The food crisis developing worldwide is predicted to get worse. It is a mounting condition that is producing hunger and starvation in many parts of the world. It is prudent for us on Kaua‘i to see the warning, and also
The food crisis developing worldwide is predicted to get worse. It is a mounting condition that is producing hunger and starvation in many parts of the world. It is prudent for us on Kaua‘i to see the warning, and also the opportunity, that this condition presents.
Food prices will continue to rise as shortages increase. Shipping costs will also escalate as fuel costs rise. The loss of farmland and the loss of farmers is a mounting problem. And the UN World Health Organization has advised that the world population has already exceeded the capability of the planet to feed the population from existing resources. Meanwhile, the population continues to grow.
The crisis is certainly clear. However, the response on Kaua‘i is still mixed. The reality is that we need to begin addressing the food crisis here at home. But instead, some folks hope that things will soon get back to normal. That won’t happen; the trends in the other direction are simply too strong. Some other folks hope that government will provide a solution. That won’t happen either, at least not in time to avert the crisis. If you look at the priorities of government, they are looking in a lot of other directions. And finally, a lot of folks on Kaua‘i simply ignore the problem with a naive sense that nothing is really wrong, or if there is a crisis, someone will solve it somehow, before things get really bad.
Fortunately, there is a small but expanding group of folks here on the island that are beginning to address the situation. They are planting backyard gardens, joining hands with neighbors to form small community gardens and taking courses to improve their skills and knowledge of organic practices that produce rich and wholesome harvests.
This is a promising pathway to increased abundance for our island that is being fostered by Kaua‘i Community College with programs to train a new breed of farmers and to create a labor force to support the emergence of a new food industry. These training programs are scheduled to accommodate the personal schedules of candidates and lead to higher skill levels along a one-year continuum. The programs are based on state-of-the-art sustainable practices drawn from America’s top universities and agricultural research organizations.
However, the training program leaders at KCC have discovered that good training alone is not enough. So, in order to assist graduates with the multitude of problems that new farmers invariably encounter, the college is now developing farm service teams that can assist not only graduates, but also other gardeners and farmers with the full range of challenges from startup to full-scale production. The goal is to increase Kaua‘i’s successful progression toward higher levels of food self-sufficiency.
If you wish to help resolve the crisis by addressing the opportunity, you are invited to contact Glenn Hontz, director of KCC Food Career Pathways at 246-4859 or at hontz@hawaii.edu.
