Recently in Politics of Food
One of the many reasons for eating local is the issue of food security. If 90% of our food is produced off-island, what would happen if shipping traffic were interrupted? That's exactly the scenario described in an editorial by Dave Wethington earlier this week.
The setup to the editorial strays too far into xenophobic fearmongering for my liking (Terrorists! Mexicans!) but an attack on our nation's ports is just one of several hypothetical events that could stop container ships dead in the water. It's what happens next that caught my attention, the crowds at the grocery stores, the inevitable shortages. Even a short-term halt in ocean-bound cargo could have immediate and traumatic consequences including severe food shortages and eventually civil unrest.
I'm not saying the eating local is by itself complete insulation against a scenario like this. That's folly. The modern world is too interdependent for any metropolitan area to be an island unto itself (even if that metropolitan area exists on a literal island). What I am suggesting is that eating food grown from the people in our own communities encourages agriculture and food production while reducing dependence on the smooth flow of commerce. The more we grow here, the less we need from elsewhere. It's good sense.
I don't want to get too hung up on the issue of food security though. As stated, it's just one of many reasons to eat local, and in my daily life not even the most compelling. What's the best reason to eat locally? Stay tuned until tomorrow...
If you make it to the 5pm show, look for me and come say "hi". I'll be the haole with dreads.
UH Manoa's Spalding Auditorium
5:00pm and 7:30pm, Sunday Oct 14
$5 students / $10 general admission
[Update: the film was just what I expected and pretty much everything I'd hoped. Having participated in a CSA before and having loved the experience, I was pleased to see Farmer John come back from ruin to life as a CSA feeder farm. See this if you get the chance.]
Time to mark your calendars. Hawaiʻi Island Food Summit: How can Hawaii Feed Itself? is an upcoming conference to,
"...generate wide-spread awareness of local food security issues and garner support for strategic actions that will improve the viability of sustainable island agricultural ventures. Although Hawaii is the most isolated land mass in the world, we only have an 8-day supply of food in the islands and rely on imports for more than 90% of the food we consume. For the people of Hawaii to truly be prepared, safe, and secure we must increase the amount of food we produce and consume locally."
Translation: people are going to talk about the whys and hows of growing more of our food supply here in Hawaii. The two day event will be held at the Sheraton Keahou Bay on October 5th and 6th. I won't be able to make it over to the Big Island for the event, but it looks like a good one.
→ Restaurants Rage Against the Blogs
Apparently some restaurants don't like that "ill-informed" food bloggers have a public platform for food criticism. It took a second read before I realized why the article bugs me: it frames the discussion as an issue of whether or not bloggers know anything. Some do, some don't--that's the wrong question anyway.
Professional editorial staff and culinary training are not required to write with insight and wit. At the end of the day, good bloggers will carry a broader audience than those of us struggling to learn and grow. The real issue is the reporter's attitude that, "high-powered chefs are forced to listen to the little guy -- as long as he has a keyboard." What arrogance. When a restaurant can only appeal to the professional critic--they've failed on some level. The real question is, "Which restaurants are cooking for their patrons, and which are cooking for their egos?"
Most food blogs are for the rest of us--those of us that enjoy eating and talking about a good meal. [Found by way of The Accidental Hedonist. Her best quote on the subject, "let me tell you restaurant owners out there something that should be readily apparent - 100% of your clientèle are food critics. It's just that only .001% (give or take) get paid for it."].
→ Rumination on Food, Class and Carlos Petrini
I've always been concerned about the affordability of organic food and the class issues that creates. Grist has a thought-provoking article about Carlo Petrini, the father of the Slow Food movement and his take on food and class in America. Be sure to also read about Petrini's visit to the Ferry Plaza Market in San Francisco.
→ Organic? Maybe not.
The more I learn about the FDA, the more I'm realizing it takes its defense of agribusiness more seriously than it's mission to protect and inform American consumers. Thirty-five specific non-organic ingredients are allowed to be included in items labeled "organic" even if those ingredients were not produced organically. That's almost as crazy as the Agriculture Department suing to prevent a Kansas meatpacker from testing all its entire herd for mad cow disease.
→ Pizza Fritta
And on a lighter note, step-by-step instructions for Neopolitan deep fried pizza. That's like a week's worth of calories and cholesterol in every bite. God help us all, and please pass a slice.
"Despite a national trend toward eating local, Hawai'i is growing increasingly reliant on imported foods." - Honolulu Advertiser, May 7, 2007
Front page yesterday above the fold, Imports tip Isle produce scale, Demand for fresh fruits and vegetables is increasing and we're importing more and more to meet that.
It's not all bad news. Local farm production has roughly doubled since 1960, but imports have tripled during the same time period. What the article doesn't mention is that population during this same time period has also doubled from 632,000 to 1,275,000. In other words, local production has kept pace with population growth, but people are eating more fruits and vegetables than in 1960. Imports have increased faster to satisfy our taste for fresher food.
