Today the monastery sent representatives to the 2010 Agricultural Conference: Profitability in Agriculture sponsored by the Kauai Economic Development Board. Arumugaswami and Sadhaka Adinatha both involved with our 200 acres of agricultural land across the river from the monastery, spent the day at the meeting. There appeared to be some 120 people in attendance, a who’s who of Kauai’s agricultural community from the big seed companies to the family farmers. This is the opening panel on “Land and Water” moderated by Laurie Ho of the USDA. Many local politicians attended, including the mayor, much of the county council and several state House Representatives.

Wide shot of part of the audience. Topics included Human Resources, Production and Marketing with a luncheon address by Dr. Makena Coffman of the University of Hawaii on issues in bio-energy development.

Another shot of the audience. The event was very well organized, each panel of experts was given 60 minutes. They began by answering three or four questions prepared in advance and then took questions from the audience for 30 minutes. As the organizers remarked at the end, ” This is the first conference we’ve held where everyone present at the beginning was still present at the end.”