The canning era officially came to an end at Maui Pineapple Co.'s plant in Kahului, Maui, at the end of June. It was the last operation of its kind in the nation. In the end, low-cost foreign competition coupled with the rising costs of doing business in Hawai'i made it impossible to survive. A new agricultural economy has emerged that includes diversified food, environmental services, fuel and building materials as "crops."

For nearly a century, "working cannery" has been a notable rite of passage for Hawai'i's people. Summer break coincided with the ripening of vast fields of the golden fruit destined for the cannery. There, the fruit was rinsed, flayed by a ginaca machine and routed onto conveyor belts for inspection and trimming. Eagle-eyed foreladies oversaw rubber-gloved workers wielding razor-sharp knives while twirling the fruit in rhythm with the surrounding machinery. A meticulously engineered disassembly line extracted rings, chunks, tidbits and ultimately, juice for reassembly in newly minted cans. By pau-hana time, a refreshing shower offered relief from the hot and sticky conditions.

We who grew up in Hawai'i know that our canneries produced much more than canned fruit. They built the character and backbone of our youth. Portuguese, Japanese, Caucasian, Chinese, Hawaiian, Filipino, Puerto Rican, Mexican and Micronesian workers labored tirelessly in our fields and factories so their children could escape the rigors of plantation life.

"Working cannery," Hawai'i's unique rite of passage, has ended. Like all rites of passage, this poignant end marks a transition to a new beginning.

Hawai'i is at a crossroads, literally and figuratively. We have adopted cultural influences from the East and conventional thinking from the West. But somewhere, somehow, we lost our own way of doing things. At one time, these islands sustained close to a million people with no imported food or fuel. Today, we are utterly dependent upon foods and fuels that come from far, far away. We live precariously, just one supply-chain disruption away from disaster.

Albert Einstein said, "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used to create them." Conventional thinking got us here. Conventional thinking won't get us out. The time has come for Hawai'i to look to its own history and considerable resources for answers.

We can redefine agriculture and expand our understanding of it to include environmental services, building materials and fuel, in addition to food. But it takes more than new thinking to produce results. It requires action.

In 2004, our Maui Pineapple Co. retired thousands of acres of high-acid Champaka pineapple to make way for a hybrid super sweet variety to satisfy gourmet customers seeking a fresh sweet pineapple year-round. By late 2005, we introduced our Maui Gold brand to select West Coast markets and began our retreat from the brutal commodity market.

Also in 2005, we successfully urged Whole Foods Market to expand to Hawai'i in an effort to spur the development of a diversified Island food network — from local farmers through high-service retailers. In anticipation of increased demand for local produce, we expanded our own organic produce programs under the Kapalua Farms brand.

Last year, we helped organize Hawai'i BioEnergy, a consortium of large landowners (including ML&P, Kamehameha Schools and Grove Farm) and global investors in the renewable fuels industry. Over the past year, Hawai'i BioEnergy has studied the potential for locally grown plant fuels to replace imported fossil fuels. The results are hopeful, particularly for the development of cane-based ethanol — a proven Hawai'i-grown feedstock that is eight times more energy-efficient to produce than the corn-based ethanol we import and blend into our gasoline today.

Beyond food and fuels, Hawaiian agriculture can be redefined to include building materials. Construction costs in our Islands have skyrocketed in recent years while many of our upland forests have become denuded by the destruction caused by alien plant species and feral animals. Just 150 years ago, our mauka areas were blanketed with massive koa, sandalwood and 'ohi'a forests that drew moisture from the air, nourished our watersheds, and provided superior materials for shelter. We can do this again.

At ML&P, we are reforesting old pineapple fields near our Pu'u Kukui Preserve in West Maui. These new native forests will buffer our fragile rainforest from invasive species while laying a foundation for sustainable logging in the future.

Once a self-reliant society, today the Hawaiian Islands are much too dependent on remote and fickle lifelines for energy, food and economic sustenance, the result of the long process of "modernization." But what happens if the lifeline breaks?

The answer lies in our own productive capacity. "Local" always trumps imported and self-reliance is our only sure path to security.

Our policymakers must move with deliberate speed to protect our important agricultural lands, modernize our agricultural and logistical infrastructure, actively promote the development of renewable energy sources, nurture local food-growers, and provide the educational programs required to produce future workers for these industries.

You can help by buying Hawai'i-grown foods, fuels and materials. And we all can vote at both the booth and the cash register for a more self-reliant way of life.

Agriculture is not dying, it's changing. And no matter how you slice it, we have no chance for re-creating a sustainable way of life without the land, water and wisdom that our agricultural future needs.

David C. Cole is the chairman, president and chief executive officer of
Maui Land & Pineapple Co. Inc. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.