Kalo was worth about $1.24 per pound that year, according to a state DOA market analysis. Food hub Malama Kauai conducted a survey of kalo farmers last year that found an average of $1.45 per pound.

This story appears in the December 2017 issue of National Geographic magazine. Hawaiian legend holds that taro is the sacred ancestor of all Hawaiian people. The staple root crop is so valued that ...

When intrepid Polynesian settlers rooted in Hawaii between 1000 and 1200, they brought some staple crops with them, including taro. Taro was then turned into poi, a sticky, sour, dough-like food ...