Climate change is a big problem for farmers in Hawaii

But farmers and scientists say the link to climate change is significant. And climate change doesn’t just impact things like how well crops pollinate and grow. 

“What about our human resources? Are we going to be able to find people to work in really scorching heat?” Ornellas said. 

Production methods are going to have to change to accommodate climate change. Transportation will be impacted. Marketing. Even things like capital are a concern for farmers, he said. Is the money going to be available to farmers for them to make the changes they need to make? 

Looking to the future

Farmers are inherently optimistic by nature, Ornellas said. 

“We’re always going to make money next year. We’re always going to be OK next year,” he said. 

But Ornellas doesn’t sound terribly optimistic when he talks about the future of farming in Hawaii.

“Realistically, things don’t look good. Agriculture is not doing well in Hawaii, unfortunately, and climate change is not going to help to improve the situation.”

For farmers to thrive in the coming decades, Ornellas says, more needs to be done now. 

Hawaii’s agriculture has been in transition for a long time, moving away from the plantation era into a system of more diversified agriculture. But the larger plantations used to maintain a lot of infrastructure for farming, Ornellas said. Canals. Drainage ditches. Gauging stations to monitor the volumes of water and stream flows — something that the east side of Kauai no longer has, he said. 

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