Hi Everyone, a lot of you may know me as a farmer and vendor of high quality Hawaiian kava. I am also the President of the Hawaii 'Awa Council and the Director of the 'Awa Protection Committee as well as the Director of the 'Awa Advisory Task Force.
The Hawaii 'Awa Council was created to help local farmers with problems growing kava and marketing kava, we also help with Education, and all research dealing with kava. The HAC also actively protect the ancient Hawaiian stands of 'Awa because they are a cultural resource and even a historical treasure. They are part of Hawaiian history, because a Hawaiian's planted these old stands of 'Awa hundreds of years ago. Since 'Awa can not grow by seeds it is cloned and every old kava plant had to be planted by a Hawaiian and has continued to grow for all these years.
We also strongly promote the traditional use of kava and the traditional kava, not kava that is used for ceremony or medicinally like the Tudei varieties.
In the beginning of things with kava here in Hawaii there was not much going on. If you wanted to get a kava plant you would have a hard time doing so,
If you wanted to find out information on kava that also would be hard to find. This is why the Association for Hawaiian 'Awa was formed.
It was formed to collect and preserve Hawaiian kava cultivars and varieties and also to research kava and get the newest and most up to date information on kava.
The Association of Hawaiian Awa or AHA as it is called started doing that and they still do that to this day.
There primary goal is research and the preservation of the Hawaiian kava.
After a while it became clear that there was more that needed to be done with the Hawaiian kava. There were a lot more people getting into growing kava and
they did not know where to get the kava cuttings or how to plant them or anything really, this is when AHA decided to create a new kava organization and
that is how the Hawaii Awa Council was born. We are taking over where the AHA left off and we are helping and are a compliment to AHA.
We do all that AHA does and more. We work side by side with AHA in researching kava and we do things that AHA does not do. We help farmers with what ever
help they might need and we have kava symposiums and meetings to help inform people about Hawaiian Kava or 'Awa as it is called here in Hawaii.
So now the Hawaii Awa Council or HAC does it all, we do research with top scientists and kava leaders from all over the world, we educate people about kava
and preservation of Hawaiian Awa and it cultural and medicinal values. As the President of AHA "Jerry Konanui" said--- "'Awa is a plant that helps people"
It is that simple and we should never loose sight of that fact. Kava is not a drug or any kind of legal high, it is a medicinal plant that really helps people.
Personally I would rather take a natural herb like kava than a Pharmaceutical drug that has all kinds of side effects.
So the Hawaii Awa Council is here to Establish 'Awa as the worlds premium kava, there are of course other good kava in other growing areas such as Vanuatu and other places
but they have problems of there own, pest and disease, unwanted kava cultivars like the tudei kava but Hawaii has only good noble kava, no tudei and I am talking strictly
about Hawaiian kava, not Isa or Iwi, that is not Hawaiian.
Research shows that the kavalactones in the different Hawaiian varieties combine to make a superb Kava drink.
Each variety provides a somewhat different effect. We use this research to develop "vintage quality" 'Awa promoting connoisseurship around our Hawaiian varieties the way
the wine industry does.
That is why we have studied kavalactone content and chemotypes in all our Hawaiian varieties, it all kinds of conditions and ages, we have studied
the kavalactone content, the chemotype of the lateral roots, the stump, the stalks and the leaves. We never use the stalks or the leaves as this was never used in the kava drinks
and tests have shown that the stalks and the leaves have a different kavalactone content, for example the leaves have only 2 kavalactones, the DHK and the DHM, it does not have any
of the other kavalactones. With this information we can grow the best 'Awa plant to have the best kavalactone content and chemptype.
The HAC also supports research, we work with the Association of Hawaiian Awa (AHA) to pursue agricultural research and funding from government, corporate and foundation sources.
This research has provided a lot of very useful information, with the help of people like Dr. Lebot and other kava scientist and leaders, it is thanks to them that we know
all that we do about kava at this point and there is still so much more to learn. As you know we have just found out that there is something in kava that kills cancer, and in such a
a way that the results of the study was astounding, it seemed like the results were wrong because of the high percentage of success rate of the cancer dying, over 90% and that is amazing.
The studies continue and the Hawaii Awa Council will be here to report about these studies and even provide the kava for testing and for use in there studies.
The Hawaii Awa Council is here to help anyone who wants to know about kava, anyone who wants to learn about kava and the chemistry of kava and any studies that have been done and will be done.
