A Maui farming company is expanding its avocado orchards to 1,000 acres, good news for Hawaii's push to grow more of its own food.

• Mahi Pono is turning old sugar cane land in central Maui into working farmland.
• Early plantings near Pu'u Kukui showed the trees can produce well enough to sell commercially.
• At full maturity, the orchards should yield more than 10 million pounds of avocados a year.
• Hawaii imports most of its food, so local production cushions the islands against shipping costs and supply shocks.

Outlook: The trees need years to mature, so the big harvest numbers are still some way off.