summer vacation diary
Does any one know why?
I’m curious as to why there are no dairy farms in Hawaii. We took a vacation there this summer, and the price of milk was unbelievable. Actually all diary products were very high. I was told that it was because it has to be shipped in. Which makes sense, so why are there no dairy farms? Is it environmental? Not cost effective? Any one KNOW the reason? I figure there has to be a good reason, just wonder what it is. If you know please enlighten me. Thanks
Actualy, approximately thirty to thirty-five per cent of the milk consumed in the State was locally produced. Cost of living is still high. Medicines and feed for local cattle still have to be shipped in. There are two different pieces of legislation in process that are trying to enlarge the Dairy farms of the area. However; several dairy farms have closed in the last few years due to the difficluty and expense of importing high quality feed. Here is the Record in brief:
WHEREAS, Hawaii’s livestock industry faces numerous challenges that creates obstacles towards obtaining a strong diversified livestock and agricultural products industry in the State; and
WHEREAS, according to the Department of Agriculture, in 2006, locally produced eggs represented approximately thirty-three per cent of the total eggs sold in the State, and approximately thirty to thirty-five per cent of the milk consumed in the State was locally produced; and
WHEREAS, within the past year, two egg farms and a dairy farm have closed in Hawaii, and a dairy farm and another egg farm are now threatened with closure; and
WHEREAS, one of the challenges the livestock industry faces is the rising cost of feed for livestock; and
WHEREAS, due to its location and relative isolation, Hawaii is dependent on overseas shipping for a majority of its food and food production, thus, livestock farmers rely on imported feed from the mainland; and
WHEREAS, local poultry farmers have indicated that the total cost of grain or feed for their livestock amounts to seventy per cent of the cost to produce one dozen eggs, with fifty per cent of that cost attributed to the transportation expenses for the feed; and
WHEREAS, furthermore, with increased United States Department of Agriculture regulations on agricultural products, livestock farmers are forced to buy and use high-protein feed from the mainland to feed their livestock because grains, such as corn, are too expensive to grow locally in Hawaii in the massive quantities that are required by livestock farmers; and
WHEREAS, the high transportation costs for feed is a perennial problem for livestock farmers and the cost of importing feed grains from the mainland adds more than $100 a ton to the expense; and
Sorry about the long answer but I think that this gives you a good idea of the problems.
Max’s Video Diary: Summer Vacation ’04
