“I’m particularly interested in working to help our Maui County farmers work better with the county administration, such as Planning, Water and Real Property Tax departments, so we all receive the support the county has enacted for us,” Bobbie Patnode said.

KULA — For the new two-year term, Maui County Farm Bureau retained some current board members and elected some new ones. New board members include Bobbie Patnode and Jayson Watts.

Patnode is the “mom partner” in Patnode Family Farm together with husband Jack and son Ben. The Patnodes have been farming commercially on Maui since 2012.

Their farm on Crater Road grows mostly root vegetables such as Japanese and Korean daikon, beets, watermelon radish, onions and more, all using organic methods.

Being up high (3,700 feet), they are able to grow fruits like peaches and apples, with close to 50 fruit trees.

Bobbie grew up in the Northeast, where her father’s family farmed for generations, and met fellow farmer Jack in Minnesota. Bobbie is also a board member of the Kula Community Association, vice-chair of the Police Commission and a member of the Ag Working Group.

Watts serves as director of external affairs and strategic initiatives at Mahi Pono LLC. The farming company aims to transform approximately 41,000 acres of vacant sugar cane land into a thriving, diversified agriculture hub in Maui’s central plain.

A graduate of Baldwin High School and the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Watts has a history of building sustainable community development initiatives and public-private partnerships.

Before joining Mahi Pono in 2019, he served as a special assistant to the director of the Hawaii State Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, and as senior advisor to Hawaii Lieutenant Governors Shan Tsutsui and Doug Chin.

Prior to that, he served as deputy sergeant-at-arms of the Hawaii State Senate; as legislative director to Tsutsui; and as a congressional intern and staff assistant to the late U.S. Representative Patsy T. Mink.

He is from and currently resides in Wailuku.

Warren K. Watanabe is the executive director for the Maui County Farm Bureau.

The Board of Directors meet on the last Wednesday of each month. General membership meetings are held in March, June, September and December.

The board includes the following members: President Kyle Caires, Vice President Joshua Shyloh Stafford-Jones, Secretary Jayson Watts, Treasurer Tim Stevens, and Directors Rodrigo “Rudy” Balala, Brendan Balthazar, James “Kimo” Falconer, Teena Rasmussen, Heidi Watanabe and Bobbie Patnode.

Maui County Farm Bureau is a grassroots 501(c)(5) organization of farms and ranch families, agricultural industries and associated organizations dedicated to supporting agriculture in Maui County.

It is affiliated with both the statewide Hawaii Farm Bureau and the American Farm Bureau Federation.

For more information, visit www.mauicountyfarmbureau.org.