HCA presents Kanuha with legislator award
The Hawaii Coffee Association presented state Sen. Dru Kanuha (D-Kona, Ka‘u) with its first ever Legislator of the Year Award. The Senate Majority Leader received an appreciation plaque crafted from a century-old fallen koa tree that once flourished at Kona’s Greenwell Farms.
Kanuha introduced and shepherded the passage of legislation to extend the state Department of Agriculture’s Coffee Berry Borer (CBB) Pesticide Subsidy Program and expand it to include control of the industry’s latest disease challenge: Coffee Leaf Rust (CLR). The legislation extends the sunset date of the program to June 2023 and stipulates annual subsidy caps per acre of treated coffee.
“While our coffee industry has been challenged by CBB, CLR and impacts relating to COVID, the state legislature has faced unprecedented COVID-induced budgetary constraints,” noted HCA President Chris Manfredi. “Nonetheless, Senator Kanuha listened to and understood our challenges, and championed this subsidy extension and expansion to include CLR management. This will make life a good deal easier for Hawaii’s coffee farmers and help ensure their viability. We thank him for his leadership.”
Endemic to Central Africa, CBB was discovered in Hawaii first in Kona in 2010 and it can be difficult to control. Female beetles lay eggs inside the coveted coffee bean to feed its brood. Farmers fight CBB with an integrated pest management (IPM) program that includes farm sanitation and a biological control material bought commercially.
CLR was first discovered in Sri Lanka in 1869 and can cause plant defoliation resulting in reduced photosynthetic capacity and tree dieback. First detected on Maui and Hawaii Island last October, the devastating pathogen can be controlled with an EPA-approved fungicide as part of an IPM plan.
Learn more about the association, visit www.hawaiicoffeeassoc.org.
Festival launches online marketplace
The Made in Hawaii Festival, the state’s most-loved and longest-running showcase of made-in-Hawaii products, launched its online marketplace on Friday. The online marketplace at www.madeinhawaiifestival.com provides a curated selection of hundreds of local products from some of the festival’s favorite exhibitors.
“The online marketplace provides a one-stop shop for curated, quality local products,” said Lauren Zirbel, executive director of the Hawaii Food Industry Association, the organization that produces the festival. “It’s a unique opportunity to enjoy the convenience of online shopping while supporting local.”
The online marketplace will feature everything from apparel and home items to local foods and snacks, jewelry and more.
Tickets for the Made in Hawaii Festival presented by Central Pacific Bank Foundation and Mahi Pono will also be available at an online pre-sale price of $13 beginning Sept. 20. The festival will be held over Veteran’s Day Holiday Weekend Nov. 11 to 14 at Ala Moana Center on Oahu.
Program looks to increase asthma educators in Hawaii
The American Lung Association in Hawaii has launched a virtual Asthma Educator Institute to increase the number of Certified Asthma Educators in the state. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 106,000 Hawaii residents live with asthma, and about one third of those are children. Every year, about 5,000 people in Hawaii visit the emergency room due to asthma and another 1,500 are hospitalized.
The virtual Asthma Educator Institute (AEI) is a three half-day preparatory course for individuals that want to implement asthma guidelines-based care and those qualified to take the National Asthma Educator Certification Board examination. The institute will take place Aug. 31, and Sept. 1, and 3 at 8 a.m.
The AEI is a professional education course that targets frontline healthcare professionals, such as nurses, nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists, physicians, physician assistants, pharmacists, other licensed or credentialed healthcare professionals, and educators with 1000-plus direct hours of asthma education eligible to sit for the national asthma certification exam. The upcoming AEI will be held virtually in a live-stream format.
Trainers for this course are from the Pacific West, including several respiratory professionals from Hawaii, including Dr. Edward Fong, MD, of Kapiolani Hospital; Kaberi Mozumder, MSN, APRN- Rx, PPCNP-BC, Hawaii Keiki Nurse, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, University of Hawaii at Manoa – School of Nursing; Dr. Chunrong Lin, MD with The Queen’s Medical Center – West Oahu, Sullivan Care Center; Ron Sanderson DrPH, MEd, RRT, RPFT, AE-C, Respiratory Center of Hawaii owner and Adventist Health Castle, Director of Respiratory Care and Pulmonary Function Lab (retired); and Dr. Brian Wu, MD, with Kapiolani Hospital.
For more information or to register for the event, the public should contact the American Lung Association at ALAHawaii@Lung.org or call 808-537-5966.