A Mid-Year Update from Pacific Biodiesel Director of Agriculture Operations Jamie
Twigg-Smith
July 14, 2025 This summer, our newest crop sprouting up in Kaumakani is… feed corn! This crop, a non-GMO variety that’s suitable for human and animal consumption, will be harvested initially for local chicken feed.
Why a feed corn crop?
“We chose feed corn as a summertime rotation with our sunflowers because it is a great fit within our crop rotation and strongly supports our mission of producing locally grown feed and fuel,” said Pacific Biodiesel Director of Agriculture Operations Jamie Twigg-Smith. “There’s also the potential to produce cornmeal from this crop – a product that was once milled in Hawaiʻi back in the early 1900s before other crops such as pineapple emerged. As we’re scaling up regenerative agriculture for food and fuel in Hawaiʻi, we’re excited to be able to contribute to expansion of local food production in this way.”
Twigg-Smith adds, “Like our sunflowers, we mechanically cultivated this first 120-acre field for weed removal to avoid the use of herbicides. And, our center pivot irrigation has allowed for effective water usage as the field matures.”
In the photographs below, Operations Manager George Twigg-Smith earlier this month stands in the corn field alongside rows of the now 5-7-foot-tall corn plants; and, Jamie Twigg-Smith with Maui Farm Manager Kurt Galatro inspect that same field back in May when the corn plants first began to emerge. Also photographed, a surprise visitor greeting the new field this month: a solo sunflower that cropped up in a patch of weeds near the edge of the corn field.
This first field of feed corn is expected to be ready for harvest in mid-September.
Ag Milestones and Future Plans
Our Agriculture division also celebrated a major milestone earlier this summer with its landmark first production run of sunflower oil at the newly minted Kaumakani mill on Kauaʻi. That container full of sunflower oil was shipped to Pacific Biodiesel’s refinery on Hawaiʻi Island to produce a milestone first container of “sunflower” biodiesel that was delivered to Hawaiian Electric’s Schofield Generating Station last month.
“Having grown, harvested and processed the oil from previously fallow land and previously empty warehouse space in just under 20 months, our Ag team is proud to have contributed to this milestone first fuel delivery from our Kaua’i ag operations,” Twigg-Smith added. “Looking beyond 2025, our crop rotations on Kaua’i will include more non-GMO rotations of Sunflower, feed Corn for local animal feed, and potentially Canola as we step up efficient and ethical use of the land and increase food and energy independence in Hawaiʻi.”
