Hawaii’s Shrinking Sugar Industry

Hawaii’s sugar industry is about to be reduced from two companies to one, and what’s happening on Kauai is a lesson to people who live on Maui – figure out what goes on that land next, if you don’t want it to be town homes, according to Ask Howard, a television news personality in Hawaii.

Gay & Robinson announced Wednesday that by late October it will have sent the last of the sugar cane from its final harvest to the mill. And that will be that, for a company that had grown cane since the 1890s.

Dow Agrosciences has leased some of the land to grow seed crops, and has hired some of the Gay & Robinson employees. Pacific Energy wants to grow ethanol on some other Gay & Robinson land, though this does not ensure a continuation of sugar cane – other crops may be more efficient for fuel-growth.

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