Rain ruins crops too: Newspapers please notice

The papers had some remarkable photos of flooded streets and damaged homes, but little on the devastation caused by the 40+ days of often heavy rain on Hawaii's farms and farmers. Many crops are wiped out not just for the present, but for the medium-term future.

One farmer who showed up at the KCC Farmers Market this weekend (some had nothing to bring, they didn't come...) said that the entire papaya crop was not only ruined, but the trees drowned. Before there will be new papayas available for sale new trees will have to be planted and raised.

Many farmers brought what they had to the market. I hope shoppers will continue to attend and support our farmers by buying what they have available. If there is kale, please eat some kale. Buy local first, before visiting the supermarkets. Help the farmers recover--don't give up on the markets.

And to our "traditional" media: please go out there and get the stories that are not urban, not about houses and streets, not about disappointed tourists, but about the losses farmers incur when weather like this strikes, and how they struggle to clean up, plant again, and do it all over again.