I talked to Andrea Dean the other day. Did you see her article in the Hawai‘i Island Journal about eating only food produced on the Big Island? She did that for three months last year, and an even more extensive version of that interesting and well-researched article appears on her website.

She told me she’s always had a vision of living sustainably. “That was my whole plan when I moved to Hawai‘i in 1989,” she said. “However, I’ve never been able to manifest my vision and grow a lot of my own food; live softly on the earth. Other things got in the way, like the reality of life.

“Now I feel like I don’t want to live out of harmony with my values anymore. So regardless of how busy I am, or how modern my life is, I am wanting to realign my day-to-day existence with my ideals.”

Married and with a 14-year-old son, Andrea lives in Hawi where she truly “walks the walk.” An event planner and project manager, she works with the Kona Earth Festival (a 3-week eco-event festival starting April 21), The Waimea Community Development Plan, the Maui Film Festival, the Hawai‘i Island Economic Development Board and other groups.

Her “eating locally” experiment was impressive, and extensive. She wanted to see if it could be done, she explained in her article. She’d been preaching food self-sufficiency for Hawai‘i, but suddenly realized she didn’t know if it was even possible for one person (let alone everybody) to survive only on foods grown on the island.

No bread, because the wheat was imported. No tofu, because the soybeans came from elsewhere. Guava jam was out, because it was made with sugar from somewhere else.

Her conclusions?

• She realized that you don’t have to shop at Farmers Markets here to eat locally. You can get a high percentage of your diet in locally produced foods even when shopping at the supermarket.

“You really don’t have to go out of your way,” she said. “Though it’s great to go out of your way and connect with your farmers. You get a higher variety, fresher foods when you go directly to the farmers market.

“The two stores I did a lot of shopping at were KTA and Foodland,” she said. “They have a lot of local products. Obviously KTA has made that commitment for a long time, and Foodland really has a lot as well.”

She said she did have to ask a lot of questions at times. “I would grab whoever was working there,” she said, “and ask, ‘Where’s this taro from?’ ‘Where are these sweet potatoes from?’ ‘Okay, those are from Molokai.’ If they’re not labeled, you can ask. I think the food stores could do a little better job of labeling right there where the prices are.”

It’s all about paying attention and making an effort, she said. “You can go into Foodland in Waimea and buy locally grown broccoli and celery and tomatoes and bananas. Or you could walk further down the aisle and pick up produce from somewhere else.

“It’s about beginning to have that awareness,” she said. “Looking at signs and being aware of what’s local.”

• Maintaining a high percentage of your diet in locally grown foods requires time and energy. “You have to put in the time,” she said. “When you’re buying taro and sweet potato and squash, there’s washing, cutting, cooking. Fruit salads, soups—it just takes time. You have to gear up.” It’s hard to do when living a modern life, she agreed, which doesn’t always support that type of time commitment, but she figured out how to do it and even enjoyed it.

• Eating locally can mean different things. “It can be about your health,” she said, “or supporting the local economy. But for me it’s also about self-sufficiency and being able to feed ourselves. It’s the most basic of all needs.”

Andrea’s article is full of interesting facts she gathered in some extensive research on Hawai‘i’s dependence on imported food. One point that struck me is a quote she attributes to Peter Vitousek, Professor of Biological Sciences at Stanford University:

“Studies of Hawaiian agriculture in the time before European contact show us that Hawaiians maintained highly productive agriculture and supported large populations in places and ways we couldn’t now, not without fertilizer and fossil fuel subsidies. We should learn how they did that, pretty much on their own in the middle of the Pacific.”

I encourage you to check out her article. She wrote at length about the island’s carrying capacity, self-sufficiency for health reasons, waste reduction, food security, the island’s local economy and much more. Plus it’s interesting to read about what was involved in her changing her diet so dramatically, what she ate and how she liked it.

It’s a great reminder that we live on an island. When it comes to food and self-sufficiency, the world shouldn’t be our oyster—our island should be our oyster.

It’s easy enough to pay a little more attention in the store and buy locally grown foods, when possible, vs. those shipped in from California, Mexico or elsewhere. Making those choices supports our locally farmers, our neighbors, and keeps money flowing through our local economy instead of someone else’s. Keeping local farmers in business also keeps our Big Island land agricultural, rather than developed. And it means fresher, tastier food. It’s all good. —posted by Leslie Lang