At the same time, less land is being devoted to local farming. Scroll down to the graphs at the bottom of the article to see the impact. Local farm production dips from 2000 to present, roughly corresponding to the explosion in real estate. An acre of townhouses is more profitable than an acre of tomatoes. With the high cost of land, water and labor, farmers are shifting their fields away from plantation crops like pineapple and sugar cane to staples and speciality items. (Sweet potatoes, tomatoes and asparagus are mentioned as examples.)
What does this all mean? Farmer/blogger Richard Ha is quoted for the story, ""People will pay for added value... Hawai'i consumers are looking for local produce." He's absolutely right--for a niche group of "buy local" chefs and consumers. Local food is fresher, usually tastes better and is good for our economic health.
But bottom-line prices still drive the majority of our produce purchases. It's hard to justify extra coins for local fruit when you're scrambling just to pay rent. Despite that, local produce has gained enough mindshare for this story to headline the Honolulu Advertiser. That in itself gives a glimmer of hope.
It was smaller than other farmer's markets around the island, but the most noteworthy. This morning marked the first harvest and sale of moi from the Heʻeia Fishpond.
Hundreds of years ago, fishponds (loko iʻa) were the predominant Hawaiian aquaculture, used to cultivate fish sufficient to feed the entire ahupuaʻa. Even back then fishponds were lightyears ahead of the contemporary fish "farms" that stock our supermarkets, outpacing them in both sustainability and in their care for the delicate balance of ecosystems. In modern times, most loko iʻa have been replaced by beachfront condos or have simply fallen into disrepair. There're only a handful remaining throughout Hawaii that produce harvests, and now Heʻeia has joined their ranks.
By the time we got there at 8:30 in the morning, the moi was already sold out. This first harvest was a small one, yet proof enough that strong consumer demand exists. In addition to moi, Paepae O Heʻeia partnered with other local farmers to provide poi and kalo paʻa. Delivery on those was running late, but we were still able to pick up a bag of ogo for salads before we left.
Today the hard work of countless volunteers began to reap the kind of benefits we all can appreciate: good food that's good for you. Hoʻomaikaʻi ʻana, Paepae Heʻeia.
Related posts:
→ Limu Salad
→ Invasive Limu at Heʻaia
The conclusions from the article are what you might expect. All-local, all-organic in Hawaii is really hard. Many staples aren't available locally because the economics of land use make it far cheaper to ship foods from 2400+ miles than to grow them right in our own valleys. Ms. Kibayu trial period for eating locally lasted one week, but during that time she discovered that there are options available when we're willing to hunt for them, and that there is value in the hunt.
By the end of the week, I knew I could incorporate more sustainable, locally grown items into my eating regimen... It took some work, it was not convenient, but it did expand my sense of community." - Sue Kiyabu
Make sure you grab a copy and read about the particular challenges of eating locally in the Islands.
Take a moment and read Cost in Translation, about the current pricing of organic goods, and how that may or may not change in the future. It touches on most of the important factors inhibiting the expansion of organic foods in the marketplace: organic goods cost consumers more to buy, non-organic foods are often heavily subsidized, small farms don't grow to where they benefit from economies of scale, etc.
There are so many important ideas and questions raised in this article, any of which could be spun off into whole essays of their own.
→ If a family budget is already stretched to the breaking point, buying organic isn't a real option due to the increased prices. What can be done to address that? This becomes a social justice issue, where organic food is currently the privilege of the middle class.
→ Are there ways to internalize "external costs" (pollution, energy inputs, erosion) without tanking the conventional food industry? I'm a fan of the concept of incorporating external costs into the initial price of a product, but that's very difficult to implement in the real world.
→ Could an economy of scale really kick in, or does the nature of small farm production prevent those benefits from ever being seen?
I've only pulled out a few bulletpoints that struck me, but there's more meat in the actual article. All around, it's a thought-provoking article that gives much to chew on.
[Update: World on a Plate talksabout the same article, giving a parallel, but probably better informed perspective.]
Food security is important everywhere, but doubly so to Hawai'i. We receive a higher than average amount of our food from elsewhere, and are unusually vulnerable to supply chain problems. Addressing issues of sustainability, organic farming and food security, the upcoming Wai'anae Community Food Security Conference "Hands Turned to the Soil"* will be approaching these local issues with a local 'aina-based sensitivity. I noticed that MA'O Farms are a major conference sponsor, which is a big plus in my book. MA'O Farms combines youth leadership development with an organic agricultural industry, and regularly have a stall at the The Saturday Farmer's Market at KCC.
Learn more about the Food Security Conference from fellow O'ahu blogger, The Free Range Gourmet.
* "Hands Turned to the Soil" comes from a Hawaiian saying, "Ne huli ka lima iluna, popoli ka opu; Ne huli ka lima ilalo, piha ka opu." When your hands are turned up, you will be hungry, when your hands are turned to the soil you will be full. Deep.
