LIHU‘E — Imagine living on an island with plenty of fresh, organic food to go around; an island not reliant upon outside resources and one that is entirely self-sufficient. While sounding far fetched to some, the idea may not be
LIHU‘E — Imagine living on an island with plenty of fresh, organic food to go around; an island not reliant upon outside resources and one that is entirely self-sufficient.
While sounding far fetched to some, the idea may not be far from reality to others, according to a panel of residents Sunday morning at Kaua‘i Community College.
The room full of people who gathered for the Kaua‘i Food Industry Forum are part of an effort to obtain food self-sufficiency on the island and are gearing up for changes they believe must occur.
Glenn Hontz, coordinator and director of the Food Industry Program, which was established in 2004, serves to encourage food sustainability on the island and was pleased to see so many people eager to start making a change.
“Glenn has always had the island’s best interests in his heart and he has never flagged in energy or enthusiasm,” said KCC Chancellor Helen Cox.
“We are really returning to the spirit of the earth and to the love of the earth that was so popular to the people who occupied this island many, many years ago,” said Hontz, as he believes the island is in the midst of a transition from importing around 90 percent of its food to cultivating its own again.
“We are blessed on this island, truly, truly blessed, with multiple seasons for growing, the land for growing, with people that know how to grow and with people that want to eat. Those are some of the important elements of the whole formula,” he said.
Hontz believes there are many ways in which Kaua‘i can lessen its dependence on imported food and brought together two separate panels who offered their insight as to how to accomplish the task at hand.
“None of us have all of the answers, but I think this is the beginning of trying to find a way of moving forward,” said Gia Baiocchi, a member of the planning and coordinating committee for the Kaua‘i Food Industry Program, who was also Sunday’s moderator.
Chris Kobayashi, a professional farmer on the island, thinks that the change has to start with the community.
“Starting on the community level, we have to educate our people, educate our students and have some sort of curriculum in our schools,” she said.
Kobayashi also hopes to see more stores, like Foodland, carrying local products.
Gary Seals, co-director of Seed to Table, would like to “grow” more farmers on the island and wishes to continue educating the public about why it’s important to purchase local food.
“If we are minimizing the amount of miles it travels to get to our table to get into our mouths, then we’re increasing the vitality of that food and increasing the nutrition, increasing the energy and our ability to grow more food,” he said.
“Knowing that each dollar that we bring into this island we have an opportunity to choose where that dollar will go and, through that choice, what it’s going to support,” he added.
Ben Sullivan, a local energy expert, was there to remind everyone how closely connected food self-sufficiency is with energy needs.
“Food self-sufficiency is not just about food, it’s about being self-sufficient on a broad scale and that includes energy,” he said.
He added that he feels there is a sense of urgency right now and a definite need to produce a plan to “feed ourselves.”
Tom Legacy, a member of the planning and coordinating committee of the Kaua‘i Food Industry Forum, and an experienced home gardener for more than 30 years, shares the same sense of urgency Sullivan speaks of and that the other panelists agreed with.
“The important thing, overall, is to get out in the dirt, to connect with the soil, to connect with the ‘aina here and to be out there doing it, at one level or another,” he said. “Just to start with a container plant and expand that out to your garden and get involved; get involved with your community garden and the schools.”
Legacy said he realizes the world currently rotates around a monetary system, but he hopes that the focus will soon begin to change directions.
“I’m looking for the opening where we can all shift towards sharing with each other and being truly a family, truly a community,” he said.
“There is a bartering system emerging here,” Baiocchi said, adding that “this is empowering and exciting.”
There are several ways people on the island can get involved in the community as far as food self-sufficiency is concerned, and one option is connecting with neighborhood centers to create a cooperative garden.
“The idea is for us to use the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center as a pilot program,” said Neil Brosnahan, who calls himself a “professional volunteer.” He is heading an initiative to begin a shared neighborhood garden in Kalaheo.
“We’d like to demonstrate, at least at the community centers, how a cooperative garden works and have a place where people can learn all the elements of gardening and take that home with them,” he added.
Paul Massey, of Regenerations Botanical Garden and the Kaua‘i Community Seed Bank, offered suggestions as to how people can get involved. He organizes occasional free seed exchanges on the island, such as the bi-annual exchange last weekend in Koloa.
“We’re really trying to encourage and enable people to grow high quality seed or other propagated material to share with the community and to make more widely available,” he said.
Matthew Fields, permaculturist and instructor of organic food growing seminars on the island, encourages people to learn how to grow their own food.
“There’s a huge opportunity on Kaua‘i to get us to the point of being self-sufficient,” he said. “There’s a lot of open land and there’s a huge growing consciousness.”
For more information, visit www.kauaicommunitygardens.org
Coco Zickos, business writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or czickos@kauaipubco.com
