Sugarcane

I know.

So the Wormans were sugar cane farmers and farming had been in the family for generations.

Marilyn's grandfather had actually been quite successful in sugar caning and even served as the head of Sugar Growers Association at the time.

I do think that's a little bit important, which we will get into shortly.

Yeah.

Now, Marilyn's ride to school was pretty straightforward and it was one that she had made many times.

She would ride her bike along Walman Road, which ran through the surrounding sugar cane farms, until she reached the bus stop.

And this bus stop was outside the rural youth hall and it was at the intersection of Walman Road and, again, that little town in Miro, I'm going to say, Road.

Here we have it.

Biodegradable sugar cane straws.

They're made from sugar cane fiber.

Is sugarcane bad for the environment, though?

Are they

Yes, today we are airing the first part of a special series that our reporter, Mahealani Dupont, has been working on for nine months.

Mahealani has been all over the island of Hawaii to help us better understand the role of sugarcane in Hawaii's future food security.

Her reporting has been incredibly in-depth.

We wanted to give her space to share the important information she's learned from her kuka kuka with experts and reporting hua kai.

We do need to get some noise out of this.

So sugar plantations are an interesting place to look for balance, especially since you can consider some of the imbalances we see today, like drought and wildfires, as symptoms of the larger sugar plantation's legacy.

That's true, although we aren't starting with the plantation story of sugarcane.

But your initial thought is part of the motivation for bringing in Ko as our storyteller.

Rains at the time of the flowering, the want of water for artificial irrigations, and a potastic plant, a new species of coranthus, which clings to the branches, are extremely injurious to the coffee trees.

Sugar cane.

Three species of sugar cane can be distinguished even at a distance by the color of their leaves, the ancient Creole sugar cane, the odahite cane, and the batavia cane.

The first has a leaf of a deeper green, the stem less thick, and the knots nearer together.

This sugar cane was the first introduced from India into Sicily, the Canary Islands, and the West Indies.

The second is of a lighter green, and its stem is higher, thicker, and more succulent.

The whole plant displays a more luxuriant vegetation.

We owe this plant to the voyages of Bougainville, Cook, and Bly.