Pacific Biodiesel
Bob King & Joy Galatro during Pacific Biodiesel sunflower harvest in Waikapū, Maui. Photo by Angie Diaz
“We've got to go back to the future and go back to remembering that there's nothing that can't be done here. Hawai’i supported this many people without even technology before. Now we're going to need to do it a little differently though. Let's use new technologies to get our farmers competitive so that they can make a solid family-wage farming, and then people will farm.” -Bob King, Pacific Biodiesel
Bob King is President of Pacific Biodiesel, the renewable energy company he founded in 1995 to alleviate the environmentally hazardous disposal of waste cooking oils at the Central Maui landfill. With nearly 100 employees statewide, Pacific Biodiesel is the only commercial producer of liquid biofuel in Hawai’i. King served on the Hawaii State Environmental Council for six years and was named to the Biofuels Digest international list of Top 100 People in the Advanced Bioeconomy for 2016.
Joy Galatro is a Maui-raised brand strategist for Pacific Biodiesel and its sister company, Maiden Hawaii Naturals, LLC. Joy develops and implements strategies to connect a variety of audiences with the "full circle sustainability" focus of these companies, which demonstrate a system of renewable energy, recycling and diversified agriculture to support greater energy security and food security in Hawaii.
We caught up with Bob King & Joy Galatro on April 12, 2021, a year after Hawai’i recorded its first case of the coronavirus.
Bob King photographed in Waikapū by Angie Diaz
Bob, can you give me a quick picture of what life was like pre-COVID and lead me into your experience as the pandemic was starting to unfold?
Bob King (BK): One of the things that I’ve heard people in the biodiesel industry say about all the big changes that have happened during the pandemic was, ‘Hey, this is what we've been doing in the biodiesel business for 20 years.’ We've never been steady. We've never had certainty. We’re used to changing. And we did change. We had to change a whole bunch of things. How we do business, where our oil was coming from, dealing with the government to receive our credits. There was a lot going on.
I'm assuming you were “essential” because of agriculture. Were you able to retain all of your employees or did you have to send people home?
BK: On the biodiesel side, we were essential workers because we were in the waste collection as well as the energy sectors.
On the farm, we're agriculture, that's also an essential business. We still had to deal with all the issues of keeping people separated and the masks and everything. Although one good thing about the farm is that it wasn't that often that we really had to wear masks because everybody's working pretty much by themselves and we're outside with the wind and the sun. It was more of a concern in the biodiesel plant and the crushing mill. Those employees work inside and are around more people. So we had to reset how our teams came to work at the biodiesel plant.
Joy Galatro (JG): One of the things we immediately felt going into the pandemic was the feedstock disruptions, with all of the restaurant closures in Hawai’i. We started this company on Maui by collecting waste cooking oil from restaurants, and that was one of the main industries devastated by the pandemic. On the ag side of things, we had just made some pretty substantial investments in the farm to scale up our farming operation, to grow more oilseed crops, like sunflowers, to make our Maiden Hawaii Naturals culinary oils. We sell the culinary oils to restaurants and later recycle the used cooking oil to make biodiesel. That whole loop was stopped. We had our new pivot irrigation system that allowed us to farm 40 acres at a time versus 10. We were on this path of being able to really scale up our production of culinary oils, but then the rug was pulled out from underneath us with the pandemic.
Sunflower harvest at Pacific Biodiesel’s Waikapū farm photographed by Angie Diaz
We were on this path of being able to really scale up our production of culinary oils, but then the rug was pulled out from underneath us with the pandemic.
BK: On the hemp side of the business, we were also just getting going. We had a pretty good thing there because we could sell to the mainland, and locally we had the gift shops, the stores, the spas, and the resorts. Then it all shut down. That was another big financial hurdle that we had hadn't counted on, but we had to deal with.
I assume these products have a shelf life, just like anything else. What was your pivot to move the product out?
JG: A promising, positive sign that came out of the pandemic was a surge in support for local. We started to see some of these food hubs come to life quickly. Because the farmers were selling almost entirely into hospitality and that went away overnight, you had the general public really paying attention to the need to support local farming and local food products. Our culinary oils were able to get into some of these food hubs. Maui Hub was one of the first to take on our oils. We had a couple of similar options on O’ahu that popped up and a lot of momentum around what you started with EAT LOCAL MAUI. Consumers were feeling proud about sourcing their menu items locally – and that helped our sales in the interim.
Joy Galatro photographed by Angie Diaz
What we saw with the lack of sales opportunity on the bulk side into restaurants, we started to see really, for the first time, take flight on the consumer side.
