Deep dive conversations about efforts to have a 30% Good Food System by 2030, centered on Hawai'i and its Aloha Plus Challenge. Explore these systemic issues and solutions with us, and consider their relevance to all regions.
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Celeste grew up in Kailua, Oʻahu and returned to Hawai’i after her global education and work experience. She is now the CEO of Hawai’i Green Growth, the keeper of the Aloha + Challenge dashboard, where the 30% local food target is displayed and monitored. Celeste has an impressive history with international climate goals and is a Pacific Rim leader in engaging progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s).
She previously served as the Director for Environment and Climate Change at the National Security Council and National Economic Council in President Obama’s White House, where she helped shape the Administration’s climate and energy policies, including the SDGs. Prior to joining the Obama administration, Celeste served as a diplomat in Saudi Arabia, Greece, and Germany. She also held positions at the U.S. Mission to the UN, served as the Climate and Energy Advisor to the Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, and worked for the City of New York.
Celeste explained how Hawai'i is ahead of the US itself, as well as any other US state, in terms of reporting on their progress on sustainability goals, including the 30% local food target. Hawai'i is a UN local 2030 hub, thanks to her efforts. She agrees that Hawai'i can become an example for the world -- especially if the state can successfully grapple with the dynamic tensions surfaced by needs such as housing, energy, water, employment -- all on a charismatic, very remote island archipelago. Hawai’i’s metric based reporting model is spreading through the island nations of the Pacific, Caribbean and elsewhere, inspiring communities of practice.
We discuss how some form of community investment vehicles might be applicable to food system infrastructure, and she brings us a powerful example of engaging island youth - who have a specially ingrained knowledge of how systems work. Having grown up in Hawai'i herself, Celeste is definitely a systems thinker. I liked her view that sometimes you have to "make the challenge bigger so we can see the outlines of a solution", and I really appreciated her sense of urgency. As she put it: we're simply out of time to negotiate any further. "We don't have all the solutions, but we are certainly trying to paddle in the right direction on this and learn," she said.
In this episode, we feature Davis Price and Keoni Lee, in conversation about their efforts towards creating a sustainable and regenerative food system economy in Hawaii. Davis, an attorney and Native Hawaiian cultural advocate, and Keoni, an entrepreneur and impact investment strategist, share insights on community-based economic development, structural food system issues and the importance of traditional indigenous knowledge.
Among the systemic issues discussed is the high cost of living, causing displacement and dislocation of Native Hawaiians to the continent. The episode dives into historical context, and practical steps towards making agriculture a viable livelihood, including legislative efforts like the U.S. Farm Bill. The conversation highlights the importance of integrating traditional Hawaiian values and practices with contemporary strategies to address current economic and environmental challenges.
This discussion encourages a rethink of modern economic systems toward more sustainable, equitable approaches rooted in indigenous knowledge and community resilience. Join the conversation to learn how these initiatives aim to bridge the gap between culture, history, and sustainable development in Hawaii.
Mahina Paishon-Duarte is co-founder and chief executive officer of Waiwai Collective, a regenerative urban oasis, a kīpuka, for creatively growing community, culture, and commerce. As a social entrepreneur who has also led several educational and cultural organizations, her vision and mission are one and the same––to catalyze positive, lasting change for Hawaiʻi in one generation. Most notably, Mahina is the founding executive director of Paepae o Heʻeia, the first modern Hawai‘ian fishpond that created ground-breaking ʻāina-based education programming for students from preschool through post-doctoral levels. She gained public sector experience as a policy program manager with NOAAs Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, as well as head of school for both Hālau Kū Māna and Kanu o ka ʻĀina public charter schools. Today, Mahina is a part of the ʻĀina Aloha Economic Futures movement to address long-standing socio-economic inequities that the COVID-19 pandemic underscored; and to bring to life a resilient economy through our core value of ʻāina aloha—a deep and abiding love for Hawaiʻi’s communities and natural environments.
