Ranching and Agriculture
on Hawaii’s Big Island
By Noah Amme
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Ranching and Big Island Climate
-The figure to the left depicts
Hawaii’s big island with its
diversity of climatic zones.
-Focus on northwestern regions
of Waimea and North Kohala
(“upcountry ranchlands”)
-Mix of dry and wet precipitation
zones ideal for supporting
grassland ecology
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Ranching: Hawaii’s Cowboy History
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First cattle, gift to King Kamehameha I in 1798, horses
arrived in 1803
1816, John Palmer Parker (advisor to the king) married
royal granddaughter Kipikane and received 2 acres
Permission to wrangle wild cows of 1798 that had
multiplied
Established burgeoning beef, tallow and hide business
to trade with incoming whaling and sandalwood ships
1832 contracted Mexican vaqueros called “paniolos” by
Hawaiians
PANIOLOS:
● New language, lifestyle and music
● Trained local men to rope and ride
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The Parker Ranch
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parkerranch.com
Over next century from 18th century,
grew to one of largest privately owned
ranches in the world
150,000 acres raising 30,000 prime
head of Charolais and Angus beef cattle
Ranch and Paniolo culture survives
today
Tours available of upcountry ranchlands
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Ranching Today
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Either cow calf operations are used
for selling out of state or slaughtering
locally
● About ¼ of Hawai’i’s cattle marketings
are for local consumption
● Grass-fed and local grown ranching is
catching on to the majority of Hawai’i
ranchers within the last 20 years
-more expensive, but desired by
conscious Hawaiian consumers.
● Drought forces ranchers to ship to
mainland feedlots though...
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Big Island Agriculture: Early Crops
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Hawaii last islands settled by
Polynesians 500-700 c.e.
Brought Asian pigs and chickens
Coconut, gourd, sugarcane,
sweet potato, Indian mulberry,
ginger, pumpkins, onions
1792 - orange introduced by
explorers
Early 1800s - coffee and mango
tree
Late 1800s - rice, pineapple and
macademia nut, banana,
avocado
1911 - papaya introduced
http://upload.wikimedia.
org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Priests_traveling_across_kealakekua_bay_for_first_
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Big Island Farming History:
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Before 1848, feudal ownership of
agricultural land
Gold rush brought boom to
Hawaiian agriculture
1850s irrigation for sugar and
coffee plantations tried
1860s closing of most plantations
due to labor shortage, drought and
infestation
1868 - first Japanese workers
came, integral to all Hawaiian
agriculture
1878 - steam train rail tracks made
from inland to cost
1889 first groundwater well
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LyQ8mKJf1c/UHWlrjdIezI/AAAAAAAAGfY/DMIi3bshVyQ/s1600/Locomotive+'Thomas+Cummins'+at+Waimanal
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Big Island Farming History:
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1885 - Captain John Kidwell credited with
beginning of pineapple industry
1890s - boom in Kona coffee
Alfred Eames, homesteader from CA in 1898
started selling fresh pineapple, becoming Del
Monte fresh produce
1901 - James Dole incorporates Hawaii
Pineapple Company
1907 - 42 million pounds of rice exported,
becomes second largest crop
1930 - 9 million cases of pineapple by 8
canneries
1933 - sugar production peaks at 254,563
planted acres
Late 1940’s pineapple and sugar workers
unionize and strike
1953 - Royal Hawaiian company popularizes
macadamia nuts in mainland U.S.
http://www.enoa.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/09-dole-plantation-front-600x298.jpg
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Hawai’i Farming Today
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http://atb.grolier.com/atb-ol/media/7700/atbm3037.jpg
About 40 percent of land on
Hawaii is farmland.
3,600 crop farms and 11,000
livestock farms of cattle, pigs,
eggs, milk, and honey
Average yearly agriculture sales
in Hawaii $357 million
Top 5 products in terms of
revenue - greenhouse and
nursery products, pineapples,
cane for sugar, macadamia nuts
and coffee
Swordfish and bigeye tuna are
main catches of commercial
fisheries
Close behind are papayas,
banana and ginger
Plantation Working Conditions
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https://c2.staticflickr.
com/8/7036/6775088004_1f3899b
Plantations would not have survived without
cheap foreign labor, especially from Japanese
Backbreaking, tedious work, bosses were often
harsh
By early 20th century, Japanese and Filipinos
who stayed forced unionization and improved
working conditions
Many plantations controlled by former
missionary families
Also Chinese and Korean workers
Plantation owners kept a rigid caste system and
multi-cultural workers communicated through
Hawaiian Pidgin
http://www.hawaiihistory.org/upload/website/images_m/img408.jpg
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Hawaii’s Agricultural Direction:
● Hawaii still imports 90% of its food
-- Largest revenue from tourism and
complimentary services industry
● Incentive to be more selfsustaining as well as ecologically
sound (islands are more
susceptible to damage)
● Colonial history alienate native
Hawaiians from traditional small
scale agricultural practices
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Large scale plantation style agriculture (and ranching) centerpiece for centuries, but overseas
competition shut down many plantations in ‘90’s leaving many jobless
--Replaced by large biotech seed farms-Back in early century c.e., Polynesian chiefs placed taboos and fishing certain species at
certain times
Self-sustaining units called ahupua‘a where important ecological relationships of mountains
and sea realized through fresh water sources
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Works Cited
"Hawaiian Agriculture." To Hawaii. Hawaii Tourism Authority, 2014. Web. 9 Nov. 2014. <http://www.to-hawaii.com/agriculture.php>.
"Japanese Laborers Arrive." Hawaii History. N.p., 2014. Web. 9 Nov. 2014. <http://www.hawaiihistory.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ig.
page&PageID=299>.
McAvoy, Audrey. "Hawaii's Beef Industry Crushed By Drought Just As Locally Grown Meat Finally Catches On." The Huffington Post. N.p.,
4 Oct. 2012. Web. 9 Nov. 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/04/hawaii-beef-industry-drought_n_1938199.html>.
"Paniolo (Hawaiian Cowboys) of Hawaii Island." Go Hawaii. Hawaii Tourism Authority, 2014. Web. 7 Nov. 2014. <http://www.gohawaii.
com/big-island/guidebook/topics/paniolo>.
United States. Hawaii Department of Agriculture. HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE IN HAWAII. Washington: GPO, 2000. Print.
Mitra, Maureen Nandini. "Could small, biodiverse farms help Hawaii grow enough
food to feed itself?" Grist. N.p., 19 June 2014. Web. 9 Nov. 2014.
<http://grist.org/food/
could-small-biodiverse-farms-help-hawaii-grow-enough-food-to-feed-itself/>.
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The End
http://www.hawaiipictureoftheday.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/maui-ocean-sunset-wm.jpg