As Maui County farmers and ranchers grow old, younger replacements are desperately being sought

At 69 years old, farmer Gerry Ross is phasing out lettuces and some garlic on his 4-acre Kupa‘a Farm in Kula, and replacing those crops with taller growing vanilla, figs and cacao.

The reason? His aging body won’t have to bend over quite so much when he harvests them.

“When people talk about sustainable agriculture, you have to think about sustaining the farmer, too,” Ross said. “Is the farmer gonna be able to wake up in the morning? Are their bones and muscles still gonna work? So we’ve dialed it back substantially, just for self-preservation.”

Ross knows the farm careers for himself and his wife Janet — who handles the paperwork — are coming to an end within a few years.

They are part of an aging farming community in Maui County that drastically needs to develop younger farmers to be able to take over the food production. Farms are not being handed down generation to generation as much as in the past.

The Rosses are case in point. They have only one child — he’s 46 and lives in Canada.

In the 2022 U.S. Department of Agricultural farm census, which is the latest data available, the average age of Hawaiʻi farm producers was 60.7 years old, up 0.6 years from the 2017 census.

The census also showed that the state’s total number of farms decreased to 6,569, down 10% from 2017, and the total land used for farming decreased to 1.053 million acres, down from 1.135 million acres in 2017.

The farming community, with camaraderie that runs deep — and out of necessity — has been teaming up to help itself in many ways. But it is a shrinking group. 

Ross is on the board of directors for the Maui Food Hub that was started in 2020. It is an online marketplace where farmers sell their goods and consumers can get the produce at a consistent time each week. The shopping is online and the pickup can be at a set time at a specific location or the items can be delivered for an additional $10 fee.

Demand for the Maui Food Hub has been spurred by the recent increase in the total market value of agricultural products in the state. After dipping from $661 million in 2012 to $564 million in 2017, the total value climbed back up to $673.8 million in 2022. The increase came mainly from the higher value of crop sales.

Ross already has the average age for farmers beaten. But he still gets excited when asked about his crops, especially the garlic they started growing recently because of demand on Maui. 

“Fresh garlic that was harvested on island, grown here, not flown here,” Ross said. “It’s used at Mama’s Fish House, for example. We sell it on the Maui Food Hub and it just disappears.”

But he, along with government officials and others, acknowledge the need to aggressively recruit new farmers in Maui County.

“There’s a shared understanding among community groups, nonprofits, businesses, local government, and other stakeholders that Maui County needs more young farmers and ranchers,” county Department of Agriculture Director Rogerene “Kali” Arce said in an email to Hawai‘i Journalism Initiative.

She said the county is committed to supporting agricultural workforce development by offering grants and connecting aspiring farmers and ranchers with training programs.

The Department of Agriculture has only been in place since July 1, 2022, after Maui County voters passed a charter amendment in 2020 that authorized its creation.

According to the approved charter language, the new agency’s purpose is to “provide advocacy, and not create additional regulatory barriers, on all matters related to agriculture.”

“We want farmers and agriculture to succeed on Maui,” Council Member Shane Sinenci, who proposed the charter amendment, said after its passage. “We do not want to add more weight onto the backs of farmers but rather to lift that weight.”

The training programs Arce noted include the University of Hawai‘i College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience’s GoFarm, UH’s New Farmer/Farmer Apprentice Mentorship on Molokaʻi, and Hawaiʻi Farmers Union United’s farmer training initiatives.

But Maui County farmers — young and old — face many challenges these days, including finding water, land and labor.

And food security across the state is at the top of the local government’s priority list, according to the Maui County Department of Agriculture.

“Maui County needs more young farmers and ranchers to ensure the future of local food production, food security and sustainable land stewardship,” Arce said. “As many longtime farmers and ranchers near retirement, there’s a growing gap in the agricultural workforce.”

Arce added that the infusion of new blood would stabilize the industry on several levels.

