 the Healthy Planet, the show for people who care about their health and the health of our planet on the ThinkTech Live Streaming Network series. I'm your host, Dr. Grace O'Neill. Joining me today is Duretian, founder and director at the Hawaii Impact Collaborative and co-founder of the Good Food Movement. Welcome, Duret. Hi, thank you. Thank you for being on the show. So I want to talk a little bit about how you got involved with the Good Food Movement, what it is. So if you can go ahead. Yeah, so I started Good Food Movement with a few friends back in 2017, and it really came from this observation I had working really heavily in the environmental movement that even environmentalists weren't ready to be serving vegan food and talk about the importance of a vegan diet in their operations and events. And so I was really inspired to start this as a way to have an inclusive, fun way to promote veganism to our community. So when you say the environmentalists aren't ready to eat vegan food or serve vegan food at their events, do you think that it's because they have sponsors that are kind of against being vegan? Do you think that's part of the reason why they don't want to promote veganism? No, I don't. I think that the organization that I worked with and been exposed to are all relatively small, and it's usually actually just the people who are part of it. You know, the leaders, the volunteers, they're not open-minded to the concept. They may not know the science. They may not want to believe the science that a plant-based diet is one of the most important solutions to a sustainable future. And so just feeling the frustration of that, trying to integrate that into operations and being met with a lot of resistance on that front made me reflect in that way. And I wanted to have an outlet to promote that, showcase all of the amazing vegan options on the island, and then have events where we're one, educating people on why it's important, and two, actually feeding people that delicious food, and really having people have those aha moments where even if they're not ready to go vegan, they are not thinking that it tastes bad, and they're not thinking that it's a sacrifice, right? So planting those seeds and allowing people to be on their journey. Yeah, no, that's great. I mean, I think that some people may initially themselves like to eat meat, so they don't want to confront the fact that it may be better to be plant-based for the environment, but they might feel very strongly about being environmentalist. So I think that they might feel like they're losing out if they can't eat the meat. So just showing them that there's other good options that are plant-based when they might not know that, that's great. Have you found that with any of the events that people were maybe more open to being vegan and actually wanted to convert to being vegan, or at least eating more plant-based? Yeah, I think between the mix of having film screenings of really powerful documentaries that talk about the reasons why and are very visually compelling and tug at our heartstrings, and then having that food that's really amazing, you know, because I grew up eating meat, I grew up eating cheese, and I love those foods. And, you know, for me, when I went vegan, it was because it was a moral and environmental thing to do. It wasn't because I was like ready to make the switch, but when I did, I was actually really surprised at how many delicious options that there are, and increasingly so, especially most of us who have access to grocery stores that have vegan cheese, vegan meat, vegan mayo, butter, all of the above. And yeah, so we have some really great examples of people who we do these food tastings, and they're like, why? I had no idea. I wouldn't have even known that this was vegan if you didn't tell me, especially with cheese. I think that's a big one for people, a big barrier to making the switch. So those are the moments we're striving for, where you try to do it in a way that's not, you have to go vegan or I'm against you, or you have to do it perfectly, or I'll be mad, or you're not allowed in the club. It's really, I think, the ethos of our organization has always been imperfection is okay as long as your intention is good, and as long as you're always trying, because we lose too many to the movement, because we demand perfection, and we're too strict with that. Yeah, I know that's definitely true. I think people do get turned off, apart from people who aren't vegan, that they, you know, they're very interested in being vegan, but then they go to, you know, some organizations and, you know, some lectures and they feel like there's no way that they can be this perfect and, you know, eat this well all the time. And, you know, I think even if you're taking a step toward being plant-based and you're not completely plant-based, it's better than what you were before. So, you know, generally that's, that's, it's better, it's more inclusive. So tell me with the Good Food Movement, you said you sponsored some film screenings, can you tell us about what films that you've had and where the food you had came from? Yeah, we've done a bunch of events and, you know, some of our firsts were screening What the Health, and so talking about the health impacts and really the