She Grows Food

Can we help to save a farming community? We have done it before. We need to do it again.

At the end of World War II, Hawaii’s Okinawan community quickly mobilized after they learned that Okinawa’s farms were nearly completely destroyed. They rallied their resources and sent seeds, milking goats and pigs to help restart Okinawa’s local food system.

This amazing story about the power of compassion and community was ironically revealed to us during a deep investigation into the disappearance of Hawaii’s own hog farms.

We went in with these questions: Why is it so hard to find fresh island-raised pork? What happened to all of the farmers?

Since the 1950’s, ever-increasing and encroaching housing development has shut down hundreds of hog and chicken farms on Oahu – from Kalihi Valley, Waialae, Koko Head, Ewa Beach, even Moiliili. In the early 1970’s, 60% of the pork consumed here in Hawaii were from local farms.

Leap to 2011. We need to recover our tradition of hog farming in Hawaii.

How can we help?

Step 1: Raise demand for local pork. Ask our retailers, restaurants, and friends to start serving locally-raised pork. A way to revitalize our hog farms is to increase and secure the demand for locally-raised pork. It is important to ask for locally-raised, not just locally processed. By increasing the demand for locally-raised pork we are securing and protecting our remaining farms. An ever increasing demand for locally-raised pork may encourage others to come back into hog farming or start hog farming.

Step 2: Buy local pork. Higa Meats has a retail outlet on Oahu and sells Shinsato Farm pork. Contact them at: (808) 531-3591. M & H Kaneshiro Farms is on Kauai and can be reached at (808) 742-7285.

Step 3: Enjoy local pork. Here are a few places serving up local pork: town, Heeia Pier and Deli, Morning Glass, Baja-Style Mexican Cuisine (Honolulu and Kailua Farmers Markets, sometimes KCC), Guava Smoked (Honolulu Farmers Market), 12th Avenue Grill, Kona Brewing Co., BLT, Kalapawai Cafe, Roy’s Ko’olina and Waikiki. If you know of any place else serving Shinsato or Kaneshiro farm pork, let us know!

Step 4: Spread the word. Pick up the phone, email, blog, tweet, post. Or write a letter to the Editor or Op-Ed like we did! Here’s a link to “Food Traditions and Food Security” in case you haven’t seen it.

Both Shinsato and Kaneshiro farms are piglet to plate operations. What we mean by piglet to plate is that these farms are full circle – both raise their pigs from baby and they are cared for by a family, day in and day out. In our industrialized world, this way of traditional hog farming is a rarity. This tradition of family pig raising has evolved and refined itself over centuries in Okinawa, and over generations here in Hawaii. It is definitely a craft, and after getting to know these farmers, you may even feel as we do, that it is an art.

Two of the remaining hog farms in Hawaii are owned and operated by families of Okinawan descent, speaks to the deep cultural relevance of agriculture and food in our lives and in our world. We are fascinated with this and will be posting more on this.

That women are a significant part of the operations of both farms is also completely intriguing to us. We’ll be posting our interview with Amy Shinsato, along with a pink hued spotlight on Okinawan cuisine’s love affair with pork. Then stay tuned for an interview with and profile on Val Kaneshiro.

I started to track the progress of farmer Severine von Tscharner Fleming’s film project “The Greenhorns” after reading Temra Costa’s groundbreaking book “Farmer Jane” (I recommend buying or borrowing it – my book review is coming soon.) Severine is profiled in the book as one of the many farmers behind the scenes of the national food and farming movement. I got on Severine’s film screening list and a year later feel very grateful to be able to bring it here to be seen.

With help from our friends at the Department of Art at University of Manoa and co-sponsor Asagi Hatchery, we present a screening of “The Greenhorns” on Friday, July 1st at 7:00 p.m. at the UH Art Auditorium (campus map). Seating will be first come basis, sorry no reservations. The film runs 50 minutes. Admission is free because we’re hoping to entice you into becoming a greenhorn, and anyway, greenhorns need to use their money for stuff like seed, tools and medical insurance.

