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<\/a>Wild pigs<\/p>\nMarkoff, director of the P\u0101hoa Lava Zone Museum, and other community leaders have been investigating the potential of using feral pig meat in local cuisine and working to change the landscape of wild pig management in Puna.<\/p>\n
In April 2022, the nonprofit organization M\u0101lama O Puna began efforts to control the growing feral pig population, which is prevalent in some Puna subdivisions. The animals have caused significant damage to farms and gardens while in search of food.<\/p>\n
With funding from the County of Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s Department of Research and Development, the nonprofit constructed individual traps and acquired a pig brig for capturing multiple pigs. It also developed a list of hunters specific to the Puna area, and contributed to best hunting practices, a hunter\u2019s code of conduct, and an educational video on the M\u0101lama O Puna website.<\/a><\/p>\n M\u0101lama O Puna has successfully lobbied the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to change hunting rules in the Lower Puna forest reserves \u2014 Keau\u02bbohana, Nanawale and M\u0101lama K\u012b \u2014 to allow hunting seven days a week and to increase the bag limit from one to two pigs.<\/p>\n ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW AD<\/b>ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW AD<\/b><\/p>\n Despite these efforts, challenges remain in utilizing trapped pigs.<\/p>\n To address this, M\u0101lama O Puna Director Eileen O\u02bbHara, Markoff and County Councilmember Ashley Kierkiewicz created the 4-Point Feral Pig Control Project to develop a plan to promote consumption.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have excess supply on this island, and we need to ramp up demand,\u201d O\u02bbHara said. \u201cA lot of meat is being wasted, and we have many food-insecure communities. Newcomers do not value feral pigs for eating, yet it is valuable and nutritious. While some are not okay to eat, many of them are excellent.\u201d<\/p>\n Kierkiewicz, O\u02bbHara and Markoff are ultimately working together to streamline inspection processes for wild animals, including feral pigs. To combat the perception that wild animals are not fit to eat, they organized the first annual Smoke It Up Festival<\/a> in October, which brought together local chefs representing 13 kitchens to create dishes using feral pig meat.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone loves a competition, especially with a cook-off,\u201d said Kierkiewicz, who conceived the festival to encourage people to create a value-added product from the abundant but problematic feral pigs.<\/p>\n ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW AD<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cThe festival showed us that we can strengthen food security and use our problems as opportunities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Recipes included smoked meat carnitas tacos with homemade \u02bbulu tortillas and mole rojo from Chef Jess Devedorf of the Temple Bar, wild pork pastele with \u02bbulu and keawe smoked ash salt by Chef Jayson Kanekoa from Waikoloa Beach Marriott, and smoked meat\/smoked sausage mac and cheese bites, smoked meat dip and \u02bbulu smoked meat\/smoked sausage croquettes by the competition winners \u2013 Big Island Smokehouse.<\/p>\n The Hawai\u02bbi Community College\u2019s Culinary Arts program also participated and created three dishes \u2014 \u02bbono smoked pork with Portuguese pickled onions, pork mustard cabbage soup featuring mustard cabbage grown and harvested by the college\u2019s agriculture program, and Hawai\u02bbi homemade Scottish bangers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Smoke It Up Festival demonstrated the potential of the cuisine, and the dishes were outstanding,\u201d O\u02bbHara said. \u201cNow, we are in the process of publishing a cookbook with all the recipes.\u201d<\/p>\n The festival, funded by a Hawai\u02bbi Community Foundation grant and funds from Kierkiewicz, showcased how the meat can be used and the current limitations of processing feral pig meat in the county.<\/p>\n ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW AD<\/b><\/p>\n Markoff participated as a chef during the Smoke It Up Festival. He represented the P\u0101hoa Lava Zone\u2019s mobile kitchen, P\u014dhaku Cafe. The menu often includes USDA-inspected wild pork that was trapped on the Big Island by him or local trappers.<\/p>\n \u201cThis kind of head-to-head tasting is a fantastic way to highlight wild pork as a solution to the invasive problem in Hawai\u02bbi, especially if marketed as unique, premium and ecologically responsible,\u201d Markoff said. \u201cEvery chef elevated our local meats. Participating inspired me to experiment further with wild pork meat at P\u014dhaku.\u201d<\/p>\n For the festival, each chef used wild pig meat inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and processed by a USDA-certified butchery. But the only available facility open to working with the program is a mobile slaughter unit in West Hawai\u02bbi operated by the Hawai\u02bbi Island Meat Cooperative.<\/p>\n This required Markoff to transport pigs over the Daniel K. Inouye Highway to the west side and back with processed meat. O\u02bbHara said more processing facilities are needed for a larger-scale wild pork industry.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the takeaways from the Smoke It Up Festival was that it is not cost-effective to travel back and forth from Puna to Kona,\u201d O\u02bbHara said. \u201cTo be economically viable, there must be a mobile slaughter unit in Puna that can be set up at sites in other districts as well. In addition, the unit needs to process all types of domestically raised livestock.\u201d<\/p>\n But she said it is difficult to find locations that meet all the criteria of being on the electric grid, having access to county water and following all USDA food laws.<\/p>\n Another big hurdle for opening a mobile slaughter facility is meeting the requirements for wastewater and nutrient management by the state Department of Health. Changes need to be made at the state level before it is possible to use land to set up a slaughter unit or other value-added processing facilities.<\/p>\n O\u02bbHara said state Rep. Gregor Ilagan plans to address easing requirements for the use of state lands for agricultural processes in the upcoming legislative session.<\/p>\n For now, the P\u0101hoa Lava Zone Museum and M\u0101lama O Puna are working together to expand a current facility to include a USDA-certified processing hub that would work like a cut-and-wrap facility, where food producers can break down animal carcasses into specific retail cuts and package them.<\/p>\n The cut-and-wrap facility would be a component within the P\u0101hoa Lava Zone Museum Commercial Shared-Use Kitchen, a community kitchen that has open availability for aspiring chefs, existing food business owners, as well as nonprofits and charitable organizations.<\/p>\n The certified kitchen provides the public with a professional food preparation space that meets strict health and safety codes, where they can prepare and package their locally sourced and produced food products to go to market. It includes facilities for locally sourced and produced food products to market.<\/p>\n The eventual expansion of the kitchen would allow cooks and entrepreneurs to prepare USDA-inspected meats and other locally produced products to sell to retail stores, restaurants or individuals.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to upgrade the current kitchen to make it a certified cut-and-wrap facility,\u201d Markoff said. \u201cThis includes add-ons like a walk-in freezer and modifications to the kitchen. However, non-meat processors are also encouraged to use it for their businesses. It\u2019s the first of its kind in P\u0101hoa.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>Pigs are ready to be cut, cooked and served at P\u0101hoa Lava Zone Community Kitchen. (Photo credit: Amedeo Markoff)<\/p>\n<\/a>Eileen O\u02bbHara and Amedeo Markoff are outside the P\u0101hoa Lava Zone Museum Community Kitchen in P\u0101hoa on Jan. 6, 2026. (Kelsey Walling\/Big Island Now)<\/p>\n