Growing and Eating Locally
by Kristel Tjandra
“He Aliʻi Ka ʻĀina, He Kauwā Ke Kanaka” (The land is the chief, the people are its servants) is an ʻōlelo noʻeau (proverb) to describe the relationship between Hawaiians and the land. Before Western contact, Hawaiians lived in an integrated ahupuaʻa, or land management system, that was efficient and sustainable. As a result, the people could depend solely on the land for sustenance.
“It was basically a point of self-sustainability,” says Dr. Noa Lincoln, an ethnobotanist at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and a Native Hawaiian. But as time changes, so does the land and its produce, he notes.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Europeans arrived on the islands and replaced the diverse traditional farms, including patches of kalo (taro), ʻulu (breadfruit), and ʻuala (sweet potato), with large plantations designed to grow predominantly sugarcane.
Kō or sugar was the primary crop in Hawaiʻi throughout most of the 20th century. By the time the islands became a state in 1959, Hawaiʻi supplied about 10 percent of all U.S. sugar. However, as the cost of production increased, supplying sugar from other countries became a more economical option. In the 1970s, sugar production began to dwindle and finally came to an end, as the last sugar company closed down in 2016.
At peak production, sugar plantations covered approximately 250,000 acres across the Hawaiian Islands. About 75 percent of these lands remain privately owned, while the rest are now managed by the state or federal government. About half of the former sugarcane plantation lands are not actively managed, said Dr. Nākoa Farrant, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa who wrote a dissertation on the ecological legacies of former sugarcane plantation lands and their potential for future sustainable management.
“There’s definitely an environmental impact from this agricultural history that is likely to continue if we leave these lands idle,” Farrant says. Among others, fire triggered by invasive species and soil erosion are the two main hazards. In addition, the heavy use of pesticides during the sugar plantation era continues to linger and contaminate the sediment and soil, posing a challenge for growing other crops.
“For 200 years in a plantation economy, all of the physical, social, and political infrastructure were built around that economy. That means that a lot of investment and growth will need to happen to really build a post-plantation ecosystem that can succeed and thrive,” Lincoln says.
Today, like many other states, Hawaiʻi depends on a stream of imports to meet almost 90 percent of its food demands. However, the great distance between the islands and the continental U.S. means a heavy reliance on shipping, which is vulnerable to disruptions by factors like natural and economic disasters.
Promoting local produce
When it comes to creating a robust, resilient food system, growing food locally is “certainly a critical part of the equation,” Lincoln says. But it is not a task that can be taken lightly.
Dramatic changes in land use have brought new challenges in the form of diseases, complicated land tenure, and the loss of agricultural know-how. In addition, climate change continues to alter the ecosystem and favors invasive species that are well-adjusted to the new environment. So, understanding the local ecology is very important when deciding which crop to grow today, Lincoln says.
Nancy Redfeather, the founder of the Hawaiʻi Public Seed Initiative, agrees with Lincoln’s sentiment. Redfeather and her husband Gerry Herbert own a farm in Kona, which they have tended since 1978.
The many microclimates of the island can make it difficult for beginner farmers to choose which crops will grow best where they are.
“You can be high on the mountain or down near the ocean. It could be a super wet area or a super dry area. It really depends on where you live, what the elevation is, what the soil is like, and your level of experience,” Redfeather says.
On Hawaiʻi Island, eruptions from active volcanoes can also cause the weather to fluctuate. “It’s complex. Farmers can’t just continue doing the same practices that they’ve done before, because it’s probably not going to work. They’re going to have to adjust what they grow or when they grow it to be successful at farming today,” she says.
In 2009, Redfeather organized the first statewide seed symposium in Hawaiʻi on behalf of the Kohala Center, a non-profit dedicated to ecosystem research and conservation. The symposium led to the formation of the Hawaiʻi Seed Growers Network, which consists of 14 farmers across the islands, including Redfeather and her husband, who grow and sell a wide array of seeds, such as lettuce, sweet pepper, and okra that grow best in Hawaiʻi’s diverse microclimates.
“The beauty of seeds is that they can adjust their genetic structure to meet the environmental changes. So, when you replant them, you’ll see in just a few generations that the plants have gotten much stronger and much more able to withstand the extremes,” she says.
Farming initiatives are cropping up
Other farming education and training initiatives have also emerged across the islands to help smooth the farming career path.
In 2012, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience (CTAHR) launched GoFarm Hawaiʻi, a statewide agricultural training and business advisory program.
“Our core program is built around taking people who have limited experience in farming or agriculture and getting them ready to start a farm business,” says Dr. Laura Ediger, the program’s co-director.
The trainings held by GoFarm Hawaiʻi range from a 2-hour introductory online session to a 6-month immersive farming experience at one of five farm sites across the islands: two on Oʻahu, and one each on Hawaiʻi Island, Kauaʻi, and Maui. Participants get to decide what to plant, when to harvest, and how to develop their own vegetable box subscription services.
By keeping the cost of the program low, GoFarm hopes to reach as many new farmers as possible. After the 6-month program, those ready to launch their businesses can also apply to receive ongoing support and land access for up to three years through the agricultural business incubator program.
“You really see that ‘doing it yourself’ is such a huge empowerment for people,” Ediger says.
