By the 1870s, Walter M. Gibson had acquired most of the land on the island for ranching. Prior to this he had used it as a Mormon colony. In 1899, his daughter and son-in-law formed Maunalei Sugar Company, headquartered in Keomuku on the windward coast downstream from Maunalei Valley. However the company lasted only until 1901.[5] Nevertheless, many Native Hawaiians continued to live along the less arid windward coast, supporting themselves by ranching and fishing until pineapples displaced ranching.[6]
In 1922, James Dole, the president of Hawaiian Pineapple Company (later renamed Dole Food Company), bought the entire island of Lānaʻi and developed a large portion of it into the world's largest pineapple plantation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanai
Hawaii's agricultural economy has taken a massive decline from it's heyday. Sugar is only still grown on Maui, and that's not exactly booming, coffee is still doing really well, and fruit and vegetables is doing pretty good; but there's still a lot of unused land, mostly in places where water is scarce and expensive to buy.
The Ka'u biofuel project on the Big Island:
http://www.researchviews.com/energy/clean-technology/biofuels/DealReport.aspx?sector=Biofuels&DealID=170900
http://www.westhawaiitoday.com/sections/news/local-news/legislature-bails-out-biofuel-project.html
The "Big Wind" project:
http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2011/11/16/13625-up-in-the-air-big-wind-divides-lanai-community/
Hawaii can and should go almost green in a major way!
= new reply since forum marked as read