In talking with people that have been advocates of food security for years, who had tried to push this conversation forward, they had been hearing a lot of ‘we can't, we can't, we can't,’ and then the pandemic happened and we automatically could. What we saw with the lack of sales opportunity on the bulk side into restaurants, we started to see really, for the first time, our sales taking flight on the consumer side. Our oils received so much enthusiasm from people realizing we have to support local options. On social media people were taking pictures and sharing recipes they’re making with our oils and other locally sourced ingredients.
Part of being a food producer in Hawai’i is the challenge of importing bottles and other things that we need from the mainland.
Can you bring me to the present day?
JG: A big frustration with last year is that we had just received the green light to get into a major new retail account. Part of being a food producer in Hawai’i is the challenge of importing bottles and other supplies that we need from the mainland. We had a massive delay in that area; some supply chain issues triggered by the pandemic, which delayed our launch into this new account. But now things are back in motion and sales are going really well. People are proud to support local.
BK: It was a pivot on the production side because we really had been looking at five-gallon pails and gallon jugs. We even sold some in 250 gallon totes to cosmetic companies. Then when you switch to the consumer it's small bottles. So okay, clear the decks, get to work, get some more automation going here, so we can bottle efficiently. You have to put them in bottles and boxes and pallets.
Like Joy was saying, we ordered new labels and pieces of equipment. It’s nothing that couldn't be done, but it wasn't an overnight switch. Now we're bottling like crazy and we rarely, if ever, fill a five-gallon pail, which was our prime business before the pandemic but the restaurants just aren't quite back yet. Hopefully soon though.
Now we're bottling like crazy and we rarely, if ever, fill a five-gallon pail, which was our prime business before the pandemic
Bob King photographed by Angie Diaz
In terms of other food system vulnerabilities, you had mentioned the animal feed disruptions and I'd love dive a little deeper into that. When restaurants and the hotels closed, some of the piggeries lost that waste stream, and from my understanding, Pacific Biodiesel was able to step in and fill some of that gap.
BK: We've been selling what we call the press cake, which is what is left after you take the seeds, whether it's macadamia or sunflower, and you press the oil out. For macadamia, a little over 50% of the weight of the nut is oil, and the other, almost half, is meal. We bag it up and put it on pallets and they're lined up for it. We sell it at a decent price and they love it. It's fresh because it was just pressed that week or the week before. Unlike mainland feed that comes in that’s two months old before it gets here. Animal food is like human food. It loses some of the nutritional value over time.
Sunflower harvest at Pacific Biodiesel, photography by Angie Diaz
BK: On Maui, since we grow the sunflowers here, we're working with a local pig farmer to see what we can grow for him. Right now we're taking him just raw sunflower seeds, and the pigs will eat that. But we're also looking at cowpeas and sorghum and corn. What else can we grow that he can feed? And how do we make that consistent? That's the big problem that he faces from the animal side is you don't want to have a whole bunch of something one week and then not the next. So trying to get a pipeline established of feed that every day, there's something to put into the pen. That's the challenge.
JG: And not just the zero waste component of our business, but also cover crops. Part of what we're doing is rotating crops. We don't want to monocrop sunflowers; some of the cover crops that we are looking into have the opportunity to be feed for livestock as well.
We don't want to monocrop sunflowers and some of the cover crops that we are looking into have the opportunity to be feed for livestock as well.
BK: Each crop needs to be a cash crop because we can't afford to spend money for water on something that doesn't make any money. I mean, sometimes you have to. Because we don't use any herbicides or pesticides, we need to keep the ground covered to protect the soil, get ready for the next crop, and keep the weeds out. But if we could sell that cover crop for something, why not? So where we're at right now is trying to figure out, what, in the microclimate where we are, with this one farm, what crops like to be there, that the pigs like to eat. And if not the pigs, it could be cattle, or goats or human food.
When I did the original calculations years ago to how much press cake would we generate with, you know, a massive amount of biodiesel production in the state. I was at a feed conference on the Big Island and there were half a dozen of the biggest ranches in the state that I was chatting with. They didn't think we could grow enough feed to make any difference for them. Meanwhile, I'm saying, I'm worried you guys can't take all the feed that I can grow.
We scratched it out, and I said, here's how much I could make. And they're like, Oh my goodness, that's a lot. Um, I said, can you take that? And they said double that and we can use it. That's maybe enough to supply three times the current level of the cattle industry right now. And they said, we used to be bigger, but we don't have any feed. It would bring cattle back if we had that much feed.
It's all about lining up these pieces and making sure that everybody's onboard. We’ve got to work it slowly. It'll take them a while to build up, like it'll take us a while to build up. And then we have to trust each other because if you build up a big herd of cattle and then the feed goes away, you're in a bind. Or if we make lots of oil and press cake and the cattle are not there, we are in a bind.