The film documents the reemergence on our national landscape of the young American farmer – second and third generations coming back home to carry on the farm, brand new farmers diving in, and community-styled urban farms popping up. Severine takes us to farms on the East, South, and West Coast to visit and talk with young people slowly revitalizing their local food systems. It may look like a new kind of farmer and farming at first glance, but it’s not. What we see is a process of recovery of agrarian roots as small holding farms – diverse, direct market oriented, and localized – community oriented.

These stories paint a picture of resurgence in a time when agriculture is operating on a longstanding trend of farmer attrition and aging, and the rapid loss of farmland to development. The average age of a farmer in America is 57, and in Hawaii farmland is being lost to real estate development at an alarming rate as our family farmers retire. Why? Because most farmers in Hawaii have been boxed into commodity gate farming – relying on distributors to market their products, distributors who require our farmers to compete with mainland imports even though farming in Hawaii is more than triple the cost of farming elsewhere. In this paradigm, farmers can barely make ends meet and are sometimes forced to sell their land as a means of survival after retirement or injury.

“The Greenhorns” spotlights how some young agrarians are choosing to respond to the challenges of not just farming but of marketing, and how they are working to reverse negative trends in favor of healthy food, local and regional foodsheds, and the revitalization of rural economies, one farm at a time.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack’s recent call for 100,000 new farmers is an encouraging sign of support from government bodies. With over 400 million acres of farmland poised to change hands over the next twenty years, it’s time to organize. The 2012 Farm Bill package of legislation is already in the pipeline. Severine’s work on this film has also given birth to a web-based network for young farmers to start organizing on a national level. This film puts it all in context.

We hope to someday visit Severine at her livestock and produce growing Smithereen farm in Hudson, New York.

My family’s business, Asagi Hatchery is pleased to be co-sponsoring this film. Not a day goes by at the hatchery without the delight of listening to someone share a deep-seated, sparkling wish to be able to live and work full-time on their own little farm. We support people who want to grow their own food and live simply!

So please come if you can. And let your dreams and the dreams of others, take hold.

Thanks for reading,
-Lisa

On Thursday, June 30, 2011, at 9:30 a.m., Delaware-based land developers D.R. Horton Inc., will come before the State of Hawaii’s Land Use Commission for a second time to request approval of their Ho’opili Project. They are requesting Agriculturally-Zoned land be turned into Urban Use.

This project will develop 12,000 new houses, between Waipahu and Kapolei, on what is known as the most fertile and useful agricultural land on Oahu and considered by UH Soil Scientist Dr. Goro Uehara to be the best farmland in the world. The soil in this acreage are in the highest productivity categories (classified as A and B), which is very rare for our islands due to the geological age and volcanic composition.

Why would the Land Use Commission approve Ho’opili’s zoning change request when more than 38,000 new homes in Central O’ahu and the Ewa Plain have already been zoned but not yet built? We may add another 12,000 homes to that list of new homes not built and at what cost? These are questions we must take the time to ask ourselves. Take action and say NO. All it takes is 15 minutes of your time to send in a testimony, it WILL make a difference.

A recent Lloyd’s of London white paper on emerging risks stated that oil could spike in excess of $200 per barrel by 2013. We all know what our economy looked like when a barrel of oil hit $147 back in 2008. And a recent poll of global energy company executives conducted by KPMG Global Energy Institute showed that 67% of them believe that the cost per barrel of oil will hit $120 by the end of 2011. That’s more than enough to curtail consumer spending that drives our economy.

Can we afford to build homes instead of farms to feed our growing community? Will local people be buying homes in that kind of economic environment? We think you’ll agree with us that the answer is no.

Please say no to Ho’opili and send in your testimony to the Land Use Commission by Wednesday, June 29, 2011. Click this link to bring up an email [email protected], “NO to Ho’opili” will appear in the subject line. Please scroll down If you’d like to read the letter we submitted, feel free to use it as a template.