elimination of a lot of chronic health illness risk through the integration of a plant-based diet. And, you know, So What the Health, Cowspiracy is a big one. We also screened game changers when it came out and we just screened eating our way to extinction. We were lucky enough to have Will Tuttle on the island and he's actually the reason I went vegan. I had been vegetarian for a long time since I was 12 years old and when I was in college around the age of 19, I read the book World Peace Diet that was written by Will Tuttle and it really connected all the dots for me. You know, someone who cares about interconnectedness and not realizing kind of the negative impacts of the dairy and egg industry, both environmental and in terms of animal welfare and, you know, cruelty. I was really shocked that even the dairy and egg industries had so many issues. And so at that point, I went vegan. And so yeah, Will Tuttle was just happened to be on the island and we were able to do an amazing talk with him and Loving Hut did a whole kind of buffet of food for everyone that was just like comfort Asian food noodles and really flavorful stuff. So I think that's what gets me excited is like people realizing that when or if they make the switch or they try to go even vegan just on the weekends or something like that, that they're not sad about it, that they think, you know, one, this is good for the environment, me and my health and the animals. And I'm not sacrificing. I'm still eating delicious food. I'm still nourished and full and enjoying my food in my everyday life. Yeah, no, absolutely. So with the events that you had, I've seen, I've been to several events and how do you get the food for the events? Do the caterers donate? Do you have money that's donated that you spend? How do you usually come by the food because the food is always great? Yeah, no, I'm glad that you've experienced that we, it's a mix. Sometimes we get gift cards, like down to earth has often donated gift cards. A lot of the times the caterers, if we get a caterer, they'll either donate or give us a discount. And actually most of our events we serve food, we get a grant from VegFund. And VegFund is really a really easy way to get a small amount of money to fund the food. At events, it'll even cover costs for film screening or venue up to a certain amount. And so that's why a lot of our events we have been able to keep free, as long as we are at, you know, like a venue that is offering that space to us, we're able to keep most of our events free or pretty cheap for the community. Yeah, I mean, I feel like even if you charged a few bucks of people knew that they were getting food, it would be worthwhile for them and a movie. It's entertainment, right? So it's definitely worthwhile. So tell me about, I know you have some pictures, can you show some of the pictures for the events? So tell us about this event, who are all these people and they're holding a book? Yeah, no. So this was our first event of this year, 2023. This is Mackenzie and Kathy Feldman, a mother daughter duo. Mackenzie had the history of banning pesticides and herbicides from being used on college campuses and their whole family is vegan. And so they wrote a vegan and it's actually fully gluten free cookbook. So we did a cookbook launch for them over at the yoga studio in Kaimuki. So those are the kinds of events we like to do. It really varies and really it's because they wanted to partner with us and we were happy to coordinate with them because they do such great work, not just in veganism, but in food activism overall. So do they live here? Are they local? Yeah, Mackenzie and Kathy are from here and they, I think Mackenzie's right now, still finishing up her grad degree, but they're a local family from Oahu. Oh, really? Which ones are they? Are the ones in the center or on the side? Oh, they're the ones on the ends. Okay. And in the summer is yoga under the palms owner and then it's me and Anna on the other side. Oh, okay. Okay. Oh, yeah, this is just another photo from that, from the book launch that we did. They're just the beautiful yoga studio venue there in Kaimuki called Yoga Under the Palms, which is really cool because they actually have a vegan cafe and a yoga studio in the same location. And so just a great place for wellness and eating food and getting work done and all of that. Yeah, I've seen that plant-based paradise. I've never been there. Is it good? Have you been there? Yeah, no, it's a great food. I love it. Super healthy, delicious. You have a ton of options and I love getting work done there, going to yoga classes and it's a good community space. Nice. Yeah, and this is actually speaking on McKenzie. This is an event that mostly she organized, Book of Food Movement partnered on along with our partners at Center for Food Safety. So this was actually a film screening of Into the Weeds, an incredible documentary about the problems around glyphosate and roundup being sprayed and how it causes cancer and all of the lawsuits that have come up and it really focuses on one. He was a school groundskeeper, Lee Johnson, who, an amazing man, ended up getting non-Hodgkin's lymphoma after a spill of roundup on his skin. And it talks about his, he was one of the first big lawsuits against Monsanto