We need to build these more resilient jobs in a diversity of areas. Agriculture is going to be one of them. Energy's going to be one of them, for sure. What we've been fed for the last 20, 30 years is don't even bother- tourism is what we do in Hawaii.
Bob King photographed by Angie Diaz
I love this repeating storyline of partnership, trust, and coming together. Nobody's getting through this all by themselves. What is your vision for the future? Are there positive things that have happened in this time period that you want to see stay in place as we move through?
BK: I think one of the pieces that people got out of the pandemic was that we can be okay without tourists. It used to be, that was the end of the world and everybody would leave the islands but you know, it wasn't. It wasn't fun. It wasn't easy. But in fact, there's a lot of work here even without tourism. Now it's a matter of how do we bring the correct number of tourists back so that we're not just wiping our environment out with massive amounts of tourism. We need to build these more resilient jobs in a diversity of areas. Agriculture is going to be one of them. Energy's going to be one of them, for sure. What we've been fed for the last 20, 30 years is don't even bother- tourism is what we do in Hawaii. That is what Hawaii does, just get over it. And well, I think we got over it and learned there are some other things to do here.
Just on the petroleum side, when you spend a dollar on gasoline, about 85 cents leaves the state, versus when you spend a dollar on biodiesel only about 15 cents left the state. So it's jobs, but also the thing about agriculture and local energy production is that those dollars are rolling around in our community. I'm sorry, but I'm not as concerned about jobs in Saudi Arabia as I am about jobs in Hawaii. We need to start thinking about who we want to support and, okay, so it costs you a little bit more, but part of that's going to come right back in your own pocket because it's going around our community.
When you look at the amount of money we send out of the state just for energy every year, it is something like $4 or $5 billion a year. Break that down into hundred thousand dollar-a-year jobs and let's pay our farmers awesome. That is a lot of jobs.
When you look at the amount of money we send out of the state just for energy every year, it is something like $4 or $5 billion a year. Break that down into hundred thousand dollar-a-year jobs and let's pay our farmers awesome. That is a lot of jobs. Now, if you add another $3- $4 billion a year on food. That's a lot of additional jobs. If we could pair tourism back and push jobs into these other pieces, for one thing, the tourists are gonna love it because all of a sudden they’ve got this vibrant, local food and energy and can feel really good about coming here. And then, if the tourists don't come because of the next pandemic or whatever's going to happen, it'‘ll be okay, because that's only a portion of our economy.
Sunflower harvest at Pacific Biodiesel, photography by Angie Diaz
Joy did you want to add anything in there?
JG: The whole diversification of the economy, and how we're making that impact when people do visit is where agritourism comes back in. People can come here and see what we're doing in particular, and how local, clean fuel production started here on Maui. We're energy security, we're food security. If you want to talk about energy storage, it’s these beautiful yellow sunflowers, and then the fuel that's made is also energy storage. And then keeping waste out of the landfill. There are so many components and benefits to the local economy in this ag and energy story. The story of what we're doing should be told- people can feel good about this, both visitors and residents. When residents learn about this, people that are working for the resorts that are using our products, or Maui Brewing Company, who is using our fuel in their generators, they're proud to be able to say they support our company.
We all have to step up and really support these local companies who are making these local products in a state that imports 90% of everything.
It's exciting to be a part of that because it's not just some ‘what if we could do this’ concept on a whiteboard- we ARE doing this. We just need to keep the drumbeat going about supporting local. It might be a little more expensive, but we all have to step up and really support these local companies who are making these local products in a state that imports 90% of everything. We're making things here that are important for our community. We've got to support that and stand up for it.
How do you see this crisis as being described in the history books of the future?
BK: I'd like to think that it was when we started to balance globalization and local, appreciating the pluses and minuses of both. I don't know if it will. I'd also like to think that it's made people rethink where they live and how they do business. I mean, it certainly has been for us. You know, when I used to travel every week to another island and then often to the mainland, and I think for my generation we told ourselves about the importance of face-to-face communication. It's just not the same when you're texting somebody or talking on the phone as it is face to face. That personal side of the business is really important and it's really fun, but I haven't been off the island, but once in the last 13, 14 months, and I realized that my company does fine, but we're doing more of this [Zoom]. We still get the eye to eye, but we're on Zoom instead of driving down to the airport, going through security, flying to another island, getting the rental car, driving out to the plant… I mean, how much time did I waste?
