Maui Officials Mull Requiring 'Farming Time for Visitors'

Challenged with bringing agriculture back to life in the middle of the Valley Isle, county officials are exploring how to get visitors to help maintain new farmland as part of their stays here.

"Farming Time for Visitors" would help local growers address the serious lack of labor to maintain their fields ~ as well as teach visitors all that is involved with keeping the land green.

"We kept hearing from visitors that they missed all the greenery when the center of the island was filled with sugar cane," said Gil Heredia, a land use planning associate with the County of Maui. "But we also hear from landowners that it is exceedingly expensive to keep farming the land, with water challenges and just not enough workers.

"So we all got together and worked out a concept where adult visitors will have to dedicate 20% of their stays to volunteering on a local Maui farm."

Such an arrangement is only fair, a farming couple from Haiku said.

"We're out here every day, seven days a week to make sure irrigation lines are working, that plants were not damaged by wind or rain overnight, to inspect for insects, all kinds of things," said Peace Benedict, while tending to an orchard in the lower portion of Upcountry. "The least that visitors can do is lend a hand."

"Everyone likes to look at the pretty green fields, but few want to put their money where their mouth is and get their hands dirty to help us keep these farms alive," said Benedict's boyfriend, Genesis Stephenson.

Under the plan, visitors at Kahului Airport upon landing will be handed their assignment for their stay, calculated by county officials to be approximately 20% of the time they planned to stay in Maui.

"Their children are welcomed to join them," Heredia said.

The proposal is not final, as county elected officials, planners, and farm industry representatives work out details.