TROPICAL TASTE - Food Sustainability in Paradise

As any of you who have looked at a map of the Pacific Ocean and have spotted the tiny little specks that represent the chain of Hawaiian Islands can see, we are separated by a huge expanse of water on all sides.  In fact, we are considered the most remote from any land mass islands on earth.

In case of any big emergencies or major catastrophe, we could very well be too far for anyone to reach us in a short period of time... When a catastrophe happens or is expected on the mainland, at least people can drive to other states if they choose or are able to.  In  our case we could find ourselves completely cut off from the rest of the world for days or weeks.

Steamed and quartered bread fruit

Peeling breadfruit

Pounding breadfruit to make 'ulu poi.

According to most Hawaii State official sources, we have just enough food on hand to feed our entire population for 5-8 days.  As fertile as our islands are, we find that the majority of food and supplies are shipped from the mainland or even other countries. 

The State plan is for the islands to be completely or mostly sustainable by the year 2050.  What do we do if anything catastrophic happens in the meantime?

Photo: mango, yellow dragon fruit, limes, lemons, surinam cherries, figs, and edible flowers in a bag.

Recently, our island hosted a Food Sustainability Summit at the Sheraton Keauhou Resort Hotel on the Kona side of the island.  The first of its type on the islands, it was a huge success with representatives from Federal and State government agencies, farmers, producers, interested future farmers and many other people who are concerned about the future of our islands in attentance.

Photo: Dragon fruit

The Summit lasted a couple of days, but we were able to attend for just part of one afternoon and evening, last Saturday.  Although it was very encouraging to see what is being done, in our opinion and that of others in attendance with whom we discussed it, most feel that 2050 is way too far in the future and Hawaii needed to have done something like this 'like already yesterday', as one of our friends we ran into put it.

 Photo: Heirloom tomatoes, water cress, lettuce, basil from the Hamakua Springs Farms.

The big question was,can the Big Island feed itself?.    

The Big Island, where I live, has the largest land mass dedicated to agriculture and also we have the largest variety of food sources - largest cattle ranches, sheep, hogs, several chicken/egg farms and many, many small independent farmers. We also have the most variations in elevations and climates and could possibly grow almost anything that can grow anywhere in the world.

We already grow diffrent varieties of mushrooms, cacao, vanilla beans, tea and of course, coffee.  We have breweries and a winery; we have dairies, ice cream factories and can fish our teeming waters.  We now grow shrimp, abalone and other fish or shell fish in aquafarms and can harvest sea salt.  But all our sugar mills closed in the mid 90's and to date, we have no one growing wheat, though we certainly could.

Photo: Kona Blue Kampachi from the Kona Blue aquafarms

One of the biggest problems is that many of the farmers are older and the younger
generations are not, as a whole, stepping up to the plate - except in a few exceptions such as the Ha family and their Hamakua Springs Farms - Richard Ha is one of the most innovative thinkers, in my opinion.

An encouraging sign is the amount of schools that are planting vegetable and herb gardens and have the students involved from the preparing of the land to the end use of the produce grown....and several people with whom we spoke are excited about the posibility of providing more and more school gardens. Some farmers are even considering how they could incorporate their own farms to use as 'school classrooms'. That will go a long ways towards getting some kids enthused about farming.

Photo: Veggies and island grown mushrooms

Another thing we noticed is how many of the smaller farms are joining a hui (group) and where it would normally be hard for a small farmer to break ground and sell to larger hotels, restaurants, farmers markets, etc...some of the huis are taking care of representing them. Not only coffee grower huis, but vegetable, fruit farmers and even producers of other food products also.

 Photo: Malaysian or Mountain Apples

All the photos used in this article were taken by Sonia during our visit to the Summit while visiting the displays presented by different farmers or huis.  It was encouraging to see what we already do grow or produce on this island, but much more needs to be done if we are to be self sustainable, or nearly so, in the near future.

Photo: Green Apple Bananas

		Sonia Martinez, Gather Food Correspondent
	Sonia's column, 'Tropical Taste' is a regular twice-monthly feature of Gather Essentials: Food. Sonia is a cookbook author and freelance food writer for several publications in Hawaii, and is also a Hawaii Island Journal restaurant reviewer in partnership with her son Anthony Mathis.  She lives in a beautiful rural rainforest area on the Big Island of Hawaii. You can keep up with Sonia's adventures and ongoing love affair with Hawaii by joining her network, or visiting her food & garden blog at Sonia Tastes Hawaii.