Paper short abstract:

This paper ethnographically examines the contradictory struggles between, on the one hand, the proliferation of agro-food initiatives, and on the other, the ongoing structural challenges of alternative agriculture and farmers’ persistent struggle to receive just prices in Hawai'i.

Paper long abstract:

On January 6, 2016 Alexander & Baldwin Inc. announced that over the course of the year it would phase out sugarcane farming on Maui at Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., thus marking the final phase of the plantation era in Hawai'i. Political ecological analysis reveals that the structural disadvantages that rendered Hawaii's plantation agriculture uncompetitive have also affected subsequent efforts to diversify agriculture. Tight margins and volatile costs severely limit the potential profitably of farms in the state and have driven many of Hawaii's independent small farmers out of business. In spite of the uncertain viability of agriculture, interests in agro-food initiatives (AFIs) have proliferated in Hawai'i, and a growing number of citizens have become engaged in innovative ways to participate in AFIs. Espousing neoliberal discourses of individual and privatized food justice agendas, they attempt to reconnect farmers and consumers, preserve agricultural land, revive and protect cultural food practices, and develop new processes and mechanisms that enable broader participation in consumer led decision-making. While these groups have been decidedly vocal, farmers' ongoing struggle to receive just prices for their products has not been substantively addressed. Drawing on semi-structured interviews and focus groups among AFI participants and farmers, this paper ethnographically examines the political ecology of alternative agriculture and argues that the broader structural challenges of Hawaii's agrarian economy are overshadowed by neoliberal discourses of social enterprise which contribute to the widespread fetishization rather than materialization of just prices in alternative agriculture in Hawai'i.