“Young farmers bring fresh energy, new ideas and innovative practices that can help revitalize agriculture, adapt to climate change, and meet the rising demand for locally grown food,” she said. “Supporting the next generation is essential to preserving Maui’s rural character, reducing dependence on imported food, and strengthening community resilience.”

Many young farmers that are in the business are doing so only part-time, often holding day jobs to make ends meet.

Christian Balagso, his wife Ivy Navarro and six other family members live on the family pig farm, LB Farm, in Olowalu. Navarro is a counselor at Lahaina Intermediate School and Balagso is an aide to Maui County Council Member Tamara Paltin at the West Maui residency office.

Currently, LB Farm has about 200 pigs and sells one each day to the Old Lahaina Luau for their ‘imu at the end of the lūʻau each night.

Balagso said the whole family helps out and he usually gets to the pigs by 6 a.m. to “feed as much of the animals as I can before I have to get ready for work.” 

During the day, Balagso’s uncle does most of the work on the family farm, which started in 1997.

The income from the farm certainly helps the family, but “we’re definitely not making a killing on it,” Balagso said.

To feed the pigs, LB Farm gets free food scraps from Old Lāhainā Lū‘au, Star Noodle, Aloha Mixed Plate, Leilani’s, Hula Grill, Safeway and Island Grocery Depot. It is a win-win situation for LB Farm and just one example of sharing that the farm community does on Maui.

Since he graduated from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in 1979, Warren Watanabe has been with the Maui County Farm Bureau, a grassroots nonprofit organization of farms and ranch families, agricultural industries and associated organizations dedicated to supporting agriculture in Maui County. It is affiliated with both the Hawaiʻi Farm Bureau and the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Watanabe retired from a third-generation family farm in 2012. He said the current membership in the Maui County Farm Bureau is about 180 members, down from a high of about 220 in the 1980s.

The bureau conducts several programs to promote farming to young people, including Ag in the Classroom that sponsored a field trip for second graders to Haleakalā Ranch in April.

There were hands-on activity stations for the children to interact with and talks with farmers including Greg Friel, vice president/livestock operations at Haleakalā Ranch. He was with his granddaughter Skylynn Friel, a 2024 graduate of King Kekaulike High School and a longtime Maui 4-H participant. 

Maui County Farm Bureau also sponsored last month’s AgFest at the War Memorial complex. The festival featured Maui County 4H youths showing off their animals and farmers bringing their products.

“I think there’s still that perception that it’s just long days out in the field,” Watanabe said of farming and ranching. “And we need all the young people, young graduates to be, for example, mechanics and other jobs in agriculture. There’s a shortage of tractor mechanics. And we need them to have just the basic understanding of what agriculture is about and how to run a farm.”

Sydney Smith is the facilitator for the Ag Working Group, a farm group formed in 2013 to advise the county council on agricultural matters. Recently, Smith has helped get policy changed to allow 30,000-gallon water tanks on farm land without a permit, up from a 15,000-gallon limit. She is also working to help food trucks be allowed to set up shop on farms here.

They had been allowed to do so from 2017 to 2024. But in 2024, farms with food trucks were told they were in violation of the county’s agricultural code and needed to shut down their operations. In February, the Maui Planning Commission voted 6-0 to recommend approval of a bill that would allow mobile food trucks and trailers back on agricultural land in Maui County. The measure still requires full council approval.

“The Ag Working Group is trying to make things easier for young farmers,” Smith said.

Mahi Pono, which now owns and operates approximately 41,000 acres of agricultural land in Central Maui, was created in 2018 in a joint venture between Pomona Farming, a California-based agricultural group, and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, one of Canada’s largest pension investment managers.

According to statistics sent to Hawai’i Journalism Initiative on Thursday, Mahi Pono currently has 13,843 planted acres and a total of 2,788,047 trees planted. There are more than 1 million coffee trees and 1 million lime trees, making up the bulk of the tree total.