Bayer and he won a several hundred million dollar lawsuit against them. And yeah, so just I think for Book of Movement, like not just about veganism, but really talking about the problems with the food system as a whole. And they often do connect back to industrial animal agriculture and factory farming, but really recognizing where the problems are in the food movement, not just around animal welfare, but around all of the above. Ecosystem health and how we sustain our future with a growing human population that needs to eat food and how we not destroy the earth while we feed everybody. So I think that's something that a lot of us are passionate about. How about this? Yeah, this is from our Eating Our Weighted Extinction screening that we just had a couple of weeks ago here. And we partnered with Vegan Society of Hawaii. We had about a hundred people come out to the Alawai Clubhouse, you know, watching this film about all the ways that our food system is destroying our ecosystems and what we can do to fix it, which is to adopt the plant-based diet, was actually narrated by Kate Winslet. And we had some amazing food by Juicy Brew. They are catered and funded by Bench Fund, like we talked about. We had some mac and cheese, tofu poke, cookies, and mochi, and so just introducing people to that really delicious food at a totally free event. And who are all the people in the picture? Yeah, so it's myself, Anna and Joe, Anna on the right, and we're co-founders. And then Michelle, who's just joined the team, she just moved here recently. So we're kind of just a small volunteer team that plans our events. Let's go to the website now, Michael. So show us some of these other events that you've had. Yeah, this one was really fun. This is probably our favorite event ever, and when we talk about it, it was our vegan chocolate party. And I know we had 150 people come out. It was actually right before COVID in February of 2020. It was on Valentine's Day, and we just had a ton of people come out. We had a DJ, we were dancing, we had a lot of vendors serving all kinds of vegan chocolate goodies, food, and desserts. We had a mindful chocolate meditation, eating activity, and it was just like a great, super fun event. So just showing people, I think we're always trying to bust the myths around veganism, and a lot of people think you can't eat chocolate and dessert. And so we just wanted to have a whole event dedicated to that on Valentine's Day, and it was a big success. That's great. Are you gonna have more of those events? I missed that one. Yeah, we want to have more. I think COVID kind of slowed us down, so we're just getting back into our events group again. Yeah, so with the events, how can people find out about the events? Do they get on a mailing list? Yes, go to our website, goodfoodmovement.org, and it's, yeah, right there, goodfoodmvmt.org, and then on our Instagram, which is Good Food Movement, all spelled out. But getting on our email list through our website is the best way to make sure you get that email notification about future events. And then how about the Instagram? You want to show us the Instagram page with the restaurants. So it's kind of small, but can you just talk about it? Yeah, so the first two, and this is like a huge just resource for the community. We actually update this once or twice a year. So this is our vegan eateries wires. So if you see the first two posts on the top left there, and they're in the circles, we compile a really accurate list of all the vegan eateries on Oahu. So I actually look at this almost every single day when I'm looking for somewhere to eat lunch or get coffee or something. One of them is for places with brick and mortar, right? So like places where you can go and like sit down and eat. And then there's one that are vegan vendors. And so those are our popups, they're only open like once a week or they come to the farmer's markets or the hot dog. There's a hot dog truck, right? Or ice cream places that just pop up here and there. So it's more of like our pop up occasionally open flyer. And then we have our actual restaurant cafe flyer. So there's two of them. We keep them updated. It's always our most popular content on our Instagram. And if people are on Instagram and you go to those posts, you can pin it and save it. And so you can always access it super easily in the future when you're looking for somewhere to eat. No, that's great. So let's talk about a little bit about your day job. So what do you do with the Hawaii Impact Collaborative? Can you tell us about that? Yeah, the Hawaii Impact Collaborative is my consulting company. And so it really came from me working full time for nonprofits for a long time and realizing that it's hard to make a living out here doing that. And so I started my consulting company at the beginning of last year, and I work on a variety of projects in the impact space. So some of them are environmental, you know, one of them is with the Center for Food Safety, which is a public interest law firm and advocacy organization fighting for a safer and more sustainable food system. And one of the things they are doing is fighting industrial ag, fighting industrial animal agriculture and kind of the toxic chemicals in our food system that show up in the form of