Bob King at a Pacific Biodiesel sunflower harvest, photography by Angie Diaz
We're seeing, in Hawaii, and it’s going to be interesting how this plays out, is that a lot of people that were on the mainland, working their jobs and living in expensive places like Seattle or San Francisco or New York, are saying, ‘Oh, wait a minute. I could do my job just as well from Maui as I could from my apartment in Seattle. Cause I don't go down to the office anyway.’ A lot of companies are doing the same thing- work wherever you want. So I think Maui will become a remote working hub. And again, maybe there's some good, there's going to be some growing pains with that but it could be another diversity in the economy, as opposed to just tourism.
JG: If I could PS what Bob was saying. I think balance is a great word. I think it's kind of poetic that this would happen in the year “2020”, where we could “see” the impact we were making. When else could we have pressed this big pause button on everything? And we could see the environmental impacts- when people aren't stomping on our coral reefs, tens of thousands of people every day, how nature can recover quickly. All the creatures come back in and the food chain, the marine ecosystems come back to life. What can we do to restart this in a healthy way for people and the planet? It's up to us. Do we want to just forget about things and kind of quickly go back to the norm? Or are we going to really stand behind some changes and take action?
What can we do to restart this in a healthy way for people and the planet? It's up to us. Do we want to just forget about things and kind of quickly go back to the norm? Or are we going to really stand behind some changes and take action?
Sunflower harvest at Pacific Biodiesel, photography by Angie Diaz
A year into this, I’ve seen a lot of bandaid fixes. Academics have pointed out these holes in the food system for decades. Okay, it happened- now can we fix it? Thank you for verbalizing that in such a beautiful way because it's now or never, you know?
What can people do to help build a resilient and secure food future for Hawai’i?
JG: #supportlocal Part of what you're doing and what we love to do when we have the opportunity is getting this story out there in a way that connects emotionally with audiences. I can't tell you how many times people have come to our farm and listen to our story and they say, I had no idea this company even existed. We have to really keep working to keep the stories out there and let people know how they can participate.
So yes, it is buying local, including this local fuel that is better for the environment. It’s supporting local farmers, supporting local food producers, standing up for legislation, it's giving testimony, and showing others how simple it is to do that. Remote testimony has made it easy for people. You can dial in and give a video testimony easily and it's important to do that and let your voice be heard because otherwise, they’ll believe nobody cared that much about it to step up and make a difference or speak up. Now's our time to do that.
It's not hard to figure out that Iowa is a big ag state and they spend a large portion of their state's revenue on supporting farming. Hawai’i is not a big ag state anymore and we spend less than half of one percent.
BK: Also, the forces at work are not just the farmers. There was a system in place before this that would love to be back where they were in power in sales. Whether it's other states or other countries, they know they know how to market. It's not hard to figure out that Iowa is a big ag state and they spend a large portion of their state's revenue on supporting farming. Hawai’i is not a big ag state anymore and we spend less than half of one percent.
The point is there are a lot of mainland entities that are fine with that. They like that, and they do want you to buy our food and buy our energy from imported sources. We've got to go back to the future and go back to remembering that there's nothing that can't be done here. Hawai’i supported this many people without even technology before. Now we're going to have to do it a little differently though. Let's use new technologies to get our farmers competitive so that they can make a solid family wage farming, and then people will farm. You can't ask farmers to work for nothing or because it's a good idea. They have families. They have their own needs. I hope we can figure this out. But what we're talking about is a thousand or many thousands of individual farmers adding to this big collective food production that we could have here instead of three farmers, which is what we used to have. And those three, you know, the big farmers, are not so into it.
Just like you said, if you're going to grow the cover crop you need to know that it's going to be consumed as animal feed, we also need to be building up those taste buds from a ground-level because we've got generations of people who are used to eating this other food. It's not like we're going to make ulu Cheetos.
BK: But we do need to think about what people buy. So that's not a bad idea.
My neighbor sells pork. He just wants to sell pork. But what about bacon? What about ham?
I’m pretty sure bacon is illegal on Maui. We’ve been joking that a “legalize bacon” campaign could be heroic.
Bob King & Joy Galatro during Pacific Biodiesel sunflower harvest in Waikapū, Maui. Photo by Angie Diaz
There's a lot of FSMA rules and regulations, but even nationally, a lot of the value in agriculture really is after the farm. Farmers get it done by doing massive amounts of low-value crops. So, corn is worth let’s say $2 a bushel, but you put it in a box of Cheerios and all of a sudden it's worth $15 a pound. Well, how did that happen? It's the presentation. And we can't miss the fact that it'd be nice to adapt to people's taste buds. I think certainly there's a long way to go, to get people to appreciate getting stuff fresh from the farm and making a meal out of it. On the other side, we've got to select a few pieces that we can upgrade and do some value-added and that'll help us out too.
