Dole Selling Land in Hawaii
- California based company, owned by David Murdoch since 2003. Founded in Hawaii in 1901 and made pineapple production second largest industry in Hawaii. At around 2007 Dole was 7th largest private land owner at 28,472 acres. In addition to that, leases 20,000 acres, mostly from Kamehameha Schools. Second largest Pineapple producer. Grow pineapple, coffee, cacao.
- Murdoch also owns Castle & Cooke Inc. which owns 98 percent of Lana'i and develops residential and commercial property in Hawai'i and the Mainland. Third-largest private Hawai'i landowner with about 95,000 acres
- Maui Land & Pine, largest Pineapple producer, owns more than 25,000 acres on Maui
- Florida-based Del Monte quit pineapple production in Hawai'i last year, returning 5,100 acres of leased land in Kunia to local landowner James Campbell Co. They are trying to sell and 2007 Monsanto Co. bought 2,300 acres for seed crop operations.
- "Andres Albano Jr., a senior vice president with commercial real estate firm CB Richard Ellis, said it has been challenging to sell such vast portions of farmland because the land is often too expensive for small diversified crop farmers but too big for a single user. "There's really no other single crop to replace sugar and pineapple," he said. Albano, who also was involved in an effort five years ago to sell 70,000 acres of primarily agricultural land on the Big Island and Maui for C. Brewer & Co., said buyers for the Brewer property included wealthy individuals who planned to establish estates or hold the property for possible future development."
- Private and public trusts and nonprofit organizations set up to preserve open space also have been active in buying Hawai'i agriculture property.
It makes me uncomfortable that out of state corporations own so much of the ag land. With this example, pineapple production becomes unprofitable and developers are in the best position to pick it up rather than farmers or the state even. It may be a generalization but I feel out of state corporations aren't concerned with Hawaii becoming more independent and food self-sufficient, in fact I'm sure there's a profit possible in keeping Hawaii importing food. Are these corporations concerned with keeping the ag land in food production rather than resorts or homes? Are they concerned about the shrinking amounts of open space on Hawaii if they just see it as a place of business?
Monsanto is notorious for GMO exploration which a lot of people see as environmentally risky for soil, water, other resources, and organic neighbors. They are also notorious for running out their small farm competitors. I certainly don't want them to end up owning all the land on Hawaii, but if they have the most money, what is there stopping them??? Is that how capitalism and the free market work?