Garcia explains that right after the fires, this space became a storage base for rescue operations and supplies being delivered to the island by boat and air. “That went on for a few months, but then we quickly saw the redundancy of old food coming from a lot of these nonprofits. Diapers, old clothes, stuff that was just piling up everywhere, so we decided to switch gears. It was like, How can we utilize the nonprofit we have and help our community? For one, we can feed people good food, not the stuff coming from the food banks and outdated canned food. We can feed them living, fresh vegetables and greens that we already have growing in the back.” He motions me to follow him further, and we wade through more water, up to some raised gardens and mounds of earth brimming with fruits and vegetables of all kinds. The amount of growth and produce flourishing in the plots is astounding.
/ TECH SPR UT
On the RIGHT
TRACTOR An autonomous electric tractor promises a safer alternative for farmers.
and are actively giving away around 300 pounds a week to all people who are victims of the fire disaster and need fresh food. “Not a single drop of fertilizer or pesticide,” Garcia adds, proudly. “Just consistency, hard work, and a community that wants to grow this way and show stewardship. Most of what is grown here is known as the voyaging plants. These are the plants that were originally carried here by canoe. People can also come here and get trees from us.” Garcia explains that part of the reason Lahaina burned the way it did is that agricultural companies razed its wetlands — specifically, thousands of ‘ulu (breadfruit) trees — in the 1800s. “Beyond just being very bad agricultural management, clearing all the ‘ulu trees was culturally traumatic for the Native Hawaiians, too,” Garcia continues. “Trees were planted as family, to the extent that a newborn’s placenta was buried beneath the tree. So, cutting down that tree was like cutting down a part of your family.” Regenerative Education Centers teamed up with a micro-propagation company to mass-produce ‘ulu from strains of the original breadfruit trees, which were stored in a genetic bank.
ABOVE: BEETS AND CARROTS ARE JUST SOME OF THE CROPS GROWN ON THE PROPERTY. LEFT: THE CREW SORTS THROUGH A TARO HARVEST. TARO IS A NUTRIENT-DENSE ROOT VEGETABLE AND A STAPLE OF HAWAIIAN CUISINE.
The future will be automated, or at least the most dangerous parts will be. Monarch Tractor is on a mission to change how farming is done: Its smart, electric tractors create a safer environment for farmers while increasing food production and lowering pesticide use. As the company’s name implies, it all started with a butterfly. The monarch population has been in sharp decline since glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) was introduced as an herbicide in the 1970s. This butterfly is a critical pollinator, and its presence (or absence) gives insight into the health and balance of an ecosystem, making it the perfect mascot for an effort to transform farming. In 2016, Carlo Mondavi — a third-generation winemaker in Napa Valley and co-founder of Monarch Tractor — initiated The Monarch Challenge. It’s an ongoing effort to raise awareness about traditional agriculture’s detrimental effects, minimize use of herbicide on Northern California farms, and create a template for better practices. With a family legacy of knowledge and experience and a notable name in the industry,
Visit MONARCHTRACTOR.COM to learn more.
Mondavi co-founded Monarch Tractor in 2019 to address these issues, among others. For most farms, tractors are an unfortunate necessity. “The most dangerous place on a farm is in the driver’s seat of a tractor,” Mondavi tells The Rooted Journal. According to the National Ag Safety Database, tractor overturns are the leading cause of farming fatalities. In addition to tractor accidents, “farmers are exposed to chemical hazards in concentrations that are well beyond any recommended limits regularly, and the cancer rates reflect that,” he says. Mondavi’s solution? Replacing traditional diesel tractors with Monarch’s automated, electric ones. According to the company, the tractors can decrease chemical and pesticide use by 90% with the help of AI-targeting technology, dramatically increase safety for farmers, and deliver
higher profit margins, thanks to increased efficiency and reduced fuel costs. Other benefits include lower main- tenance expenses, fewer hours in the driver’s seat, and lower implementation costs with initiatives like California’s Rural Electrification and Charging Technology program. The goal is to create an automated system that will allow expanded sustainable food production on a large scale, while making farmers safer and profits greater in an industry known for razor- thin margins. Monarch’s MK-V line of tractors is helping achieve it. — BEN CLASSEN
This began a process of creating thousands of new ‘ulu trees in Lahaina after the fires. “Reforesting with some of these ancient strains of breadfruits, the goal is just trying to give something back to our community and bring some change that could be significant for generations to come,” Garcia says. “An ‘ulu tree, by the time they’re old, can produce thousands upon thousands of pounds of harvest. They’re literally some of the most prolific food trees on the planet.” “We want to have agriculture that’s fed by culture, right?” Garcia asks. We certainly do.
He points down to a mutant-like vegetable growing on a vine and says, “Check this out.” It’s a squash the size of a football. “Within the first few months, we had tens of thousands of pounds of food growing in the ground. Since then, we’ve given well over 40,000 pounds of food away,
Visit RECENTERS.ORG to learn more.
18
19
ISSUE 02
Made with FlippingBook. PDF to flipbook with ease