We’re also working with several other groups to get a huge crowd out to show opposition. Please come if you can, we need to show numbers:

When: Thursday, June 30, 2011. 9:30 a.m.
Where: State Office Building, across from St. Andrew’s Cathedral on Beretania.

Please feel free to use Sgf’s letter as a template. Send your email testimony to Email Land Use Commission

Dear Land Use Commissioners:

We strongly oppose the Ho’opili development project for multiple reasons but the impending energy crisis looms high on our list.

A recent Lloyd’s of London white paper on emerging risks, states that oil could spike in excess of $200 a barrel by 2013 (www.lloyds.com/360). That’s two and a half years away. We all recall what our economy looked like when oil hit $147 a barrel back in 2008. But this time it’s not likely that the cost will go back down.

That’s a harsh reality but we should be preparing for the worst-case scenario. If Ho’opili is granted the up zoning, there’s a very high probability that this project may not get off ground. A poll of global energy company executives conducted by KPMG Global Energy Institute showed that 67% of them believe that the cost per barrel of oil will hit $120 by the end of 2011. Consumer confidence will not only shrink, it will take away their ability to make large purchases such as homes.

At $120 a barrel the cost to build the infrastructure alone will rise dramatically making this project a very difficult sell. And if the cost of oil continues to go up in 2012 as some of the energy executives are suggesting, Ho’opili may just be abandoned. But by then O’ahu will have lost what will be badly needed prime agricultural lands as imported food cost starts to skyrocket.

You are entrusted to make decisions in the best interest and welfare of the people of Hawaii. We trust that you will oppose D.R. Horton’s request for the zoning change.

Respectfully,

Lisa Asagi Dan Nakasone
She Grows Food, Co-Founder She Grows Food, Co-Founder

For his second Farmer Series dinner of 2011, Chef Alan Wong debuted Kuahiwi Ranch’s British White beef.

Michelle, her father Al, and daughter Ua flew into town to be at the Farmers Series Dinner. The debut received a great response – a buttery carpaccio and a velvety tenderloin. That night we learned that it was Sami Galimba, Michelle’s mom, who spearheaded the quest to raise British White Cattle at the ranch (as it turned out, she wasn’t at the dinner that night because she was in Nebraska shopping for British White bulls! She bought two!)

Distinguished, hardy and marked as a true heritage breed, British White are an ancient breed of cattle whose origins are speculated to go as far back as the Roman Empire. In 1940, under the threat of heavy bombing and fear of invasion by German forces during World War II, arrangements sought to preserve this special breed by finding sanctuary for select group of them in the American Midwest.

Sami is a creative thinker. She’s been researching the various breeds, looking for ones that can thrive on grass foraging, specifically the grass on their 10,000 acre ranch. To remain viable in this industry, they will need to raise their cattle on grass and market them in Hawaii. Her hard work proved successful, the British Whites are a perfect match.

Where to find: For now, very limited quantities. Michelle will be posting availability on their website: www.kuahiwiranch.com

You can also find her at the KCC Farmers Market every second weekend of the month. We’ll send an update your way too once we hear who’s serving and selling!

Missed the first post about Michelle Galimba and her family’s ranch? Go here.

Mahalo to everyone who participated and attended Chefs and Farmers Facing the Future: a Forum on Food. Over 500 people – chefs, culinary students, farmers, ranchers, food purveyors and other industry professionals along with the general public – nearly filled the 570-seat theater. This was the first event of its kind that brought together the food industry professionals under one roof. That in itself was a big step forward and we were able to start to conversation on Hawaii’s food security with the people on the frontline of our food system.

Six weeks out, tangible results are starting to surface, we’ll keep you posted more as they come in:

– Tilapia Demand: Tropic Fish (seafood distributor and processor) has reported an increase in requests being fielded for tilapia from restaurants and other customers. Our tilapia farmers are now ramping-up production to meet the demand.

– Beef Demand: Wayne Komamura, Zippy’s R&D Chef is now interested in featuring local beef in their chili program. They are already featuring local beef in the hamburgers, hamburger steak, and local moco, which amounts to roughly 255,000 lbs. annually. Featuring local beef in the chili will be a huge boost to our cattle industry.