As you can see by some of my posts that there is so much information so do not be scared to ask, I will answer any questions and provide research studies to back it up, if I do not know the
answer then I will contact one of the kava experts like Dr. Lebot or other experts so that you can get the best an dmost qualified answer to your question.
The Hawaii Awa Council also started a task force many years ago to stop the illegal harvesting of the wild Hawaiian 'Awa patch because these are in effect a historical treasure.
Since kava can not be produced by seed it can only be made by cuttings. This means that all the giant Hawaiian awa in the wild is a historical Hawaiian treasure, it was planted by
A Hawaiian many many years ago.
These ancient awa plants have gotten so big that I have seen some that were bigger than a full size truck and even bigger than that. We are talking about
1 plant being that big. There have been a lot of plants that were stolen and they can never be replaced to there original glory but HAC keeps collections of each variety of Hawaiian kava
so that we can replant them in the wild, I have done a lot of this and checked on them through the years and I am happy to say they are all doing very well.
With out the efforts of AHA and HAC we would have lost most or close to all of the Hawaiian awa plants.
It is interesting to note that in the late 1990's people in the south Pacific would hear about kava the size of a car or a truck and they were amazed and some did not believe it, this is because
kava over there has to deal with dye back, pest and other disease. In Hawaii we never had to deal with that until recently but the kava that is way in the back of isolated valleys are still
protected from these pests and disease I am so happy that I personally got to see these giant kava plants and helped to in replanting and stopping the illegal harvesting of the old Hawaiian awa patches.
One things we did to stop the illegal harvesting of the Hawaiian kava was to hike far into the remote places to document the kava patches, take GPS readings, pictures and notes about the size and look
of the kava and then we put micro chips into the kava in several places so that we can track the kava if it were stolen, the micro chip had all the information to tell us where it came from and other
information. This was instrumental in stopping the theft of the Hawaiian kava. As the head of this task force, with the help of Department of Land and Natural Resources conservation officers, Police
officers as well as the forestry division and private land owners, we are proud to say that the theft has stopped and the ancient 'Awa is safe.
I hope this helps to explain about the Hawaii Awa Council and what we are here for so please feel free to ask any questions at all. I will also be posting any new and exciting things
dealing with kava. Thanks and aloha nui loa.
Chris Allen
President
Hawaii Awa Council
The Hawaii 'Awa Council was created to help local farmers with problems growing kava and marketing kava, we also help with Education, and all research dealing with kava. The HAC also actively protect the ancient Hawaiian stands of 'Awa because they are a cultural resource and even a historical treasure. They are part of Hawaiian history, because a Hawaiian's planted these old stands of 'Awa hundreds of years ago. Since 'Awa can not grow by seeds it is cloned and every old kava plant had to be planted by a Hawaiian and has continued to grow for all these years.
We also strongly promote the traditional use of kava and the traditional kava, not kava that is used for ceremony or medicinally like the Tudei varieties.
In the beginning of things with kava here in Hawaii there was not much going on. If you wanted to get a kava plant you would have a hard time doing so,
If you wanted to find out information on kava that also would be hard to find. This is why the Association for Hawaiian 'Awa was formed.
It was formed to collect and preserve Hawaiian kava cultivars and varieties and also to research kava and get the newest and most up to date information on kava.
The Association of Hawaiian Awa or AHA as it is called started doing that and they still do that to this day.
There primary goal is research and the preservation of the Hawaiian kava.
After a while it became clear that there was more that needed to be done with the Hawaiian kava. There were a lot more people getting into growing kava and
they did not know where to get the kava cuttings or how to plant them or anything really, this is when AHA decided to create a new kava organization and
that is how the Hawaii Awa Council was born. We are taking over where the AHA left off and we are helping and are a compliment to AHA.
We do all that AHA does and more. We work side by side with AHA in researching kava and we do things that AHA does not do. We help farmers with what ever
help they might need and we have kava symposiums and meetings to help inform people about Hawaiian Kava or 'Awa as it is called here in Hawaii.
So now the Hawaii Awa Council or HAC does it all, we do research with top scientists and kava leaders from all over the world, we educate people about kava
and preservation of Hawaiian Awa and it cultural and medicinal values. As the President of AHA "Jerry Konanui" said--- "'Awa is a plant that helps people"
It is that simple and we should never loose sight of that fact. Kava is not a drug or any kind of legal high, it is a medicinal plant that really helps people.