I live next to a piggery, that sometimes offers a pig head for sale, and it's a very small group of people that want to take a whole pig head. They partnered with a chef and made jowl bacon with lavender and chocolate and I never would have taken a pig head for 10 bucks, but I spent $65 on these thin little pieces of it. It's about making it where somebody like me that's open to it could walk th’rough that door a little bit.
JG: It’s that collaboration and innovation.
BK: Chris Speere, from the UHMC Maui Food Innovation Center , he was out at the farm recently, looking at a puree machine that we had. That's what he's doing, now that he retired from the college and he says, “you’ve got to put these things together for people.” So here's what we do. You have this commodity that the farmers have got too much of, and you've got these consumers who don't like it in that form. Let's upgrade it, throw a few spices in there, slice it, dice it, puree, whatever, take it, and put it into a form that people are going to say 'gimme a lot of it.’
Bob King at a Pacific Biodiesel sunflower harvest, photography by Angie Diaz
From me, on the mechanical side, some of the innovation is going to need to happen around how we make these value-added ag products on a small scale, and picking which piece to do first, because we can't do it all. It's hundreds of millions of dollars to put in processing for everything. But if we get one winner, then we go to the next one and then the next one.
You talked about one, the slaughterhouse, well, that's a value-added processing plant. We better get one not only just for cattle, but for pigs and goats and, you know, possibly deer, if we can figure that one out.
But, but what if we were to grow rice here? I could plant rice; I could grow rice. There's nowhere to process it. Okay, well throw on another million dollars for rice processing. And then what about oats? What about making bread?
It's not a quick road, but it's a solid one in that once you have these things, they last generations and, and then we can make some substantial changes.
We lost our last bread mill and flour mill in Hawai’i a few years ago. So there's no flour mill, but then again, shouldn't we go all the way to the past? Like they do in Italy and France and other places where no self-respecting restaurant doesn't have a flour mill in the back? They're going to grind their product fresh every day and then make their own pasta every day. But it's money, infrastructure, and training. It's not a quick road, but it's a solid one in that once you have these things, they last generations and, and then we can make some substantial changes. So I hope we do that. I hope that's where we're heading.
It's not lost on me, living in Haʻikū and buying my coffee this morning in a defunct pineapple cannery, that we have the skeletons of the old processing facilities around us. Is it plausible that multiple industries could come together in the future to share one facility?
It would be nice to do a farm hub area where the County or the State would put in infrastructure. Some of these pieces can be shared, like a big, solar-powered refrigeration warehouse where you can just rent it by the square foot, however much space you need. And that's where small farmers can do something like hold potatoes for months and months when they can't afford to do that on their own. Set up proper kitchen facilities in units, that you can just rent out a unit for however long you need. Those are really good ideas. So it's not quite a co-op, because an entity would own it and maintain it and have full authority to fix it and repair it, but everybody gets to come in and use it as they need. You don't have to make a profit on it if the County or the State was willing to support that.
Photo by Angie Diaz
Last but not least, who have you been inspired by during this time? Anyone you want to shout out?
BK: For our overall company, the blessing to us this last year has been the support of Hawai’i Electric Industries. They didn't have to choose us. They didn't have to continue expanding their production with us, but they did. And when the price of diesel fuel got super cheap (when the airplanes quit flying and you couldn't give away diesel fuel) we said, “We really need you to buy what you were buying.” And they said, “Okay, that's fine. We're in. And in fact, if you have more, we'll take it. We're going to make it work.” They wanted to keep us going. From a place of really being concerned about our company and our employees and making sure that we're there in the future, that was very impressive. They really stepped up for us.
Bob King & Joy Galatro during Pacific Biodiesel sunflower harvest in Waikapū, Maui. Photo by Angie Diaz
JG: It was inspiring to see how our community exuded what aloha is really about. When it came down to it and restaurants were hurting, those chefs put on their hats and started cooking for kūpuna and those in need. How quickly systems were put in place for us to take care of each other. I want that to continue; Pop-Up Mākeke needs to be Permanent Mākeke. It came about because of the Merrie Monarch festival cancellation. We participated and it was a tremendous promotion for made-in Hawai’i products. We need more of that.
It was inspiring to see how our community exuded what aloha is really about.
If we could have these shared resources to help small businesses get their products outside of Hawaii, even in-State. I hope that sense of collaboration and cooperation moves forward because a lot got done pretty quickly in the midst of a lot of negativity and devastation caused by the pandemic, but it also showed us that we could get creative- we need to maintain that.