glyphosate and other herbicides. And yeah, there's a few other projects I work on. So that's just kind of how I make my living out here in Hawaii and allow me to keep working on a passion project like their food movement. So the Center for Food Safety here in Hawaii, are there any specific projects they're doing right now or any active events right now that they're focusing on? Yeah, you know, one thing, the Center for Food Safety Office is national. There used to be a Hawaii office and there's not a dedicated regional office here anymore, but one of the things that we were working on this year was to raise awareness about the only factory farm left in Hawaii. And it's actually an egg farm. There's 200,000 laying hens there. It's called Wailua Fresh or Villa Rose. There's two names for it. But a lot of people who buy eggs locally will know that it's Wailua Fresh to Eggs is the brand. And they market themselves as very sustainable, solar powered and all of the above. And yet in our investigations, we found pretty clear evidence that they're not managing their waste properly. And there's been a lot of a lack of oversight on their operations there. And because they have 200,000 laying hens and they hope to expand to a million with the goal to export their eggs, we're trying to raise awareness to the public that these are not sustainable eggs and that any factory farm is not compatible with Hawaii's ecosystem. So that was just one local thing that was happening here in the past year. So how about all their waste? Where does all their waste go? Because there must be a lot of chicken waste. Yeah. And that's actually exactly the problem was in their permits, they very clearly stated that they were going to manage all of their operations waste on site, which is really hard to do. You don't really see many or any animal farms claim to do that because there's just inevitably discharge from that many animals. And they had a biochar system that they were allegedly using, which is kind of like a burn compost system. And we soon found through someone who did a tour with the executives that they were not using the biochar that their biochar system was broken, was not compatible with how wet the waste was on site, and that they were actually compiling all of their chicken waste in a barn and without any permits to discharge. And so it's a potentially huge environmental issue and public health hazard. And so we're actually actively looking into that. And there's a press release coming out in the next week or two from Center for Food Safety to raise more awareness about this company. And they're owned by two large corporations on the mainland, so they're not a locally managed operation at all. Are there any other operations? Because I have thought that there was maybe some, maybe there's smaller pig farmers on the island. Yeah, there's none that qualify as large CAFOs, which is large factory farms. I think there are some in the small and medium, but yeah, no factory farms in that large CAFO designation. So they're the only ones. So it's kind of an opportunity. We tried to pass the bill this year that would ban large CAFOs or put a moratorium on them in Hawaii, given that there's only one right now. And it was not successful for a lot of different reasons. But we're hopeful that something like that can pass in the future because Oregon is considering the same bill right now. So with the Center for Food Safety, I'm familiar with a lot of their work with Monsanto and everything. Are there specific, I mean, I know there's a lot of, you know, there's some organic farms, but there are also farms that are not organic are people who do not use organic farming on the island. So are they, is there anything like that they're dealing with on the island with, in respect to the bees and everything, and the loss of bees for pollination? Yeah, I mean, most of Center for Food Safety's work is at the federal level, and they're actually the one of the only organizations that are in court with, there's a whole legal team, amazing group of lawyers that are on staff there and are actively suing the EPA for multiple different things, violations of the Endangered Species Act, and environmental violations around pesticide use from chemical companies like Bayer, Monsanto and Dow. And so they're really actively working on that. And my work there is around communicating that to the public through Instagram, our podcast, and other channels. So, you know, I think it's really important that we have, like all people, right? There's communications folks, there's legal folks who are in courts, like that's a very specific important skill set. And yeah, there's kind of an amazing team over there working on those. And you know, when we get to the place where a lot of these herbicides are banned, or better regulated, I think Center for Food Safety will be the organization that was at the front lines of that for many decades now. So you said they have a podcast? Yes. So we produce something called the Heroes Journey Podcast. And each episode is featuring activists around the country, mostly around food, but around a lot of other issues as well. People who have made a lot of change throughout their career. So it's on wherever you get podcasts, Spotify, Apple, the above Heroes Journey