Hacker News Reader

Comment by TbobbyZ | Hacker News Reader

My grandfather owns a home in Maui. His opinion on the factory, even thought it brought jobs, it caused lots of pollution and only survived for so long because of government subsidies. If that is true, good riddance.

View on HN

Hawaii should be glad they're gone, sugar farms are destroying Florida. They fill lake Okeechobee with pollution, and then that pollution has to be drained periodically, destroying everything in its path and rendering beaches unusable for days or weeks at a time. This year, it was so bad that they declared a State of Emergency.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/01/us/florida-algae-pollution/

> "The algae outbreaks are triggered by fertilizer sewage and manure pollution that the state has failed to properly regulate. It's like adding miracle grow to the water and it triggers massive algae outbreaks,"

Floridian here! The only lobby more powerful than the utilities is the sugar lobby.

I visit my parents in Kihei every year. I certainly won't miss waking up to the smell of burning cane and "Maui Snow" aka black ash covering the entire downwind area in a thin layer. I can't imagine having asthma and living with that.

Many generations of my wife's family (Makawao) worked at the mills. Our cousin is out of a job after 26 years there. It happens. From what I hear, they are doing an excellent job with the former employees, like paying for school.

When visiting Maui, I was surprized how sugar cane spread like weeds in many places around the island. I don't think it was classified as "highly invasive" but it looked invasive.

But I didn't get a chance to ask any Hawaiians about it.

It's probably because sugar cane tends to grow in fields. In Hawaii, a field is already pretty much ecologically ruined. On the Big Island, there are fairly large efforts to reforest areas that were previously clear cut to produce fields for cattle and sugar cane farming. Coincidentally, the only place I've ever seen sugar cane spread like a weed is these clear cut areas, it doesn't seem to be able to spread into forests or diverse ecosystems. As such, it makes sense that it wouldn't be seen as being as invasive as something like a christmasberry tree.

I live in Maui. You may (and likely) saw "Cane Grass" or Giant Reed[1] (and other varieties of tall weeds that look a lot like sugar cane).

This stuff is hard to get rid of; I've had it in my yards here and the roots are thick.

[1] http://dlnr.hawaii.gov/hisc/info/invasive-species-profiles/g...

Those cane fields on the way from Kahului to Kihei, while beautiful, seem like a massive wasted space. I like the idea of a decently-sized solar farm to replace the power plant just above Kihei.

I hope it doesn't get bulldozed for apartments and more strip malls, like near the airport right up the road.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com