Agriculture and unemployment are nearly inseparable for Molokai, considering that its largest employers are biotech companies Monsanto and Mycogen.

While two-term Maui County Council Member Stacy Helm Crivello sees no problem with the seed companies working alongside non-genetically modified organism farmers, political newcomer Keani Rawlins-Fernandez would prefer it be eliminated and the island returned to its “roots” in organic and pesticide-free farming.

Unemployment on the island reached 7.5 percent in September — more than double the countywide average, according to the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. The two seed companies employ more than 200 workers on Molokai, which has a population of 7,500 residents.

Both candidates will face off in Tuesday’s general election and lay their claim to the council’s Friendly Isle residency seat.

Rawlins-Fernandez is one of the younger candidates running, but she believes she provides a different generational perspective to the council. Born and raised on Molokai, she received a master’s degree in business administration as well as a degree in Native Hawaiian rights and environmental law.

She believes she brings “youth, energy and enthusiasm,” and could build upon a “lot of good things” Crivello has done for the island. However, she said there has not been a “very good transition” from older generations to new and that she would represent someone younger residents “could relate to.”

“I think for too long our kupuna have not really been passing the torch,” Rawlins-Fernandez said.

She said building Molokai’s agricultural industry would help address unemployment, but she is looking at diversification rather than mono-cropping. She wants to invest more county dollars in “value-added” crops as well as medicinal crops.

She also hopes to build upon a cohort program that is “growing farmers to be better business-minded” on the island, teaching residents how to strategically grow and sell crops for higher prices. She said she has friends who sell non-GMO papayas at a premium and hopes young people who have gone away for school will return and create more jobs in farming.

“Agriculture is the biggest industry on Molokai, and it had been before tourism,” she said. “I want to say it can be again. It’s more of a sustainable industry than tourism and less volatile.”

Molokai is known as ‘aina momona, or “land of abundance,” and Rawlins-Fernandez said she believes the community has protected its resources well through self-regulation. She said the island is interested in farming and prefers organic, pesticide-free crops.

She claims local support for GMO farming is tied to residents’ fears of losing their jobs, but she argues that it is only a short-term benefit compared to long-term health and environmental concerns. She said residents were in “survival mode” after Molokai Ranch shut down in the 2000s, and they found jobs with the seed companies so they could support their families.

“I’ve been painted as the anti-GMO candidate that will shut down the seed companies and result in total job loss for these people, but that’s not who I am at all,” Rawlins-Fernandez said. “I went away to get my degree in law and business so I can help our community grow and develop and take care of the next generations by taking care of the environment.”

Crivello said she believes organic farmers can coexist with biotech companies, which are one of the few businesses that provide entry-level employment. She said the island can pursue diversified agriculture, but it needs residents to “step up” and “change the culture to work in the entrepreneurship world.”

“We can get creative,” she said. “We have many, many plans that identify some economic engines, but it has to come together where the community says we can work with this. You’re not going to see investors come to an island that does not support any kind of economic infusion.

“I say it has to come from the community because too often certain small segments of people are heard, but that’s not the whole community. It’s a voice media tends to hype up a bit,” she said.

Crivello maintains the push against GMOs has been “confined to a couple voices” and noted that Molokai voted 63 percent against the moratorium on GMO crops in Maui County. She said she prefers to say the corn industry employs “nearly 300 families” because their jobs support an entire family.

“I don’t see why the non-GMO or organic can’t be compatible with the conventional,” she said. “Out in Mahana side at the ag parks we have organic farms and further ways down we have the corn industry and they’re good neighbors.”

While she personally doesn’t farm, her brothers and father grow crops and understand the difficulties of running a business. She said her brother has found success selling tea value-added, but he reminds her that he still works full time.

“You got to love it,” she said. “I grew up in homestead farming, and it’s a matter of loving what you do. You have your challenges, but if you love it you’ll put up with it.”

Molokai has no shortage of land to farm on with some homesteaders living on more than 30 acres of agricultural land. Crivello has pushed for funding at the Molokai Kuha’o Business Center to foster sustainable businesses that could utilize those lands.

She said she recently retrieved money allocated by the state Legislature that had been sitting in the county coffers since the 1980s after the plantations had shut down. The money was supposed to help displaced employees start and continue farming, so Crivello had it amended to be used for food safety regulations.

Seeking her third consecutive two-year term, Crivello said she values the relationships she has built with her colleagues on the council and in the community. She is one of the founding members of the Molokai Land Trust, a group dedicated to protecting and restoring roughly 1,700 acres, and the East Molokai Watershed Partnership, which covers about 33,000 acres of the island’s native flora, fauna and ecosystems.

She said her experience has served her well, and she has the “dirt underneath (her) fingernails” to show for it.

“I bring the pulse of my community,” she said. “If you were to check my records and involvement in my community — it’s deep.”

* Chris Sugidono can be reached at csugidono@mauinews.com.

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Stacy Helm Crivello*

Age: 70

Birthplace: Hoolehua, Molokai

Residence: Kalamaula, Molokai

Occupation: Maui County Council member, since 2013

Work experience: Executive director, Hale Hookupa’a Drug Treatment Center; retired Verizon Telecommunications island manager, Molokai and Lanai

Education: College of Commerce; Molokai High School; Maui Community College

Community service: Molokai Land Trust, board of directors, 2008-12; Ke Aupuni Lokahi, board president, 2008-12;  Kalamaula Homesteaders Association, board of directors, 2008-13; Na Puu Wai Hawaiian Health Systems, board of directors, 2009-13; Maui County Fire and Public Safety Commission chairwoman

Family: Four children

Keani Rawlins-Fernandez

Age: 33

Birthplace: Hawaii

Residence: Kaunakakai

Occupation: Project coordinator at the Hale Ho’omalu Women’s Shelter on Molokai

Education: Juris doctorate degree and certificates in Native Hawaiian rights and environmental law, William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii at Manoa; master’s degree in business administration, Shidler College of Business, University of Hawaii; bachelor’s degree in public relations, Hawaii Pacific University; graduate, Molokai High and Intermediate School

Community service: Chairwoman, Student Bar Association, Legislative Working Group on Access to Justice, 2013-15; Moloka’i Canoe Racing Association representative, Moloka’i Canoe Club, 2012-present; co-chairperson of E Malama i ke Kai Committee, Punana Leo o Manoa, 2012-14; vice president, Law and Business Organization, 2012-15; captain (2014-15) of Etes Football Team, 2012-15

Family: Married, two children

* incumbent