Sustainable Agriculture : eating local foods

Vegetable Gardening at the Oahu Urban Garden Center -- July 11, 2009

VincentD — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:04:00 GMT

Vegetable Gardening Saturday, July 11, 2009 from 9:00 – 12:00 noon Mini plant sale with UH vegetable seeds starters. Learn about resources from the University of Hawaii to help you start and maintain your vegetable garden. See vegetables growing at the...(read more)

September Sustainable Agriculture Conferences - Big Island - Mark your calendars!

VincentD — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:03:00 GMT

Western SARE Subregional Conference for Hawai'i Celebrating 20 years of WSARE in Hawaii plus Strategic Planning for HI sustainable agriculture for the next Twenty September 23-24th, 2008 Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort 78-6740 Alii Drive, Kailua-Kona...(read more)

Images of a Sustainable Food Revolution

VincentD — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 03:45:00 GMT

How many of you have been to Iowa? For me, hundreds of times; having grown up in Illinois, Iowa is our next door neighbor. Iowa is also symbolic of modern agriculture but it's also becoming symbolic of changes in American agriculture. Check out Tom...(read more)

Do you know where your food comes from??

VincentD — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 05:46:00 GMT

Grist , the Environmental News and Commentary web site has launched a new series articles about food, farming and agriculture. Sow What? is your opportunity to think about where your food comes from, how it got there and what were the environmental consequences...(read more)

Do you know where your garlic comes from?

VincentD — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 01:29:00 GMT

Gilroy, California - right? Home of the Gilroy Garlic Festival? OK, the central valley of California? Have you considered China? According to the UN FAO, the value of China's exports of garlic has increased from $145 M in 2000, to $482 M in 2005. To put it in perspective, the 2005 farm gate value of Hawaii agriculture (all of Hawaii agriculture) was $565 M. The U.S. became a net importer of garlic in 1998, according to a 2006 UC-Davis report on garlic. Seventy-six percent of the imported garlic is fresh product and most comes from China. Over the same period, the value of California garlic has declined from a peak of $200 M in 1999 to $136 M in 2005 (source USDA Economic Research Service). Demand for garlic has not declined, in fact, has increased. Per capita consumption of garlic has risen from 1.3 pounds in 1990 to 2.6 pounds in 2004.

So despite all the talk about the importance of buying locally produced fruits and vegetables, according to Grist Magazine, the globalization of our food supply grows stronger and by comparison produce farming in the U.S. weakens. In their article, posted August 30, 2007, globalization is smothering U.S. fruits and vegetable farms. Why so? Aren't American consumers being encouraged to consume more fruits and vegetables? Of course, but most consumers don't buy produce from where it comes from -- they buy on price. And Chinese garlic is cheaper than California garlic. But Chinese garlic has to travel so much farther to get here? But American costs are much higher. And consider the recent crackdown on undocumented workers, many of whom worked in American fields, some estimates have it at 70% of U.S. farmworkers are undocumented.

So one factor affecting the cost is the lack of workers to harvest the crops in the fields.
With all the unfortunate recalls of produce and concerns about the food safety -- there is growing demand from politicians and others to increase the FDA or USDA oversight on farms, to prevent contamination of our produce. Another cost that will eventually be passed onto consumers.

But it's much more than costs - the cheaper Chinese garlic is just one part of the equation. American consumers want year round asparagus or grapes or oranges or blueberries. And it has to come from somewhere! China or Chile or Argentina or Brazil or Australia or New Zealand, take your pick. In the same trip to Costco, I've seen grapes from Chile, bell peppers from Holland and tomatoes from Mexico.

It's an interesting challenge. Globalization of our food supply has now provided us with year round produce and in many cases, of excellent quality. The post harvest treatments and the innovations in packaging and shipping, make this all possible. Look carefully when you buy your produce in the grocery store or at Costco or Sam's. Where from? I buy about 90% of my produce at Hawaii farmer's markets (we still can't grow peaches). I know where it comes from. Yes, I pay more but I try to support our local farmers.

U.S. Garlic Imports, from the UC Davis report on Garlic, original source USDA Foreign Ag Service:

Food safety and produce

VincentD — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 02:24:00 GMT

Is produce the safest fresh food group? That's the question posed by the Barfblog today. The Ontario (Canada) Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, estimates that 41% of foodborne illness in Ontario can be attributed to produce. A 2005 study in Emerging Infectious Diseases 11(4):603-609 indicates that 38 of 183 foodborne outbreaks (21%) were directly related to produce. Thirty-four percent (34%) of the produce-related outbreaks were from lettuce; 18% from apple cider or apple juice; 16% from salad and 11% each for melons and cole slaw. Dr. Michael Doyle of the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety told a recent meeting of the Institute of Food Technologists in Chicago that in the 25 years preceding 1997, there were 190 outbreaks of foodborne illness associated with fresh produce. In the five years that followed, the number jumps to 249. The Marler Blog, of the Marler-Clark law firm provides commentary on the resurgence of E. coli outbreaks in the last few years and cites an article written by Bill Hord of the Omaha World-Harold entitled "E.coli vexes despite safety effort." The article shows an upward trend since 2004 of E.coli illness. The Marler Blog has also taken notice of the E. coli contamination of lettuce from Kauai in a recent posting.

While we should all continue to eat fresh produce and strive for our 5-a-days, it begs the question that shouldn't we be also examining how to avoid or reduce or mitigate the potential contamination of our fruits and vegetables? If you've ever had a serious food borne illness, you know it's not just the "runs." It can be very serious especially in children and senior citizens. If we are to continue to support the Buy Fresh, Buy Local industry in Hawaii, shouldn't we also be working with our farmers to make sure that the local produce is as safe as possible?

Community Supported Agriculture

VincentD — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 17:57:00 GMT

Ever heard of Community Supported Agriculture -- or CSA? It's really "subscription farming." For those of us who live in the city and have, I admit, a "black" thumb, CSA's provide an opportunity to support a farming operation and receive, usually weekly, a box of produce. What's in the box varies from week to week depending upon what's being grown. The subscription fee goes to support the farmer and to cover costs of production. The farmer will often deliver the produce to you or to a centralized pick up point. When I attended the 2006 National SARE meeting in Wisconsin, last summer, there were several presentations given on Community Supported Agriculture. CSA's are growing, not only as an opportunity to market directly your product to consumers, but as an educational tool on many college campuses. The Michael Fields Agricultural Institute located outside of Madison, WI provides opportunities for University of Wisconsin students interested in sustainable agriculture to get hands on experience, while operating a CSA. The F.H. King Students of Sustainable Agriculture is an actual student run organization, also operating a CSA at the University of Wisconsin. Student-run CSA's are run on the campuses of the University of Minnesota, Michigan State University, Iowa State University, Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo, UC-Davis, Stanford and many more. The Rodale Institute maintains a directory of student run CSA's.

Unfortunately, Student-run farms and CSA's, in general, have not caught on well in Hawaii. The Ma'o Organic Farm on the Waianae Coast of Oahu is not a CSA but students from the area work on the farm. Kimberly Clark's (a former CTAHR student) Just Add Water is a commercial CSA that operates on Oahu; but there aren't that many in the state. The Hawaii Department of Agriculture provides a brief notice about CSA's on their web site but no directories. CTAHR maintains two sites with information on organic and sustainable agriculture. Nationally, more information about sustainable and organic agriculture can be found at the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service which is managed by the National Center for Appropriate Technology.

Bottom line is that Buying Fresh and Buying Local doesn't necessarily mean going to your local farmer's market, although, in Hawaii that's the main way to do so. Community Supported Agriculture is another alternative. It's quite popular on the mainland, especially around urban centers. We can only hope that it expands further.

Buying Local...

VincentD — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 23:24:00 GMT

On August 6, the New York Times featured an op-ed piece, "Food That Travels Well" from James McWilliams, the author of the 2005 book, "A Revolution in Eating." McWilliams makes many good reasons for eating local:

"...freshness, purity, taste, community cohesion and preserving open space -- but none of these benefits compareas to the much touted claim that eating local reduces fossil fuel consumption. In this respect eating local joins recycling, biking to work and driving a hybrid as a realistic way that we can, as individuals, shrink our carbon footprint and be good stewards of the environment."

Iowa State University's Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture has done extensive research on the impact of food miles on Iowa consumers. Our location in the middle of the Pacific automatically adds a greater "carbon footprint" to our imported food supply. All the more reason to buy local. Bon Appetit Management Company, which supplies cafe and catering services to corporations, colleges and universities, encourages the chefs to think about how there food choices can help ease climate change. Such as:

Reduce the use of beef by 25% - Livestock production is resopnsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions.
Sourcing all meat and poultry from North America - 80% of the energy used by the food system comes not from growing the food, but by transporting and processing it.
Sourcing nearly all fruits and vegetables from North America, using seasonal local produce as a first preference and using tropical fruits only as "special" occasion ingredients -- Most bananas have traveled 3,000 miles in high-speed refrigerated ships to reach an American breakfast plate. A local apple might be grown within 10 miles.
Serving only domestic bottled water and reducing waste from plastic bottles -- Americans throw away 40 million plast water bottles every day
Reducing food waste -- Goal of 25% reduction in three years or less.
Auditing the energy efficiency of kitchen equipment - In home or commercial kitchen energy losses of up to 30% can be easily corrected for very low cost.

While the context of their suggestions are based upon the mainland, we face these impacts and more. Consider beef consumption in Hawaii -- only 5% of the beef consumed in Hawaii is locally finished. When the last of the feedlots closed in Hawaii, Hawaii rancher's were forced by economic necessity to find other options to market their cattle. What evolved is the current situation of shipping calves to the mainland, following by finishing and processing in mainland feedlots and slaughterhouses and the beef coming back to Hawaii, as commodity beef in boxes. That's potentially two trips back and forth to the mainland. Imagine the "carbon footprint" and the food miles that are involved. Will that stop me from eating beef, not likely but I am certainly more inclined to support locally produced grass-fed beef (and which some would argue is healthier). Unfortunately, except for North Shore Beef, there is little local beef available on Oahu. The markets on the neighbor islands have more of the local product. But until more local beef is produced, eating beef will exact a greater carbon footprint than many other products. But then again, don't get me started on poultry...