Hawaiʻi has a long way to go in addressing food insecurity. Currently, one-third of Hawaiʻi households — roughly 450,000 people — struggle with concerns about running out of food. Not only that, but health and wellness are directly linked to access to food – so food insecurity often means higher rates of chronic illness. And, because Hawaiʻi is dependent on imports for 85-90% of its food, we are poorly prepared for natural disasters.
These are issues that the initiative “Transforming Hawaiʻi’s Food System Together” (THFST) is trying to correct by engaging directly in food system planning.
“Our findings show that only 12% of Hawaiʻi’s population has an emergency supply of food and, in the case of a significant natural disaster, the state does not have the capacity to support all of the people who will fall into significant deprivation,” said Albie Miles, an associate professor of Sustainable Community Food Systems at UH West Oʻahu and the co-director of the UH’s Ke Ō Mau Center for Sustainable Island Food Systems.
Miles formed the THFST initiative with nonprofit Hawaiʻi Public Health Institute to bring together key partners who want to work toward the common goal of creating a sustainable, equitable and resilient food system — an all-encompassing socio-ecological system that involves food producers, distributors, consumers and its intersection with health, culture and environment.
“As a food system scholar, I felt like we needed to start coming together and start pulling together in a common direction so that we can achieve some larger structural wins on some of this stuff,” Miles said.
“The idea behind the initiative was to really convene stakeholders across the agriculture and food system landscapes in Hawaiʻi; to begin physically convening people to talk about the legislation that’s in front of our state legislature and begin constructing a common vision for food system change in Hawaiʻi.”
THFST has several objectives and a long list of hopes, first of which is “to reduce or eliminate hunger in Hawaiʻi,” Miles said.
Other objectives include: promoting public health and nutrition; building food system resilience and equity; amplifying or scaling bio-cultural restoration efforts in Hawaiʻi; supporting greater biosecurity measures to mitigate the number of invasive exotic species coming into the state; and promoting local agriculture and the economic viability of our local producers.
Since it began in 2020, the initiative has partnered with dozens of local organizations. The Hawaiʻi Public Health Institute serves as the backbone organization, managing logistics and coordination. Community partners include the Hawaiʻi Department of Health, the Hawaiʻi Farm Bureau, MAʻO Organic Farms, ʻUlupono Initiative, the University of Hawaiʻi, and Kamehameha Schools, among others.
The goal is not just to influence policy, but to advance the idea that it should be done collaboratively.
“One of our major initiatives was to craft the first Integrated State Food Policy Framework. If the food system is creating all these challenges or limitations in terms of public health and nutrition, household food insecurity, climate preparedness, etc., we need to be thinking about these things in concert,” said Miles.
The Integrated State Food Policy Framework, which covers everything from public health and nutrition to biocultural restoration to disaster preparedness was developed by subject matter experts and underwent a peer-review process. Each element is detailed with information on its status, policy and investment recommendations, and indicators and metrics for tracking progress. The framework is reviewed and updated every year.
The THFST’s annual Hawaiʻi Food System Summit is another way stakeholders stay informed. During the summit, Miles explained that its network of stakeholders spend time talking about what can be done at the state or county level to reduce barriers and implement needed infrastructure. They also review legislative bills that have been advancing.
“There’s quite a number of bills introduced by our stakeholders that have been a part of the Transforming Hawaii’s Food System initiative,” Miles noted.
One bill he’s currently watching is Senate Bill 1186, which would establish a statewide interagency food systems coordinator and working group. “That’s what we hope will serve as this hub of this work, to pull these different agencies together with resources and a coordinator to work on these issues more,” he continued.
“I think we have had some positive influence in shaping the conversation around the need for food system change and what that might look like,” Miles said.
