Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Sustainability

I sometimes get tired of that term; it gets to be overused and overplayed.

How about simply calling it doing the right things for the right reasons?

Our existence here is not about us and it’s not about now.

As Isaac Newton suggested, we are standing on the shoulders of those who came before us … that gives us the responsibility to pass on the legacy to those who follow.

Others before us planted the seed; it is our responsibility to nurture its growth, so those in the future may enjoy its fruit … and sow the seeds for yet future generations.

Our responsibility is to move from the “what’s in it for me” and “I got mine” mentalities, toward a long-term frame of reference and a focus on others (those we will never meet,) rather than ourselves.

That’s what sustainability means to me.  Happy Earth Day.

© 2013 Hoʻokuleana LLC

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Hoʻokuleana LLC to Receive “Innovation in Sustaining Places” Award

We are proud and honored to report that we just received word that the American Planning Association – Hawaiʻi Chapter selected us to receive the “Innovation in Sustaining Places” award for a Master Plan we prepared for a private agricultural park on the Big Island.

This is our third APA-Hawaiʻi award in a row; in prior years, two of our other plans were given the “Environment/Preservation” awards.

According to APA-Hawaiʻi, the award “Recognizes examples of truly innovative best practices for sustaining places.  Submissions should show specific examples of how sustainability practices are being used in how places are planned, designed, built, used, and maintained at all scales and how place-based strategies are integrated in the broader discussion of sustainability. Areas of specific interest include energy use and efficiency, green infrastructure, resource conservation, transportation choices and impacts, compact development, density, diversity, revitalization, employment opportunities, and population impacts.”

We took a different approach in the preparation of the plan.  In addition to the conventional land use layout, we made specific management and operational recommendations.  These were made to help assure that agriculture (food) will be the focus, goals/commitments are being addressed and tenants/collaborators are on track to fulfill the mission and vision.

Ultimately, a goal is to meld Hawaiian traditional wisdom with modern sustainability concepts and take an integrated approach in the design and operation of the Ag Park, incorporating understanding and respect for the land, the surrounding community and the environment.

In addition to other approaches listed throughout the Master Plan, we sought to incorporate the following sustainability approaches: Mālama ‘Āina, Organic Farming Practices, Composting, and Beneficial, Effective and Indigenous Microorganisms.

The context in which the Master Plan was prepared, particularly in relation to the overall Agricultural Park management strategy, addressed strong and recurring themes of Tradition, Sustainability, Integrated Holistic Approach, Long‐term Timeframe, Cooperation and Collaboration, Diversity of Foods and Economic Viability.

While farmers claim to be notoriously independent, attempts are made at every stage of the development and operation of the Park to incorporate multiple uses/reuse of resources; this included demonstrating the benefit of allocating one farm’s “waste” to fill another farm’s “need.”  In a sense, the Ag Park management philosophy views the overall Agricultural Park more like an integrated farm, rather than an assemblage of independent, individual farms.

The goal and central theme of the plan is:  “Food from Kohala for Kohala.”

I’ll have some more on this, later, but am excited to share the great news we received at the end of this past week.  The award will be formally presented in September at the statewide Hawai‘i Congress of Planning Officials’ meeting.  The image illustrates some of the uses proposed within the Master Plan.

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How Much Land Do We Need To Be Food Self-Sufficient?

Given the recent and on-going conversations on food “self-sufficiency” and “sustainability,” in trying to answer the above question, I first looked to existing State plans to see the estimates and computations noted there.
To my surprise, there is no detail in the Hawaii 2050 Plan (the State’s most recent long-range planning document) that quantifies how much land is needed for food self-sufficiency.
While it does use “happy words” (as I describe its text) generalizing that we need to do this or that; however, no roadmap to get there or measures of success are included.
I then did an internet investigation into the matter to see if ‘rules of thumb’ or other standards could apply.  The evidence is variable.
As noted by the graphic used here, some suggest, at a self-subsistence level, a family of four can live off of approximately 2-acres of land.
Extend that to the Hawai‘i’s existing defacto population of about 1.5-million people, we need about 750,000-acres of land to feed everyone.  (Of course, there are economies of scale when moving from individual family subsistence production to commercial scale production, so this number is inflated.)
(By the way, de facto population is defined as the number of persons physically present in an area, regardless of military status or usual place of residence.  It includes visitors present but excludes residents temporarily absent, both calculated as an average daily census.)
The 750K acres for 1.5M people conflicts with a report on feeding the people in the city of Detroit.  In that report, Detroit’s 5.4-million people would require only 164,250-acres to feed everyone there, per year.
Extrapolating that to Hawai‘i’s 1.5-million de facto population that means, under the Detroit analysis, Hawai‘i only needs about 45,625-acres of farmland to feed the State.  Hmmm.
Another study on Costa Rica “Quantifying Sustainable Development: The Future of Tropical Economies” suggests that it takes about 495,000-acres of land to feed 1.2- to 1.6-million people.
Of course, all of these estimates do not include the significant dietary supplement we are able to use in Hawai‘i by harvesting seafood from the surrounding ocean.
Nor does it include opportunities that concentrated farming offer, like aquaponics, hydroponics, intensive grazing, etc.
So, while we talk about food “self-sufficiency” and “sustainability” what are we doing about it?
Lately, I think the only ‘action’ has been talk – folks go to a meeting, talk, then they prepare a plan.  They meet again, and talk some more.  Then everyone goes away satisfied that they are ‘doing’ something (until the next happy words meeting.)
Presently, the State designates about 1.9-million acres as “Agriculture.” The USDA reports Hawai‘i’s total farm acreage is 1.1-million acres of land.
And, of course, you can farm lands that are not designated ‘agriculture;’ meaning, a lot more land is available for food production from lands under other land use classifications (including everyone’s own backyard.)
 
Given that, should we all feel comfortable there will be food for us in the future?
Not quite.
I think it is about time we have a frank discussion about what our needs are and start to take the necessary steps to ultimately realize our goal of food self-sufficiency and sustainability.
The world is changing in lots of ways – we cannot blindly go along with business as usual (with just happy words) in addressing this important and critical need.