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Who among the candidates now running for office will commit to advocate for creation of a State Farmer post charged specifically with modeling and advancing local small-scale ("Victory Garden" style) food production in the Hawaiian Islands as an important step toward food self-sufficiency in Hawaii?
Along the lines of an excellent suggestion made in Michael Pollan's article (excerpt, below) the State Farmer could oversee productive demonstration plots prominently displayed at the governor's mansion, state capitol building, and/or on each island at an important county government building commonly frequented by the public -perhaps in conjunction with an island-specific Big Island Farmer, Maui Farmer, and so on focused toward same for each island. This would demonstrate substantial backing and tangible support for the ideal of local food cultivation, raising the issue more clearly into public view and focusing public attention. Such an effort could become much more than mere token symbolism if done in earnest.
Speaking of authenticity versus lip-service, since the most effective form of leadership is leadership by example how many candidates for office will not only commit to advocate, introduce legislation, and vote in support of such an effort but to also occasionally roll up their sleeves and get out there in the soil with a tool in hand, actually practicing that which they profess to preach?
Puna really should expect tangible results from those seeking office to represent and lead Puna as policymakers, budget managers, and guardians of the land & people. If candidates are unwilling to commit to supporting this notion then what better idea(s) would each candidate seek to advance, instead? Please do speak up, candidates. If your name is on the ballot then these questions are for you.
"Since enhancing the prestige of farming as an occupation is critical to developing the sun-based regional agriculture we need, the White House should appoint, in addition to a White House chef, a White House farmer. This new post would be charged with implementing what could turn out to be your most symbolically resonant step in building a new American food culture. And that is this: tear out five prime south-facing acres of the White House lawn and plant in their place an organic fruit and vegetable garden.
When Eleanor Roosevelt did something similar in 1943, she helped start a Victory Garden movement that ended up making a substantial contribution to feeding the nation in wartime. (Less well known is the fact that Roosevelt planted this garden over the objections of the U.S.D.A., which feared home gardening would hurt the American food industry.) By the end of the war, more than 20 million home gardens were supplying 40 percent of the produce consumed in America. The president should throw his support behind a new Victory Garden movement, this one seeking 'victory' over three critical challenges we face today: high food prices, poor diets and a sedentary population. Eating from this, the shortest food chain of all, offers anyone with a patch of land a way to reduce their fossil-fuel consumption and help fight climate change. (We should offer grants to cities to build allotment gardens for people without access to land.) Just as important, Victory Gardens offer a way to enlist Americans, in body as well as mind, in the work of feeding themselves and changing the food system — something more ennobling, surely, than merely asking them to shop a little differently."
[From "Farmer In Chief," by Michael Pollan, 09OCT2008, New York Times,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin ]
A wonderful suggestion! The governor and legislators of Hawaii might well take a page from this playbook ...and mayors of the various islands as well as local district representatives, too.
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"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."
Pres. John Adams, Scholar and Statesman
"There's a scientific reason to be concerned and there's a scientific reason to push for action. But there's no scientific reason to despair."
NASA climate analyst Gavin Schmidt
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Astonishing skill! This archer is a real-life Legolas and then some!
http://geekologie.com/2013/11/real-life-...rs-anc.php
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And what would you plant in your Victory Garden?
What varieties of vegetables are best in the drier regions of HPP?
Posts: 485
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Joined: Dec 2006
Barbara asks:
"And what would you plant in your Victory Garden?
What varieties of vegetables are best in the drier regions of HPP?"
An excellent question which underscores the practical utility of such leadership by example. The master gardeners on each island already know so much about which cultivars grow well in which combinations, planting patterns, and rotations. Sharing that knowledge via demonstration garden plots in places commonly accessible to the public could be so useful.
Metaphorically --along with the diverse vegetables, fruits, herbs, and medicinal plants being seeded and cultivated in these demonstration gardens-- such an initiative would be seeding and cultivating the vital knowledge and ethos of local self-sufficiency, cultural resourcefulness, and community spirit.
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"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."
Pres. John Adams, Scholar and Statesman
"There's a scientific reason to be concerned and there's a scientific reason to push for action. But there's no scientific reason to despair."
NASA climate analyst Gavin Schmidt
)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(
)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(
Astonishing skill! This archer is a real-life Legolas and then some!
http://geekologie.com/2013/11/real-life-...rs-anc.php
)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(
Posts: 1,779
Threads: 73
Joined: Aug 2006
"...enhancing the prestige of farming as an occupation is critical to developing the sun-based regional agriculture..."
The concept of "sun-based regional agriculture" is quite sound, and offers a lot.
In the case of Hawaii Island, I would ask anyone to present sound evidence that the "prestige of farming as an occupation" is a major constraint.
It may be, but I see other issues as larger.
