Should We Grow Our Own Food On Kauai?

From: http://www.inspirationjournal.com/pdf/2009-9.pdf

"Should We Grow Our Own Food On Kauai?"
by Glenn Hontz

Over 90% of the food that we consume here on Kaua`i is
imported. By imported I mean from somewhere not in Hawai`i.
The same is true of most other things that we consume like
gasoline, clothing, household goods, etc. Food is different
though. Without it we get hungry in a few hours. I have heard
from two sources that we have less than a week’s supply of food
on Kaua`i at any given time. So this begs the questions: “What
do we do if the boat stops coming to Kaua`i even for a few
weeks?” and “What if food that is imported doubles or triples in
price because of some reduction of oil supply?” I cannot foretell
whether or not either of these two possibilities is even likely. I
can say that I am encountering an unusually large number of
people on Kaua`i who believe it is important that we have the
ability to grow our own food. In fact the number of people who
think this is important here on Kaua`i is disproportionately large.
People that I know on the mainland don’t consider questions
about food supply security. I have met many people from the
Big Island, O`ahu and Maui who think growing food is important
but most of these persons think about it commercially rather
than from the point of view of survival. Indeed, I meet someone
almost every day on Kaua`i who believes that we “need” to be
able to grow our own food. These people also tend to believe
that the food should be organic, high quality, and grown in a
sustainable way.

So what should we do? We could wait for some big disaster
to happen that interrupts our supply line and then everybody
could get busy and plant a garden. I do not think that is a viable
approach because there are not enough people who know how,
the land is not available or ready, and there are not even enough
seeds here to do it. We are not organized as a society to do this
job. In short I think chaos would reign for a long time. We could,
however, start learning, organizing, planning and then planting
and growing. So here are some things that would have to occur
for us to feed ourselves on Kaua`i:

1. Currently less than 5% of our population are farmers.
There are a lot of gardeners but the existing group of food
producers only produce about 10% of our food. So several
thousand of us would have to change our careers and
become food producers. This is no small feat. This means
that many people who do not know how or even desire to
be farmers must change their lives. The current economic
situation may provide an opportunity for this shift.

2. Most of our arable land is controlled by a few big land
holders. It is not yet readily available to those who might
become farmers.

3. Most of our soil needs to be improved to be productive
in organic agriculture. This means mulch, mulch, mulch.

4. We need to be organized and efficient. Fortunately we have
a good start with the work being done at Kaua`i Community
College. They have started four community gardens where
citizens are welcome to learn and participate. This is a
fantastic hands-on educational opportunity. KCC also
has classes for growing your own food offering help with
everything from where to buy seeds to the intricacies of
organic gardening.

5. We need protein, too. Most of us are not vegetarians so
we need to revitalize aquaculture on Kaua`i. Don Heacock
is doing great work on his aquaculture farm near Lihu`e.
We also need new systems like the aquaponics project
at Island School. This system produces fish to eat and
organic vegetables too. It can be tailored to a back yard or
commercial operation. Chicken and egg production needs
to be revitalized, too.

6. Food distribution here on Kaua`i is geared towards the
existing import-based system. It is hard for a farmer here
to sell a crop to a store like Safeway when Safeway gets all
of its food shipped in by barge. So we have to develop the
marketing and “grow to order” type of system that will work
for usi. For instance there is a group of at least 14 farmers
on the Big Island that is growing large quantities of organic
lettuce and greens with aquaponics. Their goal is to get
the COSTCO contract for organic mixed greens ($9.00 per
box). They have been working on this for more than a year.
We need to establish cooperatives like this, too. It takes a
lot of work and a lot of time to develop a market.

I am sure that this list could be longer but it illustrates the
size of the task for us to become self sufficient as far as food
is concerned. I also strongly believe that the large and growing
number of people here on Kaua`i who believe it is important for
us to be able to grow our own food is a signal that should not
be ignored. It is obvious that our world is changing rapidly. The
media is full of reports about the inability of the world to feed
ourselves in the future. So I believe that we should grow our
own food. We should do it organically and in sustainable ways.
There is no downside to this. If we do it and disaster does not
come to the supply line then at the very least we will have great
organic food to eat and a lot of jobs for a lot of people.

Suggested Reading: Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Suggested Viewing: “The Power of Community: How Cuba
Survived Peak Oil”; Documentary on DVD directed
by Faith Morgan.

For further education contact Glenn Hontz at Kauai Community
College. The next set of classes start on October 16, 2009.
His email is hontz@hawaii.edu. The phone number for
KCC ’s community garden project is 246-4859.