Candidates: commit to advocate for a State Farmer?

[AlohaSteven]

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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