First, basic know-how for people who are keen to get their hands dirty, but who have nil practical experience and/or training -- especially in this tropical multi-micro environment here.
Next, there is the matter of land -- rock or soil. Is land available to people who would plant it?
Also, there is the matter of capital. That can be money to buy tools or it may be the tools, but an investment is needed. Is that capital available.
Please note, I write the above as someone who had the pleasure of working in a professional context in agricultural production, education, research, and policy for several years in the USA, Australia, Philippines, and Indonesia.
James Weatherford, Ph.D.
15-1888 Hialoa
Hawaiian Paradise Park
Posts: 990
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Joined: Dec 2007
Dr W, glad to get your input in this subject. Please correct my assumptions if need be.
Keys to success to include outright ownership of ag land, the more the better with water, be able to write grants, get major university to start crops and fully advise, install a subsidy or a price guarantee, arrange cheap labor with no benefits, incorporate to avoid any personal losses beyond initial investment (like SF, Ormat or HECO).
Even knowing this enterprise will open us up to the new sugar to ethanol industry by precident. Also where is this new crop to be refined? If you succeed, what will stop an agri giant from buying up most of Puna's ag land and following suit. It seems to me everyone including you is promoting food farming, why not grow what we need?
Gordon J Tilley
Posts: 485
Threads: 49
Joined: Dec 2006
Good questions, James.
While this notion is at core simply advocating for demonstration "Victory Gardens" and promoting leadership toward local self-sufficiency (accomplished via dissemination of knowledge and practical small-scale modeling of know-how), it seems to me like there are all sorts of possibilities for an innovative legislator to figure out constructive ways to extend the general idea more broadly.
Such as, perhaps, by extending a tax credit incentive to landholders for allowing already-cleared land which is just sitting empty (and maybe experiencing soil loss to rain erosion, since there is little cover and active soil conservation going on there) to be used for small-scale "Victory Garden" style conservation by those who may otherwise not have access to such. Even if the plots were just planted with a legume soil-enhancer "green manure" (like sunn hemp, http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/sustainag/Gr...nnhemp.asp ) this would be better than losing soil to erosion.
Since the idea is to promote small-scale intensive gardens it seems to me that the capital investment in tools and seed need not be daunting to those who want to take it up yet lack practical experience and modeling, especially given Hawaiian aloha, Puna's community spirit, and peoples' willingness to share starts and seeds. There are organizations (such as http://justfortheloveofit.org/philosofree.php ) which promote models of sharing tools, expertise, and even land -some aspects of these models may have utility in Hawaii toward local food production self-sufficiency.
Every time I fly along the coastline and see big spreading plumes of red-brown soil washing into the ocean I think to myself "There must be better ways to promote more effective soil conservation awareness and erosion control measures!" In Indonesia the millions of tiny little fishponds and associated pekarangan home gardens (the traditional Southeast Asian version of a "Victory Garden") make a huge difference in preventing soil erosion off the islands (it hurts the reefs as well as hurting the islands). Much of the soil lost annually from the gardens is trapped (and even fertilized) in the fishponds, then returned back to the gardens when the ponds are drained and the mud scooped out. Small local efforts, replicated many times, can make a huge difference.
What I am looking for in a candidate I can enthusiastically get behind and back in every way is not more of the same old, same old, and passive acceptance of a status quo. Rather, what I am most looking for in a candidate is the capacity to think creatively in new ways about old problems, the courage to advocate for innovative solutions, and the sincerity to follow through personally (as in, getting out there with a hoe in hand, amongst the community). Leadership by example is the most authentic and effective sort.
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"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."
Pres. John Adams, Scholar and Statesman
"There's a scientific reason to be concerned and there's a scientific reason to push for action. But there's no scientific reason to despair."
NASA climate analyst Gavin Schmidt
)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(
)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(
Astonishing skill! This archer is a real-life Legolas and then some!
http://geekologie.com/2013/11/real-life-...rs-anc.php
)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(
Posts: 1,779
Threads: 73
Joined: Aug 2006
alaskasteven,
good links, thanks!
getting the land-food-people link happening on Hawaii Island is certainly the challenge.
soil erosion on the Hamakua coast would probably not be from idle land, but, in recent years, construction.
30+ years ago, the water was brown at the mills and at the stream outlets into the ocean because of sugar cultivation and processing.
imho, a big 'environmental' catastrophe underway in the vast areas of idle land that was previously in sugar all over this island are the spread of very aggressive invasive plants -- albizia, ironwood, waiwi, 'Coster's curse', and others. The seedbanks are full and the invasives are moving beyond former cane lands and into conservation areas.
p.s. What to do about the land-food-people link? Maybe I'll start a nother topic on it. Meanwhile, I am confident that Angel Pilago has the vision to see the need for policies that maintain that link.
James Weatherford, Ph.D.
15-1888 Hialoa
Hawaiian Paradise Park
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