I have a question for an islander.
I was there in 2000. There were tens of thousands(maybe millions)of acres of sugar cane and pineapple fields.
I drove through the fields coming down from Haleakala trying to get to Wialea.
When did they stop growing sugar cane and pineapples on Maui?
What was the reason they stopped?
Somebody here said that agriculture (trucks, burning, etc.) got in the way of the tourism industry, which also probably pays more for less work and is willing to pay more for the land.
Also, conservationist foundations have a lot of money to buy up land. I’m not an islander, though.
The last sugar mill closed in 2016.
https://www.honolulumagazine.com/the-end-of-an-era-hawaiis-last-sugar-mill-closes-forever/
They still grow some other crops there, but I imagine it is scaled back quite a bit.