Back to the ‘Äina: By Brittany P. Anderson
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KeOlaMagazine.com | November-December 2020
Building a robust food sovereignty community is vital to he afternoon heat hangs heavy over the field. strengthening food security on Hawai‘i Island. One way of Two farmers continue their work seemingly unaffected by the making a sovereign and resilient food system is through the weather. Arms and legs bundled up to avoid being burned by farm cooperative model. the sun, they pluck beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes from the Farm cooperatives, or co-ops, involve a network of farmers vines, placing them into baskets, all but disappearing as they who do business as one entity. Farmer co-ops pool resources move swiftly along the rows. together for marketing, distribution, and purchasing supplies, For food producers on Hawai‘i Island, the work of feeding sharing in the risks and rewards. One of the most notable their community is never done. Over the past year, food farmer cooperatives on the island of Hawai‘i is the ‘Ulu security and sovereignty has come to the forefront of Cooperative. Started in 2016, the cooperativeʻs goal was conversations. From family circles to government officials, twofold. According to their website, the ‘Ulu Cooperative was everyone asks the same question: how can we make Hawai‘i founded to “revive the cultivation of ‘ulu [breadfruit] and Islandʻs food system more robust and more secure for all the strengthening Hawai‘i Islandʻs food security for a resilient food islandʻs residents? future.” By all accounts, the cooperative has been a success. As local Connection and Relationship access to ‘ulu increases, demand and prosperity increase with A food sovereignty movement is awakened on Hawai‘i Island. it. When small farms are economically viable, not only does our Food sovereignty is rooted in the principles that the community food system benefit but every sector has a right to healthy, culturally of the community improves. As Kalani sees everything as relationships and connections. appropriate food produced through photo by Brittany P. Anderson island residents integrate ‘ulu back ecologically sound and sustainable into their diets, food sovereignty methods. It is also a bottom-up continues to grow, building stronger approach centered around what communities as a result. farmers grow locally and local control Kalani poses the question, “How over their food system instead of does the relationship come back into imported food distribution methods. industrialized ag?” Without skipping There is no one-size-fits-all approach a beat, he answers, “Itʻs a bunch of to food sovereignty because it focuses little farms working together. Better on the relationship between people to have a hundred small farms than and the connection to their culture. three really big ones.” M. Kalani Souza, Hawaiian Across the mainland US, large practitioner, priest, permaculturist, commodity farms pump out high and cross-cultural facilitator, is volume crops and meat to feed actively engaged in Hawai‘i Islandʻs the nation. Mass systems of food food sovereignty movement. production fail to recognize unique “At the center of [Hawaiian] culture environments or unique cultures. is food, and the consumption of food On Hawai‘i Island, the detrimental is one of the most important parts,” environmental impacts from highKalani says in his soft voice. “In density commodity farming are eating, you take in the world around acutely felt, which is why small regenerative farms are another you, you digest it, and then compost the rest,” he remarks. critical component to a robust local food system. For Kalani, everything comes down to relationships and connections. Regenerative Agriculture Hawai‘i Island was once able to grow enough food to feed A herd of cattle cluster along their fence, eagerly eyeing up all its inhabitants. With the introduction of industrialized the green pasture that lies on the other side of the gate. For agriculture, much of the traditional farming methods were lost. this herd, the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. “There has to be a relationship with growing food; without a They move paddocks every four days, building soil health relationship, there is no knowledge,” Kalani pauses, “and then and closing the carbon cycle as they fatten on the nutrientthere is no transgenerational knowledge.” He speaks like the dense grasses they help cultivate. Regenerative agriculture is thunderous clouds that hug Hualālai—profound and full of a holistic land management practice that uses the symbiotic intention. relationship between plants and animals to close the carbon Hawai‘i Island food sovereignty is getting back to a cycle, enrich the soil, and increase crop resiliency and nutrient generational understanding of farming and a self-regenerating density. system of producing food for everyone and everything within 36 Through regenerative practices, soil health is improved due the community.
