Community discontent smolders over continued HC&S cane burning
source: http://www.mauitime.com/Articles-i-2009-07-02-70074.113117_Slow_burn.html
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- Kepano
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It happens with regularity: a smoked-out resident pens a letter to the local newspaper, chastising Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar (HC&S) for persisting with the archaic practice of burning sugar cane fields before harvesting. The writer cites air quality degradation and health risks, lack of regulatory oversight, messy black ash or “Hawaiian snow,” and calls for alternatives, such as growing food for local consumption.
Then the fun begins. Inevitably, other letter-writers quickly come to the defense of the plantation, with a nostalgic posture that often defies reason. Sugar may not be perfect, they opine, but it provides jobs and keeps Central Maui green. Make HC&S stop burning, the authors say, and they’ll go under. Then the isthmus will revert to a dustbowl, or worse yet, it will all become urbanized.
Finally, someone will take the debate to the lowest common denominator: thinly veiled racism or provincialism. “How dare you newcomers tell us how to live our lives? If you didn’t like cane burning, why did you move here? And maybe you should move back.”
Twelve years ago this month, in 1997, Kihei resident Susan Douglas wrote a letter to the editor concerning cane burning, and left her voicemail number. Over 50 people called wanting to do something about the situation, and the Maui Clean Air Coalition (MCAC) was born. Meetings were held; more than 250 people showed up at a public hearing in Kihei attended by a representative from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 9 San Francisco office
Then the fun begins. Inevitably, other letter-writers quickly come to the defense of the plantation, with a nostalgic posture that often defies reason. Sugar may not be perfect, they opine, but it provides jobs and keeps Central Maui green. Make HC&S stop burning, the authors say, and they’ll go under. Then the isthmus will revert to a dustbowl, or worse yet, it will all become urbanized.
Finally, someone will take the debate to the lowest common denominator: thinly veiled racism or provincialism. “How dare you newcomers tell us how to live our lives? If you didn’t like cane burning, why did you move here? And maybe you should move back.”
Twelve years ago this month, in 1997, Kihei resident Susan Douglas wrote a letter to the editor concerning cane burning, and left her voicemail number. Over 50 people called wanting to do something about the situation, and the Maui Clean Air Coalition (MCAC) was born. Meetings were held; more than 250 people showed up at a public hearing in Kihei attended by a representative from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 9 San Francisco office
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- Community, Green, Sustainable Agriculture, Maui
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- Apocalipstick
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pjacobs51
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They should do what Brazil does with their leftover cane. Use it to power the sugar factory and then some by converting the cane to ethanol.
- 2 years ago
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pjacobs51