– Pork Demand: The “Nose-to-Tail” feature story in the Honolulu Star Advertiser that promoted the forum has spurred lasting and substantial interest for local pork. The hog farmer who was featured in the story was having a very difficult year because of the economy but now their production is spoken for. It’s rewarding to know that the market responded and is willing to pay what the farmer needs to remain viable.

– Whole Carcass: Chefs like Peter Merriman, Ed Kenney, Alan Wong and now Jim Babian, Executive Chef of the Four Seasons Hualalai are purchasing whole or half carcasses, “nose-to-tail” to help ranchers defray risk. Our hope is that they will lead to way for other chefs to join this culinary movement to build our local food system.

– EBT in the Farmers Markets: As one of the managers at the Hawaii Farm Bureau’s farmers markets, Lisa has been working for the past year to integrate EBT/SNAP benefits into the markets. Public support expressed on this issue at the Forum has helped tremendously to accelerate this process! We might be seeing this service available as soon as Fall, if all goes well. Thank you to those of you in attendance who brought this issue up and voiced support – a handful of you who were there and are in key positions to lend official support have really come through.

Stay tuned, a forum video is in the works. We have five hours of video from three cameras! We’ll be editing that down to half hour. Or 56 minutes . . .

-Lisa & Dan

More photos:

Heather Threlfall passed away in her sleep on May 16, 2011 at the young age of 62. She was battling breast cancer.

Heather and her husband Dick ran Hawaii Island Goat Diary in beautiful Ahualoa on the Big Island, where Heather was the Chief Cheese Maker among other things.

When you first come up to their farm you get the sense that you are about to be transported into a storybook. And a telling tale of the Threlfall’s farm is that all their goats have names.

Each year meant a new goal – to create a new cheese that would blow the white jackets off their chef friends – and who were also customers. This year was no different, despite a second bout with cancer and rounds of chemotherapy. She had a zest for life as a goat dairy farmer and nationally recognized, award-winning goat cheese maker.

Heather had backbone, true grit. She also had an incredible passion for her craft that you could taste it in her cheese. Heather was one of the first farmers Lisa and I wanted to interview but because of the circumstances, we decided to wait for a better time.

When we lose such a person one might hope that a young woman will emerge and fill the void. We know of a young person with Heather’s sparkle and desire to make great cheese. That young woman visited Heather on her farm a few months ago. Heather and Dick shared what they knew with young people and that will be part of Heather’s legacy.

Aloha ‘oe, Heather. Your spirit lives.

-Dan

What would Hawaii be like without rice?

How will rising energy costs impact the ability to put food on our tables?

What would a creatively sustainable lunch in Hawaii look like?

SGF’s latest collaboration – with the inspirational folks at Leeward Community College’s Culinary Arts Program – is an opportunity to explore these questions, the challenges and very possible solutions.

“Chefs and Farmers Facing Future: A Forum on Food” will take place on Friday, April 15, 2011, 9am-2pm and will be moderated by Food Writer Wanda Adams and Master Sommelier Chuck Furuya.

Forum panelists will discuss Hawaii’s challenging state of food insecurity, the affects of rising energy costs and other issues. Attendants will also sample a locavore menu conceptualized and created by the LCC Culinary Arts Program’s faculty and students.

We’ve got a stellar forum advisory team behind this event too: Wanda Adams, Melissa Chang, Alex Franco, Chuck Furuya, Michelle Galimba, Richard Ha, John Heckathorn, Chef Ed Kenney, Jo McGarry, Dean Okimoto, Betty Shimabukuro, Chef Alan Wong, and Chef Roy Yamaguchi.

If you are interested in attending, please register by calling 455-0298. Seating is limited.

Event schedule here

Location:
Leeward Community College Theater
96-045 Ala Ike, Pearl City, Hawaii 96782
(Lots of on-campus parking)
LCC Campus Map
Google Map