Candidates: commit to advocate for a State Farmer?

[AlohaSteven]

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

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