Tech View: Hawaii’s food insecurity must be addressed

The COVID-19 saga in Hawaii has highlighted food insecurity in the state of Aloha. In the depths of the pandemic, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported that the Hawaii Foodbank and other nonprofits were working overtime to meet the surge in demand.

Managing our local food supply chain during a plague has been a nightmare. However, the question arises: what would food insecurity be like if we had been hit by a different class of natural disasters? For example, how would we fare in a Category 4 storm that could devastate our port and other infrastructure?

To answer these questions and more, I turned to Albie Miles, Assistant Professor of Sustainable Community Food Systems at the University of Hawaii West Oahu. Miles specializes in the study of diversified agriculture and the structural barriers to sustainable food and farming systems. In February, he received a $1 million grant from the WK Kellogg Foundation to improve the sustainability and resilience of Hawaii’s food system.

I recently sat down with him to find out how the Aloha State might be preparing for future disasters.

question: What lessons have we learned about our food system from the pandemic?

answers: We have learned that household food insecurity in Hawaii (and nationally) is an economic problem and not an issue of inadequate food production. Low-income US households – such as single mothers with children – are most at risk of food insecurity.

The second important lesson we learned is that Hawaii’s food system is vulnerable to disruptions caused by natural and man-made disasters. The current just-in-time food import system has been stretched under the added strain of the economic impact of COVID-19. This happened without port closures, mass casualties, power outages, and the loss of other critical infrastructure.

Q: Are we ready for the next natural disaster in our state? Do we have enough emergency food?

A: Of course it depends on the severity of the disaster, but no. For example, if the Port of Honolulu were to close, commercial food supplies would only be charged for five to seven days (HI-EMA 2019). There is also little in-state storage of commercial, household, or emergency food items. For example, in 2022, FEMA is estimated to stockpile 3 million emergency meals and 6 million gallons of water in the state for disaster preparedness. This food and water is not intended for Hawaii, but can be used elsewhere in the Pacific, such as Guam.

Q: So what should we do?

A: We must pre-position emergency food in vulnerable communities and build more resilient food storage and distribution infrastructure in the state. Additionally, we need to better resource key agencies like HI-EMA and increase coordination and planning between state and county emergency management, the DOD, and private sector actors—such as B. commercial grocers – improve. To do this well, we need to spend about $25-$30 million from federal and state funds.

Q: What are the barriers and opportunities for local food production and consumption in Hawaii?

A: Important barriers to local food production relate to the lack of infrastructure supporting a diversified agricultural sector, coupled with the state’s high production costs – land, housing, labour, electricity and inputs – resulting in more expensive, locally produced products rivaled by the economies of scale of California and other regions, which can produce many staple foods at a lower cost. Our state’s high rates of farm theft aren’t helping either. One way to address this is that we need Hawaiian institutions like the visitor industry, government agencies like the Department of Education, the network of private schools and hospitals to support farmers by buying locally produced food. A living wage standard will help Hawaiian households afford the food produced here.

Q: Land is expensive, farming is hard work and the payout/return on investment is not great. How can we get young people interested in farming?

A: Make agriculture more economically viable through policies that create better conditions for local farmers to thrive. Successful farming requires a great deal of technical training, market research, crop planning, business management and capital investment. Like any other industry or business, it’s naïve to think that someone can just walk in and thrive given the slim margins. In addition to the things previously mentioned, it would be important to tackle affordable housing close to farmland.

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Rob Kay, a Honolulu-based writer, reports on technology and sustainability for Tech View and is the creator of fijiguide.com. Email him at Robert [email protected].