In our conversation, we discuss: radical aloha; what it means to have ‘āina based thinking; her recent appointment by the Governor of Hawai‘i to the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, and their strategic plan for regenerative tourism; and, the need for a governance structure, such as a food policy council, to help achieve Hawai‘i’s goal of increasing local food production.
Mahina graciously accepted my request to begin our conversation with a pule (aspirational chant).
Dr. Noa Lincoln is Associate Professor in Indigenous Crops and Cropping Systems at University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and the Principal Investigator of the Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory. He is also a farmer and works with his wife on an ‘ulu (breadfruit) farm on Hawai‘i Island, as part of the Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Cooperative which they founded.
We have a wide ranging and deep dive discussion about: the distinction between European and Hawai‘ian cosmology in relationship to earth; the impacts of foreign investment in Hawai‘i; the true value of community based agriculture; the benefit of cooperative and collaborative farming enterprises; and the need to reconfigure the social, finance, land use and hard infrastructure from the legacy of large scale, export based plantation agriculture to more localized infrastructure; and, we brainstorm some policy interventions as we touch on global economic issues and biocomplexity.
In other words, we get right to the nub of the matter. And it starts with the remarkable story of why his current position at the University of Hawai‘i was created.
Sound engineer: Keola IseriProject support: Sue Woodard
Indigenous Innovation
Season 1 · Episode 1
Friday, September 2, 2022 • Duration 37:18
In this inaugural episode, we have the benefit of an illuminating conversation with Kamuela Enos, the director of the newly formed Office of Indigenous Innovation at the University of Hawaiʻi. Before that, Kamuela was director of social enterprise at MAʻO Organic Farms. Born and raised in Waiʻanae, he comes from a family of cultural practitioners and farmers committed to sustainable agriculture. A vocal advocate for innovative educational approaches that serve all learners, Enos has turned his lived experiences into a successful post-secondary academic career. He has an undergraduate degree in Hawaiian Studies and a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
With Kamuela, we delve deeply into the refreshed perspective he brings on the layering or infusion of valuable ancestral practices into modern society. We discuss the importance of being rooted in a respectful relationship with the earth; and, his experience working with Maʻo Organic Farms and its mission to bring health and economic empowerment to the local community, through a re-connection to community based and sustainable farming practices
We begin with a chant well known in Hawaiʻi called E Ho Mai. This oli, or chant, is often used at the beginning of an event or special gathering to help focus energies and properly receive wisdom.
Why I’m doing this podcast and what I hope listeners will get from it – as told in a tables-turned-on-me interview by my niece, Noelani.
For more info, and some of my published work:
The website of the Center for Good Food Purchasing, which I co-founded; the Center is a spin off from the LA Food Policy Council, which I founded and incubated during my time as Senior Advisor on Food Policy to Mayor Villaraigosa of Los Angeles.
A book I co-edited: True Cost Accounting for Food: Balancing the Scale. (2021, Routledge). Edited By Barbara Gemmill-Herren, Lauren E. Baker, Paula A. Daniels.This book explains how True Cost Accounting is an effective tool we can use to address the pervasive imbalance in our food system.
Selected articles and book chapters:
"How Cities Can Build Food System Resilience" (December 2022) In TheCityFix, I write about the leadership role that cities play in creating a healthier, more sustainable and more resilient food system.
“True Cost of School Meals: School Meals Case Study” (November 2021). I co-authored this case study with the Rockefeller Foundation, applying a true cost accounting methodology to US school meals programs, and forecasting the net positive impacts if there were a shift to local suppliers, among other shifts, for 30% of food purchasing in these programs.
Dr. Kirsten Oleson, is an ecological economist at the University of Hawaii- Manoa, and head of the Oleson Lab. We discuss the valuation of ecosystem services, the potential for a climate smart food label, and the systemic changes needed in Hawaii's agricultural sector to fulfill a statewide vision of a sustainable food system
The conversation covers the complexity of quantifying nature's benefits, alternative indicators to the GDP for measuring wellbeing, and the idea of integrating true cost accounting into public policy approaches to food systems upgrades, which could bring into play - at around 30% - a holistic approach to food systems that prioritizes environmental and social values over industrial-scale efficiencies.
