I believe the point that is being overlooked in this article is that Hawaiians specifically and Polynesians on a larger scale come from a social and cultural tradition many thousands of years old that is rooted (pun intended) in the concept of agriculture as an ethical, sustainable, subsistence-based necessity.

The idea of agriculture and food production as profit-based, commercial export industries is antithetical to our core social and cultural ideology of malama aina, nurture and sustain that which feeds us.

The idea of making a vital necessity like agriculture, whether for food production or, as in the case of hemp, for utilitarian purposes is a pretty scary notion.