podcast. Nice. That's great. I wasn't familiar with that, but it sounds very interesting. And I also wanted to ask about avian flu because now there's this new strain of avian flu that's very deadly. And I think, you know, you had talked about the CAFO on the island. I think, like, that is a huge risk for us because having that, and because we have a lot of endangered native species, because we just had an episode with the Hawaii Wildlife Center about native birds and everything. And God forbid, if something happened, and, you know, avian flu went to this CAFO on the island and then spread, you know, to our native birds, that would be disastrous. So I'm just wondering if you know anything about, you know, avian flu on the island, and if it's affected any, any places. Yeah, no, I'm not really familiar with that, except, you know, one of our film screenings with Gifford movement was called Eating Animals based on the book. And it was an excellent film narrated by Natalie Portman. And it talked about a large part of it is around kind of the ethical questions around eating animals. Like, is it okay? And what are the consequences? And, you know, one of the parts of it that they raised awareness about was pandemics and epidemics. And he wrote that book, and that movie was released long before COVID-19. And it really predicted pandemics happening more regularly, and really highlighted the fact that the vast majority of epidemics and pandemics come from large animal farms, mostly factory farms, and how horrible they are for a balanced to in how hard it is to have a balanced ecosystem in the presence of these very unnatural and very unsanitary, large scale animal farms. And so I think, just in general, like it just always connects back to it's our food choice and our food system. And and it starts on our plate every day with the the food that we choose to buy and eat. So whether you know it or not, you're you're having that impact. And if you don't know what that impact is, then you're not being intentional. That impact is going to be very negative. And so the only way for us to help kind of our food system and our future and ourselves is to be very intentional about what we're eating every day. Yeah, for sure. I mean, another thing I did want to touch on we only have a few minutes left, but I know you had done a lot of work on plastic free Hawaii. Can you tell us a little bit about plastics, how we can decrease our impact on, you know, on the earth? You know, what can we do to minimize our plastic use? Because obviously, in some ways, it's inevitable. Everything is, unfortunately, coming in plastic, like if you buy bread, it comes in plastic. Everything you buy at the supermarket essentially comes in plastic if it's packaged. Yeah, you know, like I go to the zero waste store, there's a few now on the island and you can refill a lot of your stuff there, especially like shampoo and soaps and detergents and stuff like that. What's really interesting is towards the end of my work in the plastics movement, we actually, as a movement, realized that the bulk of the plastic pollution and marine debris issue is from the commercial fishing industry. So it again connected back to eating animal products and supporting commercial fishing because over 90% of the marine debris we were picking up from Hawaii beaches and beaches around the world was from the commercial fishing industry. So really just kind of always connecting back to that, even though our actual plastic usage is a big problem, that that ended up being the bigger problem when we were looking at what was ending up in the ocean and on our beaches. Yeah, people don't realize that these large fishing boats when they have lines, they just like toss them over. And then it ends up, you know, a lot of times it entangles marine life. People don't realize like what the secondary repercussions eating fish are besides the fact that now we have a lot of plastic in our oceans like microbeads and we're actually all consuming it ourselves and they're hormonal disruptors. So yeah, it's just, it's just too bad. But yeah, so anyway, we are out of time. So we have to wrap it up. But thank you so much for being on the show. This is Healthy Planet on the Think Tech Live Streaming Network series. We've been talking to Duration, founder and director at the Hawaii Impact Collaborative and co-founder of the Good Food Movement. Thanks to Michael, our broadcast engineer and the rest of our crew at Think Tech for hosting our show. And thanks to you, our listeners for listening. I'll see you in two weeks for more of Healthy Planet on Think Tech, the show for people who care about their health and the health of our planet. Learn more about coconuts in two weeks on our next show with a local coconut farmer. If you have ideas for the show or questions for my future show guests, please contact me at Healthy Planet, thinktech.gmail.com. Check out my website at www.gracenaui.com or Instagram at Graysville Living's 365 for more information on my projects including future show guests. I'm Dr. Gracie Neal. Aloha everyone. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please click the like and subscribe button on YouTube. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Check out our website, thinktechawaii.com. Mahalo.