Academic Year 2019-20 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY GSAPP URBAN PLANNING THESIS GUIDELINES FOOD AND FARMING IN HAWAII A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Preservation COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science in Urban Planning by Kirthana Sudhakar May 2020 Food and Farming in Hawaii A study of the obstacles to establishing resilient systems of local food production in Hawaii Author: Kirthana Sudhakar Advisor: Moira O’Neill Hutson Reader: Kazuki Sakamoto ii I. Abstract The purpose of this study is to identify existing obstacles to establishing resilient systems of food production in Hawaii, and to determine what some of the best practices in planning would be to address the same. The obstacles identified, have been bucketed widely into three categories, namely, obstacles related to land-use; policy related obstacles; and systemic issues. The methodology employed was primarily in-depth semi-structured interviews, respondents were selected through the snowball technique.
This was accompanied by an online survey to determine respondent’s food habits and preferences, here, the respondents were selected again through the snowball technique. The third element was mapping of data using the mapping tool ArcGIS, to determine the degree to which land-use related obstacles relate to the research. The literature indicated that the three most significant obstacles were the military land holdings, the Jones Act and large-scale crop monocultures. However, the findings indicate that invasive species and pests, the lack of labor and the high cost of land are the three most considerable obstacles to be tackled.
Acknowledgements I would like to give a heartfelt thanks to all of the people who helped me get through this thesis. First to my thesis advisor and reader, Professor Moira O’Neill Hutson and Professor Kazuki Sakamoto. Next, I would like to thanks Akila and Eugene, who not only housed me during my stay in Hawaii, but also offered unlimited advice and support. To my dear friend Tony for housing me as well during my stay.
A big thanks to all of the interview respondents especially those who stayed in touch and provided me with endless input throughout the process! To my survey respondents, many of you wish to remain anonymous, however I’d like to extend a big thanks to you all. Finally, a big thanks to my mother, father and brother who were a pillar of support throughout my education. My aunt and uncle who were kind enough to house me during the coronavirus outbreak of 2020. Table of Contents I.
Table of Contents. List of figures. 11 Theme 1: Obstacles related to land use .1 Military land holdings .2 Large-scale crop Monocultures .3 Land ownership under the bishop trust and the Kamehameha schools .4 Shrinking agricultural lands. 14 Theme 2: Policy-Related Obstacles .5 The Jones Act .6 Restrictions attached to land leases .7 Challenges in establishing local food supply and the midday meal program.
21 Theme 3: Systemic issues .8 Invasive species and pests .9 Lack of labor .10 Cost of land, implements and fertilizers .11 Low cost of food in competing markets. 32 Chapter 1: Obstacles related to land-use .1 The impacts of large-scale crop monocultures .2 Government land ownership .3 Land ownership under the Bishop trust and the Kamehameha schools .4 Shrinking agricultural lands. 47 Chapter 2: Policy related Obstacles .5 The Jones Act .6 Restrictions attached to land leases .7 Challenges in establishing local food supply and the midday meal program. 57 Chapter 3: Systemic issues .8 Invasive species and pests .9 Lack of labor .10 Low cost of food in competing markets.
List of figures Figure 1: Shrinking Agricultural Lands, created by Kirthana Sudhakar, 2020, data source: Hawaii State office of Planning, Hawaii Statewide GIS Program. Retrieved from http://geoportal. 16 Figure 2a: Source: Arita, S. Comparison of cost structure and economic performance of Hawaii and US mainland farms.
27 Figure 3b: Source: Arita, S. Comparison of cost structure and economic performance of Hawaii and US mainland farms. consumption of papayas. Bureau of the Census (2000); Hawaii Agricultural Statistics Service (annual).
30 Figure 5: Proportion of small to large scale farming operations, created by Kirthana Sudhakar, 2020, data source: Hawaii State office of Planning, Hawaii Statewide GIS Program. Retrieved from http://geoportal. 35 Figure 6: Government Owned Lands, created by Kirthana Sudhakar, 2020, data source: Hawaii State office of Planning, Hawaii Statewide GIS Program. Retrieved from http://geoportal.
40 Figure 7: Shrinking Agricultural Lands, created by Kirthana Sudhakar, 2020, data source: Hawaii State office of Planning, Hawaii Statewide GIS Program. Retrieved from http://geoportal. 48 Figure 8: Food Preferences: Local v/s imported produce. Introduction This research is aimed at identifying the most significant obstacles to establishing resilient systems of food production in Hawaii.
Further, it aims at identifying some of the best practices in the field of planning to tackle the same. For the sake of clarity, the findings have been classified widely under obstacles related to land use; policy related obstacles and systemic issues. Hawaii is a particularly pertinent site for study for a few reasons. The first is that the island is a state of the United States, however is geographically non-contiguous and isolated.
Further, the island currently imports over 85% of it’s produce (Island of Hawaii Whole System Project Phase I Report, March 2007). These two conditions in combination with each other lead to a uniquely vulnerable situation that Hawaiians must contend with. To further exacerbate the vulnerability, according to interview respondent 6, the island usually only has a 5 to 7-day supply of food. The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency recommends that all citizens have a 14-day supply in the case of an emergency (http://dod.
