Oil price may lead to exporting our children

By RICHARD HA

Here are some real world facts, which people probably don’t realize yet because nobody’s comfortable talking about this: If we weren’t starting to change how we power our farm, we’d possibly be looking at bankruptcy before too long.

Recently, I talked to Dean Okimoto, of Nalo Farms, and he said the same thing. He’s not sure he’s going to be able to stay in business in the face of rising electricity costs.

I think there are plenty of other farmers in this same boat, too. Electricity prices keep doubling and doubling again — as do fertilizer and other farm input costs — and yet we cannot turn around and double the prices of our products.

Farmers are feeling guilty, like they’re failing in some way because they cannot make ends meet, but it’s not their fault as farmers. Energy prices are rising, and circumstances are out of our control.

For 150 years, oil was cheap, with the exception of a few spikes. In the last 11 years, though, the price of oil has doubled twice. Go back and look at your electricity bills; you’ll see it.

It’s very unusual. Something serious is happening. And it looks like it might continue.

It’s all about demand, which is exceeding supply. The world has been using twice as much oil as it’s been finding.

Here in the U.S., we have decreased our oil use by 1.5 million barrels per day. We are driving less, using more fuel-efficient cars, and we’ve moved closer to our jobs, but that hasn’t reduced the price of oil at all.

The demand in China and India more than makes up for our declining use. In the U.S., we use about 26 barrels of oil per person per year; China only uses two. They can afford to pay more, and their economy is still growing (while ours will shrink).

We need to come to grips with our situation, because there are serious consequences.

We will have to continue exporting our children, and Hawaii will change. Already there are more Hawaiians living on the U.S. mainland than here in Hawaii. People who have money will move here and find it a wonderful place to live, and those who can no longer afford it will leave.

It’s already happening. Look around downtown, and go into the nicer restaurants. They aren’t filled with local people. There are more mainland folks I don’t recognize than local people.

I don’t have any problem with people moving here, but I do have a problem with us having to export our children because we cannot afford to live here.

This is a call to action. We cannot sit back. We cannot afford to be quiet and afraid to rock the boat. We cannot afford to NOT take a stand. We have to do something.

We are unbelievably fortunate here on the Big Island to have geothermal, which is cheap and stable. Out of 7 billion people on the Earth, we are only 1.5 million people here in Hawaii, and yet we are among the few to have access to geothermal. It’s truly a gift, and we are so fortunate.

People in Hawaii are very courteous and deferential to the Hawaiian community. They watch and see which way the community is going before deciding to get off the fence or not. And if the Hawaiian community is OK with something, they go along.

My observations are that an overwhelming majority of the Hawaiian community strongly supports geothermal energy, seeing it as a gift from Pele that can be used to benefit future generations, if proper protocols are followed. But you wouldn’t know that by listening to the news. A handful of people jumping up and down is not the majority.

What will we do about all this? When our grandchildren ask us what we did when this was happening, what will we tell them?

Richard Ha owns Hamakua Springs Country Farms, a 600-acre hydroponic farm on the Hamakua coast. An advocate for Hawaii farmers, self-sufficiency in terms of renewable energy and the islands’ food security, Ha posts frequently to his blog at hahaha.hamakuasprings.com.