One of the biggest challenges of farming in Hawai‘i is finding, and affording, the right land.
“The land values are so high here that it’s very challenging for most people to have the capital to purchase land. A lot of people are looking for leases,” Ediger says. But even when leasing is an option, there are still plenty of things to consider, such as water availability, road access, fencing, and other lease terms that will affect the farming process.
Because of that, one of the priorities of the GoFarm program is, “to teach people how to really maximize the value that they can create on a small scale,” Ediger says.
Other initiatives focus on similar elements to promote new farms. MAʻO Organic Farm focuses on community education and social enterprise training as a core aspect of its program. And on Kauaʻi, a non-profit called Mālama Kauaʻi plans to open an 87-acre agricultural park to increase farmers’ access to agricultural land and support displaced plantation workers. Twenty-five acres have already been improved, with 20 acres of sublicensed farm plots, four acres of agroforestry, and an acre reserved for communal facilities.
Paul Arinaga, an Oʻahu kamaʻāina and author of Go Native!, a book on growing Native Hawaiian and canoe plants, also shares the mission of supporting small-scale farmers, especially in urban areas. In 2018, he founded Grow Good Hawaiʻi, a nonprofit organization that promotes agroforestry and the reinvention of the modern ahupuaʻa system.
The organization initiated Trees for People, a program funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2023, to supply property owners in Wai‘anae and Waimānalo with 2,000 fruit trees and native understory plants to grow in their backyards. In addition to offering these natural resources, the program also offers training in practical gardening skills and tools to monitor plant health.
“I realized that people have been distributing trees without knowing whether they survived, and without even being able to track them,” Arinaga said. The focus of the initiative is to maximize tree survival instead of just the number of trees planted.
To encourage growers’ interaction, the team also implements a meaʻai (food) trading system, as a means of trading agricultural products using a non-cash currency.
“The idea is not to hoard cash but to share wealth. Because in sharing wealth, you create more wealth,” Arinaga said.
Beyond small-scale farming
“It’s a natural good that people want to be outside and engage in cultivation,” says Dr. Albie Miles, an agroecologist at the University of Hawaiʻi—West Oʻahu. “Human beings want to have a meaningful relationship with the land and the sea. They want to engage in an intimate relationship with nature.”
But while agriculture offers people a certain lifestyle, Miles argues that it is difficult to make farming economically viable in Hawai‘i.
“There’s a whole bunch of things that have to be done simultaneously to achieve health, equity, resilience, and sustainability in the food system. And local agriculture can only contribute a small amount,” he says.
Miles highlighted the staggering rate of food insecurity on the islands that continues to be propelled by the high costs of living and agricultural production.
“Because of our geographic isolation and the fact that we import everything—pesticides, fertilizer, seeds, irrigation infrastructure, tractors—the whole ball of wax, makes our cost of production high,” he says.
On top of that, the high electricity and housing costs for both farm operators and laborers make the cost of food production in Hawai‘i relatively high compared to other states.
Miles says that to help Hawaiʻi communities meet their basic needs, priority should be given to things like adjusting the minimum wage, promoting school meal programs, and enrolling people in food assistance schemes like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). He is also involved in putting together reports and recommendations for the state to help local communities be more prepared in the face of natural disasters and other emergencies.
Supplying reliable and consistent quality of produce all year round at a commercial scale is another economic challenge of local agriculture, says Makoto Lane, the president of Mālama Kauaʻi, a non-profit on Kauaʻi that supports local food access and production. “Restaurants and cafes often get their stuff at Costco, just because they’re more consistent.” To promote sustainability and local production, people would need to start eating seasonal produce instead of expecting things to be available all the time.
Looking to the Future
While farming can be challenging, Lincoln pointed out that there is a real opportunity to create a vibrant agriculture industry in Hawaiʻi.
“Hawaiʻi is the only truly tropical location in the U.S. and so we have a tremendous competitive advantage,” he says. “If the U.S. wants a domestic supply of anything tropical, Hawaiʻi is the only place that can really provide that.”
High-end specialty crops like vanilla, coffee, and cacao cannot be grown anywhere else in the U.S., providing a commercial opportunity for growers. In addition, there is a tremendous amount of untapped potential supplying tropical treats for the tourism industry. “You see people growing exotic fruits because when people come here, they want to taste all these tropical fruits they’ve never had in temperate areas,” Lincoln says.
Imported goods will continue to be a part of Hawaiʻi’s food system, Lincoln says. “I’m not one to advocate that we should be aiming for 100 percent local food. There are benefits to having trade networks—exports and imports—but, I do think that we should be in a much more balanced situation.”
In addition to increasing food production, growing locally can also have an immense cultural and health impact. “As we’ve been disconnected from our traditional crops that thrive in this environment, we’ve relied more and more on imported foods, which are increasingly processed and unhealthy,” Farrant says.
Many of the traditional Polynesian crops cannot be mechanized as easily as grain crops, such as wheat, corn, and rice, Farrant says. “By returning to these (traditional) crops, it almost necessitates more community-based, restorative food production that can be the starting point for more sustainable food systems.”
Ultimately, Farrant says, getting actively involved, eating locally, and engaging with our community will create a more resilient food system in Hawaiʻi.
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