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www.SugarProducer.com 21 A NEW LEAF. THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE YOU CAN EARN. SESVanderHave.com/US 1717 NAR VDH_ad 8x5_r1.indd 1 11/13/15 9:43 AM 155715SESVan12v.indd 1 4/6/16 10:51 AM Sugarbeet Puller Rings & Wheels DEALERS WANTED • Complete Wheels • Spade Wheels • Rubber Flails • Grab Roll Spirals • Steel Flails Dos Palos, CA 93620 (209) 392-6103 www.hclmachineworks.com They created a new, blended English that was a mix of different languages. The new population adopted the parts of the different cultures they liked. They adopted foods and holidays. They married and created new families. Cultures remained distinct but from the laborers attracted by sugar plantations grew a new, national Hawaiian culture that is unlike anything else in America. "A melting pot of all these different cultures kind of taking all the best of everything," Volner says. The legacy of diversity and acceptance that started in the cane fields lives on today. And there's a closeness as a result. "Most of our people were extremely supportive, not afraid to pass on institutional knowledge…not afraid to express their opinions because at the end of the day they only wanted to see this place be successful," he says. It's something he's going to miss as the company transitions into a new life and moves away from sugar production after low prices and foreign subsidies made that business untenable. The last sugar operation in Hawaii officially closed its doors on Dec. 12, ushering in the end of an era. In 1870, partners Samuel Thomas Alexander and Henry Perrine Baldwin founded a plantation on 570 acres in Upcountry Maui. After merging with Claus Spreckels' Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company, the plantation eventually grew to more than 36,000 acres. Benjamin said the most important factor in the company's decision to close was relatively flat sugar prices globally over the last 40 years. Domestically, adjusted for inflation, prices have gone down. "Meanwhile energy costs, labor costs,