Thus, given the findings in the literature, this region in particular would benefit dramatically from the adoption of local systems of food production and consumption, especially considering that the region is prone to natural disasters such are floods and volcanic eruptions. The above factors fueled my interest in the topic, and they were furthered when I learned that the region also experiences a high incidence of food insecurity according to Azizi Fardkhales’s research on “Food security and self-sufficiency” (Dec 2019). The literature also revealed that maritime law such as the Jones Act that has been in place since 1789 (Lewis, Justin, 2013) causes the cost of produce to be inflated by an estimated 61% (Lewis, Justin, 2013). The simple act of growing food locally, at a small-scale, and utilizing mixed cropping, might prove to be the tonic to reversing some of the ills in the systems of food production and 1 distribution in the region of Hawaii.
While repealing policies in place since 1789 and the reclaiming of land from the stronghold of the military might seem like endeavors beyond our realm of influence, the simple act of creating self-sustaining loops of production and consumption, might well be the answer to reversing some of the ill effects of the existing system of food production and distribution, such as cost inflation and poor food quality. According to the paper, “Completing the picture: How the circular economy tackles climate change” by the Ellen Mac Arthur Foundation: This paper further finds that the circular economy has the potential to increase resilience to the physical effects of climate change. For example, in keeping materials in use, businesses can decouple economic activity from the consumption of raw materials vulnerable to climate risks, and therefore build greater flexibility. In the food system, regenerative agriculture improves the health of soil leading, for instance, to its greater capacity to absorb and retain water, increasing resilience against both intense rainfall and drought.
In this way simple interventions prove to tackle several issues at once, in the above example, establishing regenerative systems of agriculture, improves the health of the soil, which can then provide higher levels of rainwater retention, and increase resilience against both intense rainfall and drought. All of these issues remained unsolved through the previously applied methods of inorganic farming and large-scale crop monocultures. The study will have a specific focus on the capacity for localized food systems. The Ellen Macarthur foundation defines the circular economy in the following terms: It will require moving away from today’s ‘take-make-waste’ linear model towards an economy that is regenerative by design.
In such an economy, natural systems are regenerated, energy is from renewable sources, materials are safe and increasingly from renewable sources, and waste is avoided through the superior design of materials, products, and business models. 2 The cost of food in the region has seen inflation over time in a disproportionate manner to some of it’s mainland counterparts. Justin Lewis in his paper, “Veiled Waters: Examining the Jones Act's Consumer Welfare Effect” (2013), states: My principal finding indicates that, without the Jones Act in place, coastal water transport in the United States would be approximately 61% cheaper and that consumers using these services would stand to gain a minimum of $578 million annually in economic benefit. The state’s geographical positioning, paired with existing practices and barriers, have caused the price of basic necessities such as food to inflate in the region.
Local food systems offer opportunities to address food insecurity. At the local level this would mean that it could be advantageous for Hawaiians to adopt small-scale local systems of food production both in urban and rural settings. These could range from small-scale land holdings, to community gardens and further, to modular units at the level of the home or office, manifested as urban gardens. As I will illustrate through this research, there are several key players who have a stake in this issue.
For the sake of clarity, I have bucketed the key stakeholders into the same three categories as the research buckets. Some of the key stakeholders related to land-use issues are the federal Government, the state Government, the military, the bishop trust and large-scale farmers. Under systemic related obstacles, some of the key stakeholders are distributors, consumers, farm laborers, small and medium scale farmers. Finally, under the policy-related obstacles, the key stakeholders are commercial shippers, the Hawaii department of Agriculture, the department of education (DOE) and the DOE’s school food services branch.
I have created a diagram for the sake of clarity. Agricultural Labor- According to NAL dictionary (2019), agricultural labor is defined as people gainfully employed by a farm operator to assist with the farm work, including regular, seasonal, local, migratory, full-time or part-time employment. The term is also used for agricultural workers, farm workers, and farmworkers. In this dissertation, the term worker or labor also includes non-paid agricultural workers such as volunteers but also people in training such as interns and apprentices.
Alternative Farming- According to the National Agricultural Library dictionary (NAL, 2019) alternative farming is production methods other than energy- and chemical intensive one-crop (monoculture) farming. Alternatives include using animal and green manure rather than chemical fertilizers, integrated pest management instead of chemical pesticides, reduced tillage, crop rotation (especially with legumes to add nitrogen), alternative crops, or diversification of the farm enterprise. Alternative farming is used as an overarching term for many other more specific concepts that are defined below. These include community food systems, community food security, small-scale farms, beginner farmer, new farmer, and community supported agriculture.
Ecological Resilience- According to the NAL thesaurus, ecological resilience is the level of disturbance that an ecosystem can undergo without crossing a threshold to a situation with different structure or outputs. Resilience depends on ecological dynamics as well as the organizational and institutional capacity to understand, manage, and respond to these dynamics. Food Insecurity- Food insecurity is defined as having little to no access to fresh, healthy, affordable, or culturally relevant food (Kent, 2016). Local Food Systems- The NAL thesaurus defines local food systems as collaborative efforts that integrate food production, processing, marketing/distribution and consumption within a given geographical area, place or community.
Local food systems may also be characterized by certain market and non-market distribution channels: farm direct marketing channels including farmer's markets, community supported agriculture (CSA), farm-to-institution programs; community and home gardening; and gleaning programs.