed in coffee regions of Minas Gerais and São Paulo. This phenomenon is probably related to the need of coffee trees to protect themselves and their flowers against the high temperatures and droughts that have been affecting crops in these regions. The skin protects the buds against excessive water loss, high radiation, heat desiccation and burning. This self-protection of flowers at the bud stage shows how coffee trees can develop resilience to adverse weather conditions in order to ensure the viability of flowering and its reproductive structures.
Read it all here: http://peamarketing.com.br/imgs/pa_coffidential__148__november2019.pdf
Recipe: Mocha Macadamia Nut Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1¾ cups brown sugar
2 eggs
½ cup brewed strong coffee
3½ cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp nutmeg
½ tsp salt
½ tsp cinnamon
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup macadamia nuts
Cream butter, sugar, eggs, and coffee until fluffy. Sift flour, baking soda, salt, and spices and add gradually to liquid mixture. Chill dough well for at least 1 hour.
Drop dough by rounded spoonfuls on greased baking sheet.
Bake at 400 deg F for 8 to 10 minutes, until edges are light brown.
Recipes Wanted! If any of you have coffee recipes that you would like to share, please submit them to the editor: clare@huahuafarm.com
LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK! >> Write to us. We welcome Letters to the Editor up to 150 words. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length. Include your name and email address >> Email: info@KonaCoffeeFarmers.org with SUBJECT: Commentary.
