Locally Produced Foods Essential for Sustainability  

Hawai‘i imports most of what we eat. A 2013 report by state agriculture officials calculated that figure at roughly 85% based on available data, although the state no longer tracks the percentage of what’s grown locally versus what’s imported. “We import over 99% of our staples,” says Dana Shapiro, general manager and co-founder of the Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Cooperative. The limited data available indicates we import about 40% of fresh fruits and vegetables, and 70% of protein consumed here (that includes meat and seafood). Shapiro is working to grow more breadfruit, taro and sweet potato as locally grown staples that can displace imported rice, the most popular staple crop here. (Hawai‘i eats more rice than any other state, roughly 100 pounds per person each year, according to federal statisticians.) Historically, rice was grown in the Islands since the 1860s but slowly the crop disappeared. At Kualoa, Mau has planted a swath of rice near the kalo to determine how resilient it may be as a potential food crop.  

 

Kualoa is part of a local sustainability push to grow and produce more of our food in the Islands. But along with such obstacles as scarcity and expense of farmland and the high cost of importing feed and fertilizer, climate change presents additional hurdles to local farmers and food producers. 

 

At Honolulu’s Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency, Dexter Kishida sees the effects of escalating climate change, with farmers changing the way they grow such crops as leafy greens. With erratic weather, they’re moving crops from the ground to greenhouses, or to hydroponic or aquaponic systems to protect them, he says. “I find our farmers being some of the most vocal about climate change because they see it every day. They see the changing weather patterns, the yield effect of the rain bomb—professionally and personally—the drought conditions and just how things are changing, how even gradually hotter summers affect what and how they grow.” 

 

Many are hopeful that Gov. Josh Green will carry through with his promise to aggressively move forward with climate repair. Shortly after being sworn in as governor, he committed $100 million of the state’s $1.9 billion budget surplus to fight climate change. Exactly how those funds will be spent has yet to be decided, but food growers say the battle is vital to their long-term survival. 

 

In hot, sunny Wai‘anae, beekeeper Ken Harmeyer peers into his hives. He says climate change has upended the life cycle of pollinating insects, which, in turn, makes it harder for nearby farmers to grow their crops.   

 

Harmeyer says he first noticed the impact of climate change on the bee population about six years ago, with the sudden deaths of hives, and queen bees that were living half as long as they had before. “Normally, a beehive will have between 30,000 and 60,000 bees, and the bees will fly up to 5 miles, pollinating nearby flowers,” Harmeyer says. “If you lose half the hives, you’ve got half of the population.” That hit hardest on small basil farms nearby. “If there’s no bees to pollinate the basil … production goes down,” he says. 

 

Harmeyer has tended beehives across O‘ahu for more than 20 years, and runs the Hawai‘i Bee Hotline to relocate unwanted bees. His concerns resonate at Kahumana Organic Farms on the Wai‘anae Coast, where Harmeyer manages the hives. “Climate change affects us all, and farmers are especially susceptible as they depend on stable environmental factors to grow food consistently,” says Tom McDonald, Kahumana’s executive director. 

 

Although Kahumana hasn’t experienced a sharp drop in its production, McDonald says the threat looms. “Climate change is subtle,” he says. Last year, the farm felt the effects of climate change with the decline in rain. The dry weather wilted crops, followed by sporadic downpours that damaged some crops and prompted others to blossom more often. “It affected the flowering plants and then it affected the bee population,” McDonald says. And while unpredictable weather has plagued farms throughout history, McDonald says, “this man-made effect of global warming has a more intensive effect on all aspects of the environment, and of course, our food system.”   

Endangered Species Capital   

Rising temperatures and other impacts of climate change have also increased the threat of extinction of Hawai‘i’s native species. While some species in the Islands began declining as soon as outsiders arrived with their own animals and diseases, environmental specialists say invasive plants are flourishing amid today’s unpredictable rainfall patterns, which can yo-yo from drought to flooding to long spells of dry, hot weather. Those flourishing invaders include Miconia, a highly invasive plant, nicknamed “the green cancer of the Pacific” because of its ability to spread fast and squeeze out native species unable to tolerate the heavy shade canopy it creates.