At the close, are excerpts from Robert F. Kennedy's famous 1968 speech regarding the GDP and, in his own words and voice, how it "measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile."
For More Information:
The Oleson Ecological Economics Lab within the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
The Hawai’i Genuine Progress Indicator page at the Hawai’i Dept of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, which was developed based on a report by Kirsten Oleson and others
Ocean Tipping Points, a collaborative research project for which Dr. Oleson is a case study lead
The full text of the speech that Robert F Kennedy Sr gave on March 18, 1968 at the University of Kansas, which included the famous paragraph regarding the GDP (at the JFK Library site)
Pilina: The Power of Relationships
Season 1 · Episode 9
Tuesday, June 4, 2024 • Duration 49:03
Kamehameha Schools is the largest private landowner in Hawai'i, and owns about 115,000 acres of agriculture land in the Islands. With Leanne Kami, we discuss their local food systems strategies, support for local farmers through flexible contracting and other means, the re-introduction of traditional Hawaiian foods such as poi, and ongoing projects that integrate cultural heritage with modern agricultural practices aimed at enhancing food security and sustainability in Hawaii. Kamehameha Schools is also enrolled in the Good Food Purchasing Program.
Leanne Kami was born and raised in Pāhoa, on Hawaiʻi Island, and resides in Panaʻewa with her husband and two sons. Leanne joined Kamehameha Schools in 2015 as a Senior Communications Specialist and served as Land Asset Manager for four years before joining the Sustainable Industry Development team in 2021. Leanne’s kuleana (responsibilities) include supporting Kamehameha Schools’ goals and strategies towards strengthening food systems and increasing agriculture production in Hawaiʻi. As owner and manager of Kohana Farms since 2010, Leanne also has first-hand working knowledge of agriculture.
Before joining Kamehameha Schools she was the Executive Director of the Hawaii Future Farmers of America Foundation, and is a founding member of the Hawaiʻi Island Agriculture Partnership. She has a longstanding passion and dedication to increasing food security and resiliency of Hawaii's ʻāina and its people.
Stay tuned for closing thoughts on her favorite Hawaiian word: pilina.
My family, the Daniels family, is from Maui. It is hard to put the words together to express all the feelings, to find a place for all the thoughts.
The beginning phrase of an oli (chant) by revered Edith K. Kanāka'ole is: E hō mai ka ʻike mai luna mai e -- grant us wisdom from above. In Hawai'i, this chant is offered at the start of an event or small gathering to focus the energies on the kuleana (responsibility) being undertaken.
Lāhainā has burned, its recent incarnation gone. Lāhainā was once an area of spring-fed wetland ponds with extensive groves of large canopy 'ūlu (breadfruit) trees. Lāhainā was once the historical seat of the Kingdom of Hawai'i and the home of my ancestors.
As we mourn the loss of lives, property, and recent history, let us also seek wisdom from above on the way forward, in best support of a grieving community. E hō mai ka ʻike mai luna mai e -- grant us wisdom from above.
Kuleana is “a uniquely Hawaiian value and practice which is loosely translated to mean ‘responsibility.’ The word kuleana refers to a reciprocal relationship between the person who is responsible, and the thing which they are responsible for.” (from Hawaiian Word of the Day, Hawaii News Now).
In this episode, we talk about kuleana and politics with Anne Frederick, Executive Director of the nonprofit HAPA, and with Thomas Heaton, reporter for the Hawai’i news publication, Civil Beat.
Anne Frederick’s organization, HAPA (Hawai’i Alliance for Progressive Action), engages deeply in state legislative politics. It was founded in 2014 around the issues of food justice and pesticide use. HAPA also founded the Kuleana Academy, a political training and accelerator program focusing on building capacity in community leaders on issue-based, political, or electoral campaigns.