According to Community Relations Director Tiare Lawrence, Mahi Pono had more than 300 local employees, with a goal to reach 1,000. Mahi Pono also has a paid summer intern program called “In the Fields” that recruits Maui high school students and recent graduates through social media.

Lawrence said Tuesday that the program attracts about 10 to 12 interns each summer.

“It’s just an opportunity for us at Mahi Pono to introduce the kids to the different career pathways, because I try to tell the kids that ‘it’s not just out in the field, the hard labor,’ ” Lawrence said. “There’s so many opportunities, whether it’s electrical, engineering, sales, marketing, finance. We try to introduce them to all these different career fields during the internship.” 

Young farmers and ranchers in Maui County come in all shapes and forms. Each island has unique circumstances, Arce said.

“Accessing land to farm can be a major challenge for young farmers, but on Moloka‘i, family-owned homestead farms have provided a foundation for agricultural continuity,” said Arce, who is from the island.

Many Moloka‘i farming families are in their fourth or fifth generation of farming and the barter system allows well-rounded food security on the island.

“Many backyard producers now grow food to supplement their families’ needs,” Arce said. “Community trading of food still occurs, reflecting traditional practices and increasing food resilience.”

On Moloka‘i, the Rawlins ‘ohana is led by 62-year-old patriarch Larry Rawlins II, a retired Maui County fireman. Larry was the cook at the fire station until his retirement and he used to have a “backyard patch” with deer, goats, pigs, chickens and a garden.

Four of his five adult children live close by and they have a total of 10 grandchildren with a couple of hānai grandchildren.

The Rawlins family lives off the earth and rarely goes to the grocery store.

“Last week, my dad did harvest his taro,” said Keahi Rawlins, Larry’s son. “And it led to a get-together with everything.” 

Hale Domingo, who is married to Melani Rawlins, Keahi’s sister, brought beef from their 40-acre farm, and the family broke out some salmon that it had frozen from summer fishing in Alaska. The family also had sweet potatoes it grows through a federal grant program, and they combined that with the taro, beef and salmon to make laulau.

“This was just last weekend,” Keahi Rawlins said. “We were harvested. There was food. We made sure that we made use of it.”

Georgia Pinsky is the executive director of the Maui Farmer Support Network. She graduated from the Farmer Apprenticeship Mentoring program that offers a seven-month, new-farmer education program through the University of Hawai‘i Maui College. 

Pinsky said more than 500 young farmers have graduated from the program since it began in 2015, but many of them come through and then have nowhere to become an actual farmer.

“They had all this newfound knowledge and skills and passion and motivation, and now what?” Pinsky said. “There are so many obstacles facing beginning farmers of any age. … The USDA says a beginning farmer … is anyone who’s been farming for less than 10 years. So, I was like, ‘okay, where’s the ongoing 10-year support?’ “

Pinsky started her organization about five years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, it has grown into a network that provides coaching to young farmers, from how to grow crops to filling out grant applications and meeting the deadlines that come with them.

Pinsky also says that not many farmers here are farmers only. 

“Farming is a full-time side hustle,” she said. “Everybody’s got a day job.”

Ross, who is entering his 70s, said he will try to keep farming for as long as possible. He continues to make his farm more perennial “where it’s basically like harvesting, pruning, and mowing and managing grass. Maybe that will be something that we can manage in our old age.”

The bottom line is: “We’re training (the crops) so they’re all upright. So we’ll be phasing out of the bending-over stuff.”

Kalo and garlic are two lower-to-the-ground crops that are hard to give up, simply because of the quality Ross is able to produce on the prime slopes of Haleakalā. The kalo “is kind of spectacular.” And the garlic will stay, as well, “because we’re one of the few, if not the only garlic farmer on the island.”

But there will come a time when the work is too hard: “We’ll see when there’s a crack in the armor,” Ross said. “We keep asking ourselves that.”

When it does come that time, the Rosses will probably sell their farm. The hope is there will be a young farmer to take over.