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If Hawaii island is to be the breadbasket of the Pacific there are significant hurdles — primarily the systems in place that favor other activities in lieu of agriculture.

Last week, I wrote about how Keala Kahuanui successfully responded to the challenge of provisioning Hawaii island’s long-distance canoe, Makali’i, with food produced only on the island.

The next challenge, given the proverb “he wa’a he moku, he moku he wa’a” or “the canoe is an island and the island is a canoe,” is for the island to be able to feed itself just as it fed the canoe.

“We absolutely have the potential to be the breadbasket of the Pacific,” said Noa Kekuewa Lincoln, an assistant professor of Indigenous crops and cropping systems at the University of Hawaii Manoa who is from Kealakekua. However, the true impediments to realizing the dream of food sovereignty are the socioeconomic barriers.

The powers that be superficially champion agriculture, but in reality Hawaii is stuck with a system that keeps us from feeding ourselves and increases the risk of climate-change-induced disasters. On Aug. 8, 2023, the same winds that whipped the flames that destroyed much of Lahaina fanned the fires on Hawaii island and threatened our communities. The fears of future fires on those grasslands have not been alleviated.

If the lessons learned from that horrific day when more than 100 people were killed don’t bring about change, then perhaps the large sums from the $4 billion settlement of wildfire-related lawsuits will bring about the systemic changes we desperately need.

Plantation Land Was Abandoned For A Reason

Our systems remain from the days of the now-abandoned monocrop plantations and they’ve never been updated. We, the subsequent generations, have been tasked to solve the problems left behind by the companies that closed up shop more than 30 years ago.

What does systemic change mean? Itʻs an overhaul of our policies, processes and mindsets.

The solution for revitalizing former plantation lands on Hawaii island was supposed to be quick-growing eucalyptus that could be harvested for lumber and wood-burning power plants. However, the to grow under them due to naturally occurring chemicals. The answer 30 years ago has only exacerbated the soil degradation.

So what steps can be taken? 

“Every time I talk to producer groups here, it’s all about ‘how do we get the government to give us more money to do things?’” said Dennis Flemming, the executive director of the Hamakua Institute. “There’s a lot more economic viability that could be had by focusing on where the systemic constraints are holding back growth.”

Flemming said the state and federal governments continue to cut their support of fledgling efforts that could actually feed us. But tax policy is one way the countyʻs government can help.

Pasture land, the least useful kind of agricultural land, is taxed at $420 an acre on Hawaii island, while land with food crops has levies of $4,000 an acre.

“The rates are all historically based on the profitability per acre,” said Heather Kimball, the chair of the Hawaii County Council. Kimball said the government was set up with intentions to keep property taxes and services for the public low.

Gentleman Farming

The current system is rife with the practice known as gentleman farming, which takes advantage of agricultural exemptions with hobby-level activity on large land holdings. This system needs to stop being abused.

Kimball is hoping will subvert the trend of gentleman farming and rebalance Hawaii islandʻs fragile ecosystem. Kimball said native forest restoration is now the best tax value at $11 an acre.

Yet, despite those changes, the market forces arenʻt subsiding.

More golf-centered luxury communities, like the recently announced , are moving forward.

“It was extractive from the beginning and as a result, we should not be surprised with the trajectory that we’re on,” Kimball said. Hawaii she explains has now evolved from a plantation system into another extractive economy: Tourism and luxury homes.

How can our fledgling farmers break through against these kinds of resource-intensive challengers?

Lincoln said we too often forget that we are an island. We live on an island. Too many of us donʻt truly understand what that means.

The true meaning of “Island Living” isnʻt hedonism. It’s about being mindful of resources and the best use of them. Projects like ʻOuli Farms that install golf courses in the middle of one of the driest, and windiest, parts of Hawaii don’t qualify as a good version of “Island Living.”

“Islands are places of accelerated learning in terms of sustainability because of our smallness,” Lincoln said, adding that we come up against resource scarcity quicker.

Social problems like gentrification are more profound on an island. Normally, gentrification means that people are pushed out but remain engaged in the system, albeit with longer commutes.

“In Hawaii, you gentrify and there’s nowhere to go,” he said. “They end up getting removed from the system entirely.” 

They then become economic refugees and new residents of Las Vegas and other places that simply arenʻt Hawaii.

However, thanks to globalization, it has been easy to enjoy hedonistic pursuits without accounting for the impacts on our generation and those who follow.

Globalization hasn’t worked in favor of many of the little guys. And Hawaii is a little guy. Capitalism’s insistence of maximizing profit has been a square peg in a round pinhole for places like Hawaii. Yet, it wasnʻt long ago that Hawaii, one of the most isolated places on the planet, was a place of abundance that successfully fed itself.

So how do we get back to that place? A change of mindsets is needed.

Lincoln says our notion of agricultural scale is out of place. We donʻt need Midwestern-scale farms with thousands of acres and massive machinery. 

Food forests are more appropriate for our soils and our climate. 

So, the system has to change. We need the tax policy to truly favor agricultural endeavors and we need to rebuild the infrastructure that once existed in our past days of food sovereignty.

Thereʻs also another significant piece beyond systemic change that needs to be implemented. Next week, Iʻll write about the mindset change that all of us can participate in that can make a difference.

“Hawaii Grown” is funded in part by grants from Ulupono Fund at the Hawaii Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation.