FLICKING THROUGH SOME MAGAZINES the other day, I opened a copy of Maui (March-April 2009 edition) expecting some glossy lifestyle-come-tourism read. Instead, I was surprised to find articles on the plight of the island’s farmers and some of the solutions they are trying to make their livelihoods economically viable and the island’s food system sustainable.

We may be at opposite ends of the Pacific but, just as it’s the same ocean that laps Hawaii’s North Shore as washes the sands of Coogee, so too do we share some of the same food issues.

An article entitled Home Grown by Jill Engeldow explained the situation there through three themes: farming, sustainability, food localisation.

Maui’s farms

One of the Hawai’ian chain, Maui is a continental island with a number of regional microclimates that provide suitable growing conditions for a range of crops and grazing animals. The crops that grow in these microclimates deliver a diversity of foods and make up the island’s agricultural heritage. Although tourism started to bring in other influences in the 1970s, it also stimulated a continuing demand for local food such as exotic fruits and flowers.

What is lost in freshness is gained in packaging

According to Ms Engeldow, Hawaii imports a full 80 percent of its food which, were supply lines disrupted, would leave five to seven days food on the shelves. Compare this with the estimate for Australia of a week and the UK of two to three days. She writes that food imported from mainland USA travels around 2414 kilometres (1500 miles) to reach Hawaii, and that transported from other Pacific sources around 3860 kilometers (2400 miles). What is lost in freshness is gained in packaging, she says.

This is not unlike the Australian situation. Here, the size of the continent offers us a diversity of climates suited to the cultivation of a broad range of foods. Most of the perishable vegetables and herbs can be grown in the immediate vicinity of our towns and cities, and it is in these foods — those that can be regionally produced — that local food advocates propose for local production to feed local people and to support local food markets and the industries they depend upon. That still leaves a huge selection of foods, raw and processed, that could be traded between regions — tropical fruit, grains, wine and so on.

Warren Watanabe, identifies the reliance on petroleum as a further vulnerability as it is used throughout the farming cycle, from fertilisers, farm machinery, seed and for the transportation for produce

With around 92 percent of Maui farms less than 404 hectares (1000 acres), Harld Keyser of the Hawai’i College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources says that water, transport and storage are challenges facing the island’s agriculture. Maui’s County Farm Bureau president, Warren Watanabe, identifies the reliance on petroleum as a further vulnerability as it is used throughout the farming cycle, from fertilisers, farm machinery, seed and for the transportation for produce. Others point to labour shortage and the associated low wages paid to farm labour as well as recent episodes of drought being additional challenges.

Solution

Many people Engeldow spoke to for her article said that farmer innovation is critical to maintaining the island’s traditional agricultural base.

Some are engaged in promoting the value of local Maui food and in getting eaters to pay a little more for it, as — like in so many others places — farming on Maui is impacted by the globalised food industry and food imported from the big farms on the US mainland sells cheaper than local food. The Department of Agriculture estimates that, were Hawai’i to replace a mere ten percent of its food imports with locally sourced produce, an extra US$313 million would flow into the state’s economy and up to 2300 jobs would be created.

Roadside stalls have become fewer and they are an institution that needs support through the throwing out of legislation that would discourage them

Much the same might be said of places like Sydney, a city that retains a viable local food industry in the production of perishable vegetables, poultry, eggs and fruit. That, however, requires state and local government action to legislate the retention of periurban farmland rather than facilitating its paving and development, and that is the big sticking point in the future of Sydney’s locally-produced food supply and the industry it supports.

Some of Maui’s farmer innovations include direct selling to the public through streetside stalls, value adding to rural produce, attempting to influence primary and secondary students in favour of a farming life through a schools program (the average age of Maui’s farmers is 55), the adoption of agritourism and support for legislation such as that currently before the legislature that would see government procurement favouring the local product for use in schools, hospitals and other institutions.

Some of this, too, could be emulated here. Roadside stalls have become fewer and they are an institution that needs support through the throwing out of legislation that would discourage them and its replacement with legislation drawn up by intelligent legislators with a knowledge of farm economics and secure food systems.

The potential for agritourism has been explored in Sydney’s periurban area through the Hawkesbury Farm Gate Trail that takes visitors to a range of farm enterprises. Hawkes Bay, on New Zealand’s North Island, has developed a similar trail. The wine industry has pioneered the trail concept and food and wine based tours have sprung up wherever there are wineries. Innovative wineries also set an example to farmers by providing accommodation and restaurants.

Other initiatives

Glancing through Maui magazine, I couldn’t help but notice the ‘Grown on Maui’ logo. I thought of the Sydney Farmer’s Network ‘Sydney Grown’ logo that was a good idea that went nowhere… or that could go everywhere were a grant found to hire marketing and food industry people to promote its adoption. “Fresh and local matter”, states the copy accompanying the logo. “Buy Grown on Maui products at farmers’ markets, stores and restaurants island-wide”.

Then there was the food education program ad for the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition, America by Food. Movies, taro field days and taro self-guided tours, ‘green classes’ in composting, edible landscaping and organic gardens, and local produce promoted through cooking and eating at Maui restaurants.

Maui magazine also carried the story of two restauranteurs who have decided to go local when it comes to sourcing their ingredients. One has gone the whole sustainability distance, installing photovoltaic panels to offset some of the restaurant’s energy use, seeking environmentally safe cleaning products, using biodergradable containers for take-aways and installing intelligent air conditioning that is selectable as to where to process air and from which the heat generated is used to warm up to 1270 litres (280 gallons) of hot water in every eight hour period.

The email of one of the restauranters, who is a co-founder of the Hawai’ian Regional Cuisine movement, carries the statement: “Locavores since 1988″ to illustrate where his food sympathies lay.

The magazine visited an upland organic farm and nursery producing vegetables in a ‘mandala’ shaped circular garden and that breeds native Hawai’ian flowers for the local market. Some exotics are also grown although the proprieters saying that they are not native plant “purists”. The establishment features a timber construction house, water storage, photovoltaic energy and solar hot water.

It was refreshing to find what appears to be a tourism magazine seriously discussing the island’s food issues and proposing solutions. It is by reporting success and innovation that solutions are spread.