 

Hotter temperatures and a lush but vulnerable island environment also allow invasive animals to thrive, such as axis deer, which have been destroying the native forest. Last November, the state declared an axis deer overpopulation crisis as a result of the devastation. More destructive storms as well as invasive damage intensify the threat to the native forest, says Emma Yuen, native ecosystems program manager for the Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources. “Climate change is a huge threat for many reasons to our native species,” she says.

 

Each year, the agency seeks funding for fencing to reach its goals to protect native forests and species. The request to the Legislature for the next two-year budget cycle is $5 million per year. In 2011, only about 10% of the state’s priority native forests were fenced. That’s increased to 21% since, and the state now has a goal to protect 30% of those priority forests by 2030, Yuen says. “What is happening to those native forests every second of every day is that they’re being eaten by hoofed animals—pigs, goats, wild cattle, sheep, deer—and basically being reduced to bare ground.” That destruction from hoofed animals and other human-caused threats has taken a huge toll. “Over 200 native species of Hawaiian plants and animals are believed to have gone extinct in the last 200 years, and over 500 Hawaiian species are listed as threatened or endangered by the federal and state government.”

 

Rising temperatures brought by climate change have also allowed mosquitoes to thrive in more places, another deadly threat to once-pristine areas at high elevations. Mosquitoes are now decimating species they never would have encountered in the past, Yuen says. “They’re creeping higher and higher up the mountain past 4,500 feet. And even just one bite can be fatal if the mosquito is transmitting avian malaria. So, we’re quickly losing our forest birds and have a few species that, if we don’t do anything, will go extinct in probably the next five years.”  She says the akeke‘e, ‘akikiki, and the kiwikiu or Maui  parrotbill are likely the most threatened with immediate extinction.

 

In December, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a plan to designate more than 275,000 acres on Maui, Kaua‘i and Hawai‘i Island as critical habitat to protect  the iconic ‘i‘iwi, which is declining due to habitat loss. The imperiled honeycreeper was once among the Islands’ most plentiful forest birds, known for its bright red plumage, black wings and distinctive salmon-colored, curved bill, but is struggling to survive. Where there were once 50 honeycreeper species, recent surveys show that only 17 remain, some with only a few hundred birds left. The plan came after the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity sued the Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect Hawaiian forest birds from extinction in 2021, pointing to eight Hawai‘i birds that are likely extinct—the Kaua‘i ‘akialoa, Kaua‘i nukupu‘u, Kaua‘i ‘ō‘ō, kāma‘o, Maui ‘ākepa, Maui nukupu‘u, kākāwahie and po‘ouli—as well as a plant from the mint family that is found only in Hawai‘i. Hawai‘i was once home to more than 750 species of land snails but scientists estimate 90% are gone.

A Glimmer of Hope

Last year, Kamehameha Schools, DLNR and Three Mountain Alliance announced the discovery of a small population of a rare plant believed to be extinct. Conservationists found several Delissea argutidentata growing on a dead māmane stump in the Keauhou area of Hawai‘i Island. Since then, the plants have been fenced for protection, more than 30 of the keiki have been planted in the wild and others are being propagated in nurseries.

 

The plant, which has a long, palmlike trunk topped by a round cluster of leaves, once grew abundantly under the shade of giant koa trees and in old volcanic craters. But for 20 years there had been no recorded sightings of them in the wild.

 

While so much of the work in this field has focused on what’s been lost—native species, forests, sacred places—Jeremiah sees this plant’s rediscovery as a sign of hope for environmental, cultural and community resilience. “Our ‘āina is still resilient, and it’s only a small glimpse of it in one area, but I think it kind of brings you that hope that others can be found.”