Personally I would rather take a natural herb like kava than a Pharmaceutical drug that has all kinds of side effects.
So the Hawaii Awa Council is here to Establish 'Awa as the worlds premium kava, there are of course other good kava in other growing areas such as Vanuatu and other places
but they have problems of there own, pest and disease, unwanted kava cultivars like the tudei kava but Hawaii has only good noble kava, no tudei and I am talking strictly
about Hawaiian kava, not Isa or Iwi, that is not Hawaiian.
Research shows that the kavalactones in the different Hawaiian varieties combine to make a superb Kava drink.
Each variety provides a somewhat different effect. We use this research to develop "vintage quality" 'Awa promoting connoisseurship around our Hawaiian varieties the way
the wine industry does.
That is why we have studied kavalactone content and chemotypes in all our Hawaiian varieties, it all kinds of conditions and ages, we have studied
the kavalactone content, the chemotype of the lateral roots, the stump, the stalks and the leaves. We never use the stalks or the leaves as this was never used in the kava drinks
and tests have shown that the stalks and the leaves have a different kavalactone content, for example the leaves have only 2 kavalactones, the DHK and the DHM, it does not have any
of the other kavalactones. With this information we can grow the best 'Awa plant to have the best kavalactone content and chemptype.
The HAC also supports research, we work with the Association of Hawaiian Awa (AHA) to pursue agricultural research and funding from government, corporate and foundation sources.
This research has provided a lot of very useful information, with the help of people like Dr. Lebot and other kava scientist and leaders, it is thanks to them that we know
all that we do about kava at this point and there is still so much more to learn. As you know we have just found out that there is something in kava that kills cancer, and in such a
a way that the results of the study was astounding, it seemed like the results were wrong because of the high percentage of success rate of the cancer dying, over 90% and that is amazing.
The studies continue and the Hawaii Awa Council will be here to report about these studies and even provide the kava for testing and for use in there studies.
The Hawaii Awa Council is here to help anyone who wants to know about kava, anyone who wants to learn about kava and the chemistry of kava and any studies that have been done and will be done.
As you can see by some of my posts that there is so much information so do not be scared to ask, I will answer any questions and provide research studies to back it up, if I do not know the
answer then I will contact one of the kava experts like Dr. Lebot or other experts so that you can get the best an dmost qualified answer to your question.
The Hawaii Awa Council also started a task force many years ago to stop the illegal harvesting of the wild Hawaiian 'Awa patch because these are in effect a historical treasure.
Since kava can not be produced by seed it can only be made by cuttings. This means that all the giant Hawaiian awa in the wild is a historical Hawaiian treasure, it was planted by
A Hawaiian many many years ago.
These ancient awa plants have gotten so big that I have seen some that were bigger than a full size truck and even bigger than that. We are talking about
1 plant being that big. There have been a lot of plants that were stolen and they can never be replaced to there original glory but HAC keeps collections of each variety of Hawaiian kava
so that we can replant them in the wild, I have done a lot of this and checked on them through the years and I am happy to say they are all doing very well.
With out the efforts of AHA and HAC we would have lost most or close to all of the Hawaiian awa plants.
It is interesting to note that in the late 1990's people in the south Pacific would hear about kava the size of a car or a truck and they were amazed and some did not believe it, this is because
kava over there has to deal with dye back, pest and other disease. In Hawaii we never had to deal with that until recently but the kava that is way in the back of isolated valleys are still
protected from these pests and disease I am so happy that I personally got to see these giant kava plants and helped to in replanting and stopping the illegal harvesting of the old Hawaiian awa patches.
One things we did to stop the illegal harvesting of the Hawaiian kava was to hike far into the remote places to document the kava patches, take GPS readings, pictures and notes about the size and look
of the kava and then we put micro chips into the kava in several places so that we can track the kava if it were stolen, the micro chip had all the information to tell us where it came from and other
information. This was instrumental in stopping the theft of the Hawaiian kava. As the head of this task force, with the help of Department of Land and Natural Resources conservation officers, Police
officers as well as the forestry division and private land owners, we are proud to say that the theft has stopped and the ancient 'Awa is safe.
I hope this helps to explain about the Hawaii Awa Council and what we are here for so please feel free to ask any questions at all. I will also be posting any new and exciting things
dealing with kava. Thanks and aloha nui loa.
Chris Allen
President
Hawaii Awa Council
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I would love to hear more about the ancient stands of 'Awa when you get a chance.
