The title is kind of bland. The article is generally about one scientist's quest to revive the use of multiple cultures of sugarcane, understand their use and importance through primary sources,...
The title is kind of bland. The article is generally about one scientist's quest to revive the use of multiple cultures of sugarcane, understand their use and importance through primary sources, and also see what industries are interested in having a diversified crop of sugarcane (hint: it would make Captain Jack Sparrow very pleased).
Noa Kekuewa Lincoln remembers when he first encountered native Hawaiian sugarcane in 2004. The fresh stalks, bursting with color, might have sprouted from Willy Wonka’s imagination, not the soil.
Lincoln, a kanaka maoli (Native Hawaiian) expert in Indigenous cropping systems and an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii, said: “I grew up seeing grayish-green cane fields. But these canes are fluorescent pink, bright apple-green striped. They looked like huge cartoon candy canes. They almost don’t look real!”
...
Sugarcane was originally domesticated in New Guinea around 8000 BC and brought to Hawaii as one of Polynesian voyagers’ original “canoe plants”, critical species that form the core of Hawaiian agriculture and foodways. The ancient islanders put sugarcane to various uses. Sugarcane windbreaks decrease wind damage to root crops and maintain soil moisture. Native canes provide mulch and attract nitrogen and nutrients into the soil. With those natural enhancements, Hawaiians were able to grow bigger and better sweet potatoes and taro alongside sugarcane, which itself adapted into new varieties suited to its new environs.
"Foodways" is the term to describe folk/cultural traditions as related to food. Wikipedia goes on to explain "Anthropologists, folklorists, sociologists, historians, and food scholars often use the term foodways to describe the study of why we eat what we eat and what it means."
Today, Lincoln finds an ally in a businessman who worked in Hawaii’s once-robust sugarcane sector. Bob Gunter, president and CEO of Kōloa Rum Company, worked with Amfac, considered one of Hawaii’s “big five” sugar businesses, and its Lihue plantation, one of the earliest and longest-running sugarcane operations. It closed in 2000.
Gunter said: “Hawaii was world renowned for its high-quality sugar and the concentration of its sugar. It produced tons of sugar per acre – quantities unheard of in other countries. But the trouble is that it couldn’t compete with countries that heavily subsidize sugar or don’t pay their labor well. It wasn’t a level playing field.” Kōloa, which produces its rum from granulated cane sugar, had purchased tons of the ingredient from Hawaii’s plantations as they announced their closures. But eventually the rum maker had no alternative but to buy sugar from east Texas, Louisiana and Florida.
...
Lincoln attributes this renewed interest in kō to two movements: a larger one to reclaim Native Hawaiian identity, culture and cultivation practices, and the craft beverage movement, propelled by local distillers who see the use of heirloom Hawaiian canes as good marketing. “We can confidently say that more heirloom cane is being grown in Hawaii now than at any time in the past century,” he wrote in a 2022 article.
Still, Lincoln acknowledges the tension between economic and biocultural values of heirloom Hawaiian cane. On the one hand, businesses can appropriate Hawaiian knowledge and stories. Yet the fledgling rum agricole business “has provided new opportunities for preservation, dissemination and observations of the Hawaiian canes, as well as new platforms for sharing of indigenous perspectives”, he wrote in that same article. For example, when commercial producers grow large quantities of single varieties, scientists can better detect mutations within those varieties.
There is also a clear benefit to rum aficionados. Juice from heirloom sugarcanes can produce very different, fragrant rums. Lincoln said: “You wouldn’t dream of drinking a wine and not knowing what grape it came from.” Perhaps one day, more of us will sip native Hawaiian rums and taste their distinct nuances.
The title is kind of bland. The article is generally about one scientist's quest to revive the use of multiple cultures of sugarcane, understand their use and importance through primary sources, and also see what industries are interested in having a diversified crop of sugarcane (hint: it would make Captain Jack Sparrow very pleased).
...
"Foodways" is the term to describe folk/cultural traditions as related to food. Wikipedia goes on to explain "Anthropologists, folklorists, sociologists, historians, and food scholars often use the term foodways to describe the study of why we eat what we eat and what it means."
...