A recent guest lecture in Hawi sponsored by Sustainable Kohala Ohana
presented an island pioneer in food security Craig Elevitch.
Craig Elevitch has been in the food game quite a while. He like others have had the complete look at what we have now in the food pipe line in Hawaii. And what we have in that pipe line is for the most part all we have. It didn’t used to be that way so we know we have to turn the whole game around because we live in times where the pipeline could easily get shut off. OIL EMBARGO! 90% plus of OUR food comes from OFF these islands!
The bottom line is that to be safe we are all going to have to have 60 days stowed in bug tight buckets, a quarter acre of agro forest in working shape on our property, and some bigger community gardens well under way for those who won’t get in the game on time.
For solutions he decided that rather than look to a complicated combination of new approaches to look instead at the Pacific island cultures that have already figured out how to do this with the maximum return and the minimum effort. The good news they have great working models. He went to Samoa, Tonga, Yap, and Palau for his research. He found combinations of what we would call food forests or edible landscaping. Seldom did we see row crops and never too much of anything so the pests wouldn’t set in. The ground has a mix of fruiting trees at all heights and big Yams under the ground. At first glance it just looks like a beautiful green jungle. But you take in your shoulder born grocery cart and work the ground, the bushes, and all the trees above. The bio mass is stunning and the acreage very well utilized. The moisture is held in the mix. The chickens and pigs have their way with the bounty but there is plenty for them to get what they need without off island grains.
The tough news is that there are hundreds of little skills that don’t meet the eye that they have learned over the years that we will all just have to grow into. Their children were the happy inheritors of this knowledge base and it comes to them early with exposure to the earth as supermarket. In Samoa they are up in the cool of the morning both harvesting their luscious forests and replanting this and that as they go. They rest in the middle of the day and do a little clean up later on. The end result is really lovely.
Craig is putting together a quarter acre demonstration project in south Kona and is willing to share his progress with us as he goes. We will be keeping you posted on this site on his approach and related solutions. If you learn something of value e-mail it to me at jim@arcturus.org and I will get her up. Feel free to print the stories off the website and posts them in your neighborhoods. This is a situation where we can only really be secure if everyone pitches in. Kokua to da max brah!
Early steps to take include getting your ground in shape, putting in fast growing nitrogen fixing bushes, getting the seed pack available from Nancy Redfeather (seed eschange) in Kona, learn to forage your own Ahu, meet with your neighbors (ohana) and share resources and meeting points, and just get started. This kind of work build real community faster than any other way. The Pacific Islanders partied for months after harvest was over. Is that so bad?
And make this all fun for yourself. In the long run this will make your land really profitable and valuable. We have to rethink the entire system of agriculture on these islands. Lets get started.
Oh, and by the way this the the long range solution ...the short range incudes have 60 -70 days of food properly stored somewhere on the premises. We recommend 5 galloon paint buckets with tops ($5.00)
to store grains, beans, and candles, matches etc (see you Civil defense lists in the phone book) and then cases of canned items like refried beans and some sausages etc. Think of what will go with the heavy greens that you will be getting from your garden.
