The Independent Voice
“Best Agricultural Newsletter in Hawaii”
Newsletter of the Kona Coffee Farmers Association
March 2024
PO Box 5436 Kailua Kona Hawaii 96745 USA
www.konacoffeefarmers.org info@konacoffeefarmers.org
Contents
Message from President Petersen
Stricter Coffee Labeling Bills
Black Twig Borer Webinar
HDOA CBB CLR Subsidy Application Update
Drinking Coffee Boosts Brain Function and May Make You Live Longer
Fairtrade Updates its Coffee Standard to Adhere to EUDR
Guinea Grss- Invasive
El Nino Ocean Warmth Past its Peak
PCR Coffee Education Courses
Portugese Bean Soup- Carolyn Wallace
Editor – Clare Wilson
Message from President Petersen
Aloha Coffee Farmers,
I hope to see you tomorrow at 8:30 AM for coffee at the KCFA Symposium at the Outrigger Keauhou Bay Resort Convention Center. The program starts at 9:00 AM with varied topics starting with the keynote speaker, José Tulio González from Guatemala sharing his country’s path dealing with coffee leaf rust and other coffee production problems. Other presentations include coffee quality, exploring soil health, and Hawaii state policies towards coffee. Plus, a chance to meet and visit with fellow farmers.
The costs for the symposium are paid by the sponsors. What wonderful sponsors we have!
There has been movement in the legislature concerning labeling law. Presently the House Consumer Protection Committee has passed a bill providing 50% as a minimum blend content of Kona coffee. That bill will now go to the Senate for passage. Be ready to submit testimony.
See you tomorrow, March 1.
Mahalo nui loa!
Mark Petersen
SYMPOSIUM Friday March 1
Hawaiian Legislators Introduce Bills for Stricter Coffee Labeling
http://tinyurl.com/5n6tkzmj
“Coffee Plantation in Kona” by LaurenBacon is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
“Legislators representing the Kona district of Hawaii have introduced a series of bills that would require more strict labeling requirements for single-origin coffees and blends containing Hawaiian-grown coffees. Some Kona coffee farmers and legislators have been pushing for stricter labeling requirements for more than a decade, as they seek to protect the Kona name and capitalize on its global reputation.
Yet this new legislative may find deeper footing given the recent high-profile Kona labeling lawsuit — which resulted in more than $33 million in penalties among more than 20 grocery and roasting companies.
Additionally, it follows a just-released report from the Hawaii Department of Agriculture stating that upping the percentage of Kona coffee required to call a coffee product a Kona blend is not likely to adversely affect the state’s coffee farmers.”
UPDATE
After a lengthy hearing of House Bill 2298 by the Consumer Protection Committee on February 27th, the CPC committee came back with “compromise” language of 50% blends, and a delay of the phase-in start till 2027. We live to fight another day, and the bill will move forward into the next committee. Live testimony from KCFA and HCA was helpful in rescuing the bill from those who wanted it killed outright. With a bit of luck and more testimony from our members, we may be able to drag it back up to 100% in future committees. However, even if we stay at 50%, it’s still a big step forward towards a fair market for growers.
Black Twig Borer (BTB) Webinar: March 19th
From CTAHR: Many Kona coffee farmers are noticing increased black twig borer activity. Entomologist Rob Curtiss is committed to a March 19, 2024 presentation to share results of the BTB experiment he did with Bob Smith, and will answer questions from the audience during the live Q&A.
The webinar will start at 12:00 pm with the recorded presentation and then the Q&A will follow.
More info to follow.
HDOA CBB-CLR Subsidy Application Update
Aloha Coffee Farmers,
The CBB-CLR Subsidy Program is open and accepting APPLICATIONS for APPROVED PRODUCT receipts from 7/1/22 – 6/30/23. If you want to APPLY ONLINE, go ahead. Email or call 808-323-7578 to make an appointment with Melanie if you prefer or with any questions. The Deadline is June 1, 2024 for this round. If you are new to the program, you will also need to fill out the County Form so send me an email to get that. (There may be a lag in checks being cut as State and County are still finalizing their Contract.)
Melanie Bondera
808-323-7578
CBB-CLR Subsidy Program
Neuroscience Says Drinking Coffee Boosts Brain Function and May Make You Live Longer
Don’t you love it when something you might do anyway, like drinking coffee, turns out to have health benefits you never knew?
https://www.inc.com/bill-
- “…A double-blind study out of Johns Hopkins University a decade ago and published in the journal Nature Neuroscience found that giving study participants a 200-milligram caffeine tablet was correlated with better performance on memory tests. “We’ve always known that caffeine has cognitive-enhancing effects,” said the lead author.
