2008-05-01 News

The Maui 10

May 01, 2008
RESORTS GO DOWN

RANK	PREVIOUS	COMPANY
1	2	Monsanto Hawai`i
2	1	Tesoro Hawai`i
3	3	Alexander & Baldwin
4	5	Weinberg Foundation
5	4	Maui Land & Pineapple Co.
6	7	Wailuku Water Co.
7	6	Dowling Co.
8	8	Goodfellow Brothers
9	9	Maui Electric Co.
10	10	Hawaiian Telecom

Maui Land & Pine and Dowling—developers of fine resorts across the island—drop a notch this week on news that sale prices for fine, up-scale vacation resorts are dropping. Fast. "Sales of new and previously owned condominiums, single-family homes and house lots at master-planned resorts statewide such as Wailea and Hualalai declined 20 percent last year to 1,535 properties," reported the Honolulu Advertiser on April 23. Still, the Advertiser added that "developers of million-dollar-plus resort homes are betting that there are plenty of wealthy individuals seeking Hawai`i vacation property to keep demand relatively strong." While undoubtedly true, homes for the ridiculously wealthy are the bread and butter of Hawai`i's land developers, and any drop in sales, temporary or not, isn't good.

MONSANTO IS GOOD PLACE TO WORK?!

According to the April 2008 issue of Hawaii Business, the giant maker of herbicides and genetically modified plants immune to those very same herbicides is. With an average salary of $64,500, 559 full-time Hawai`i employees, 13 paid holidays and a mere three percent voluntary turnover, the company is ranked eighth of the 24 "large companies"—employing 150 or more people—that made the list. "If an employee of this agricultural company must travel," the mag says, "the company will reimburse travel costs for a relative to care for children, up to what a local caregiver would have cost." Wow. Can you believe that? Hawaii Business called Monsanto a mere "agricultural company." Stunning. MTW

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Maui Land and Bamboo?
May 03, 2008 | 01:35 AM

Big surprise the economy is down and folks don't have that extra 32 million to invest in a second home. If they did would they seriously want to put money into a location that does not have a hospital and stink sewage infrastructure? Will D.Cole and E. Case be around to see the fallout? Could they shift gears from high end to sustainable? What about high end sustainable? What about bamboo? There are a lot of fallow fields that could be producing high end sustainable fields in 7-10 years enough time to train the local work force to work with bamboo thus revitalizing the local economy as well as ecology. Just a thought...

SaRhonda Innocencio
What about the bees?
May 03, 2008 | 01:38 AM

When all the bees are dead and gone because of the pesticides and the herpes virus that GMOs get injected in them I'm sure those workers will just move on and find another job, but how will us natural farmers get our plants pollinated without bees?

Farmer John Eames

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