Approach

The thing is that farmers and ranchers are not very happy with modern agriculture and the current world order either. We aren't too happy with having to make a living on razor-thin margins, with having to produce food for 120 of our fellow citizens on average.

The problem is that we know how fragile our agricultural system is. We know how tough it is to provide our families with the trappings of a modern life-style from an agricultural livelihood. We know how few people are willing to live the life. We know that our agricultural system depends on people like us - depends on us getting up at often un-godly hours of the morning to do things that are not as pleasant as drinking coffee and typing on a keyboard. We know the tough choices that we have all had to make to keep on doing what we do. We respect each other.

Living agriculture is a lot like living on a active volcano, as we do here in Ka'u. When you live on an active volcano you know that it could all explode tomorrow. When you live agriculture you stare down the basics of human life every day. You don't think about Armani Exchange or Airbooks very much. You witness and work on the difference between eating and not-eating every day. This is where you come from. It makes a lot of the criticism of the modern food system seem pretty trivial. As in, "So, don't buy the Doritos!"