The first part of this episode is an interview with Anne in the middle of a busy legislative session, which found her team organizing community and stakeholder engagement on a suite of bills, which we’ll discuss. You’ll hear about their particular focus on land use and tax incentives to level the playing field.
I invited Thomas Heaton, a reporter at the news publication Civil Beat, to join us in the second half of this episode. Civil Beat is a non-profit online investigative journalism publication. Thomas is a New Zealand native who came to Hawai’i by way of his interest in the food system, developed during his global reporting experience.
An explanatory note on one of the topics: we discussed the unexpected demise of a bill to provide state matching funds to a program we speak of as “Da Bux '' which is Hawai’i’s way of describing its Double Up Bucks program. In some states, the program is called Market Match. Each state has their own version of the program, which is based on the federal Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP; also known as Market Match, Double Up Bucks, Veggie Voucher). GusNIP is a federal program, which provides people who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits (SNAP, or food stamps) up to $10 in vouchers at participating farmers’ markets, when they use their benefits to purchase fruits and vegetables.
Credits:
Created, produced, and hosted by Paula Daniels
Content structure, edits and sound edits - Mackenzie Olivo (2024 graduate, University of Hawai'i School of Communications and Information)
Sound engineer: Keola Iseri Project support: Sue Woodard
Theme music: Caryssa Shinozawa Other music: "Monomer" by Leroy Wild, “Waialua By Night” by Pacific Sounds
Logo: Reiko Quitevis, Sue Woodard
Thanks to our sponsor, the Hawai'i Institute for Sustainable Community Food Systems at the University of Hawai'i - West O'ahu
Thanks also to the students at Waipahu High School for sound creation (Caryssa Shinozawa, Landon Guzman, Syd Sausal) and graphic design (Ashley Alfaro, Erika Pagtulingan, Reiko Quitevis); and their teachers, Noelle- lili Edejer and Sky Bruno.
Theme music: Caryssa Shinozawa Music: "Monomer" by Leroy Wild, “Makapu‘u Pali”, “Waialua By Night”, “Kolekole”, “Kaaawa Ranch” by Pacific Sounds
Logo: Reiko Quitevis, Sue Woodard
Thanks to our sponsor, the Hawai‘i Institute for Sustainable Community Food Systems at the University of Hawai‘i - West O‘ahu
Thanks also to the students at Waipahu High School for sound creation (Caryssa Shinozawa, Landon Guzman, Syd Sausal) and graphic design (Ashley Alfaro, Erika Pagtulingan, Reiko Quitevis); and their teachers, Noelle- lili Edejer and Sky Bruno.
Sound engineer: Keola Iseri Project support: Sue Woodard
Theme music: Caryssa Shinozawa Other Music: "Monomer" by Leroy Wild, “Kamaniki”, “Sugar Cane Train”, “Makapuʻu Pali” by Pacific Sounds
Logo: Reiko Quitevis and Sue Woodard
Thanks to our sponsor, the Hawai'ʻ Institute for Sustainable Community Food Systems at the University of Hawaiʻi - West Oʻahu
Thanks also to the students at Waipahu High School for sound creation (Caryssa Shinozawa, Landon Guzman, Syd Sausal) and graphic design (Ashley Alfaro, Erika Pagtulingan, Reiko Quitevis); and their teachers, Noelle- lili Edejer and Sky Bruno.
“Designing a Renewable Food System” (January 2017, Stanford Social Innovation Review). My essay comparing the renewable energy trajectory to a pathway for food system reform.
“Domestic Farmed Fish Production: an overview of governance and oversight in the US aquaculture industry,” (2015, Routledge). A book chapter in the book Political Ecologies of Meat, edited by Emel, J. and Neo, H.
And a link to an essay and audio recording of the GDP excerpt in the Robert F Kennedy Sr speech, at the site of the Center for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, a research organization core-funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council and the Laudes Foundation
Credits: Created, produced, and hosted by Paula Daniels Sound engineer: Ben Lazarus Theme music: Caryssa Shinozawa Logo: Reiko Quitevis and Sue Woodard
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