Johnny’s Visits Hawaii (continues)

Johnny’s Commercial Sales Representative, Lainie Kertesz, recently traveled to Hawaii to visit commercial farmers and farmers markets on the islands. She documented her travels, which we turned into a three-part Blog series. Below is part three of this series:   

Kona, Hawaii

Kona: The "Big Island"

Kona, HI

I timed my trip to participate in an Organic conference in Kona, "Growing Organics: Moving Hawai'i's Organic Industry Forward," sponsored by the Kohala Center. 


According to their website, "The Kohala Center is an not-for-profit, independent, community-based center. The Center was established in direct response to the request of island residents to create greater educational and employment opportunities by enhancing—and celebrating—Hawai‘i’s spectacular natural and cultural landscapes... three core areas of work have emerged: energy self-reliance, food self-reliance, and ecosystem health. These areas of work involve basic and applied research, policy research, conservation and restoration initiatives, public outreach and education – all carried out through local, regional, national, and international partnerships."

Specifically, the "Growing Organics: Moving Hawai'i's Organic Industry Forward," conference was to examine what interest exists, and what supports were needed, to further the growth of organics in Hawaii. Organic agricultural producers in Hawaii currently do not have a local organic program office where they can obtain information on aspects of Organic production. 

The 150 conference participants spent the day networking and identifying where more support was needed. The final report and other relevant documents from this conference are available here.

Kona, HI


Thank you for joining us as we revisit Lainie's trip to Hawaii! We hope you enjoyed the 3 part series.