Outstanding In Our Field
An Interview with Ag Operations Director, Jamie Twigg-Smith
The January 2025 edition of The Sunflower, a magazine of the National Sunflower Association, featured an informative interview with our company’s Agriculture Operations Director Jamie Twigg-Smith.
In this article, Jamie shared highlights of our sunflower farming operations. He explains, “Our model is one that promotes both food and energy production. In Hawaiʻi, we have an acute understanding of our supply chain and the fact that 90% of our state’s food is imported. Hawaiʻi is the most isolated archipelago in the world, with the closest major landmass 2,400 miles away. There is an urgent need to increase food and energy production in Hawai‘i to reduce dependence on imported goods and bolster food security across the state.”
Jamie also discusses how we uniquely produce our culinary oils – using a natural process that highlights the inherent health benefits and natural flavor characteristics that are absent from conventional cooking oils.
“Most people have never tasted a non-RBD (refined/bleached/deodorized) culinary oil. Our premium oils are naturally expeller pressed; we mechanically crush the seeds with no chemical extraction and no additives or preservatives,” he said.
That makes for outstanding, flavorful culinary oils. “The sunflower creates a sensory experience, from its growth in the field and striking blooms to the rich earthy flavors that carry through into the oil. It is the complete package, and for those reasons we have focused on sunflower production in Hawaiʻi.”