- A massive study of nearly 500,000 British adults published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that those who drank at least two to three cups of coffee per day — and as many as eight cups — were “about 10 percent to 15 percent less likely to die” of any cause during the 10-year study period than those who didn’t.
- A study of the coffee habits of 12,583 people in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association found that those who drank four or more cups of coffee per day were doubly likely to avoid physically frailty into their 70s.
- A Canadian study published in 2017 the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience found that phenylindanes, a chemical created during the coffee roasting process, seems to stop the buildup of two toxic proteins in the brain which have been linked to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. “Coffee consumption does seem to have some correlation to a decreased risk,” said one of the study authors. “But we wanted to investigate why.”
Fairtrade Updates its Coffee Standard to Adhere to EUDR
http://tinyurl.com/mtmr4x6p
“In an effort to reduce environmental degradation, Fairtrade has updated its Coffee Standard requiring certified producers and traders (payers and conveyers) to strengthen deforestation prevention, monitoring, and mitigation.
The update, approved by the Fairtrade Standards Committee, meets, and in some areas exceeds, the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) that went into effect in June 2023. In particular, the updated Fairtrade Coffee Standard sets the deforestation cut-off date at 1 January 2014, which means that no coffee should come from land deforested after that point. It also requires that all farms have recorded geolocation points, and farms larger than four (4) hectares must have polygon maps…”
Guinea Grass – Invasive
https://www.huihawaii.org/
“Guinea grass is a large perennial bunchgrass, originally native to Africa and Yemen. It was introduced to the Hawaiian Islands in the late 18th century by European ranchers who wanted a steady supply of drought-resistant livestock forage. However it quickly escaped cultivation and began to invade every bare space of land. It is outcompeting the native plants in almost every way. It grows naturally in open grasslands, usually under or near trees and shrubs, or along riverbanks. They are incredibly resilient and can withstand wildfire and drought. The species have broad morphological and agronomic variability, with a height range between 0.5 to 3.5m, with 5-10 cm long stems.
The plant has the ability to reproduce through apomixis, which is a form of asexual reproduction where a plant grows from a seed without fertilization. Each plant has up to 9,000 seeds, and is therefore extremely fast-spreading. It is also fast growing, and whilst it helps prevent soil erosion, it takes over native plant habitats and becomes a weed in open or ungrazed areas.
A current study undertaken by the University of Hawaii describes how non-native grasses, such as Guinea grass can completely degrade native plant communities and aid the spread of wildfires. The invasive grass-wildfire cycle needs to be managed and ultimately eliminated, with native plant communities restored and replanted.”
PC: StarrEnvironmental
El Niño Ocean Warmth Past its Peak
https://www.comunicaffe.com/
“MELBOURNE, Australia – El Niño continues in the tropical Pacific Ocean reports the Bureau of Meteorology of the Australian Government in its latest update. Model forecasts and observations indicate sea surface temperatures in the central tropical Pacific have peaked and are now declining. Sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific are expected to return to neutral El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) levels in the southern hemisphere autumn 2024.
Most atmospheric indicators are close to normal levels, although trade winds have temporarily weakened in line with the passage of the Madden-Julian Oscillation through the region…”
COFFEE EDUCATION COURSES
Pacific Coffee Research has five classes scheduled in March:
Q Arabica Calibration Course
Q Arabica Grader Course & Exam
Coffee Sustainability Foundation
Roasting Fundamentals
Roast Theory & Intro to Profiling
Information on these courses can be found here: https://pacificcoffeeresearch.
Recipe
long time Kona Coffee farmer Caroline Wallace’s
PORTUGUESE BEAN SOUP
This recipe is so easy and so tasty! Great served with corn bread.
1 cup of chopped onion
½ cup Olive Oil
3 cloves Garlic crushed
1 cup Bacon – cut up raw
10 cups water or broth
1 whole Portuguese Sausage
3 cans (16 oz.) Red Kidney beans
1 large Sweet Potato
1 large Regular Potato
Salt and Pepper to taste
Sauté bacon (not crisp), garlic and onion in the oil about 5 minutes. Combine in pot with the rest of the ingredients. Simmer until potatoes are done….then MASH the potatoes and beans into the liquid. Makes thick soup.
KCFA
Recipes Wanted! If any of you have recipes that you would like to share, please submit them to the editor: clarewilson98@gmail.com
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Suggestion Box
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