Seminar 2, Day 1





Day 1 by KrB.  This is a 39th floor Aston Executive Centre view of our magnificant State Capitol building.  Attached is a link with some more history and background about the building.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii_State_Capitol



And this of course is our fearless leader, most likely working on some details of the meeting.......or possibly on the phone trying to find out why Kirby was late.  The conference room we had on the 4th floor was very comfortable.

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Dean "the father of farmers markets" Okimoto was up first.    He has done so much for agriculture in   Hawaii and stands up for it more than probably anyone, a true leader.  Dean told us about value added products (or facilities),  the challenges of food safety, gmo, PLDC, invasive species, etc.  It is great to have a straight shooter like Dean fighting for all Ag.

 Russel Kokubun, Dwight Takamini, Mike Hudson, and David Ruff (sp?) spoke individually about community ag park plans (that rock), current challenges of ag, and the need for more collaboration, amongst other things.  Great to spend more time with the WOW farm guys.  I think their model has extreme potential in "incubating" tomorrows farmers.  By the way, we ate dinner at J.J. Dolans and they're menu had Nalu greens, and WOW tomatoes featured as salad ingredients.

  

Our class deep into thought.  The topic and speakers were all so awesome for 4hrs that I don't think anyone even noticed that the chairs have a low back profile making them uncomfortable to recline back and snooze in.  Brandi made a great point about the importance of "protein" generation in ag, don't forget the ranchers!

Thank you Lisa for lining up Senator Dela Cruz, Chair Nishihara, and Mr. Nakatani to share the Whitmore Village Agricultural Redevelopment plan with us.  Check it out, I think Cynthia was definitely smiling,  Christina was perhaps contemplating a smile,  Jennica......well, I don't think was happy about the picture, and the rest of you were of course deep in thought again.  This is progress for a 5PM photo.  I think we should start a contest for whom can be the goofiest (discreetly of course) during obvious blog pictures from now on??????

Last but not least, a departing shot from the front of the Capitol.  It was a good day, looking forward to visting the fish market at 5AM tomorrow morning!