 This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. I'm Marcia Joyner and this is Community Matters. Think Tech Hawaii has created a series of Community Matters where we talk to candidates all over the state of Hawaii from South Point to Nihihau and everything in between. And we've talked to candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, the Senate House City Council, County Council, and all. And today we are going to talk to Renee Ng, who is a community activist for as long as I can remember, forty years maybe, something like that, and because we were against the war together. Yeah. Exactly. So Renee Ng is the candidate for the Green Party, Lieutenant Governor. Aloha Renee. Thank you so much for having me. I'm not used to being the guest. But she is an activist and never met a call she didn't like. Exactly. Just constantly out there. No matter what it is, she's there. So tell us about Renee. Tell us about you. I was born and raised in Hawaii, as you know, and I don't know how I came to this activism thing. I mean, my brother and sister grew up in the same circumstances. They're not activists, but it just, it always, I guess it was the time we grew up in where we were against the war, we could see all of these injustices, and they were talking about climate change, they were talking about this sort of agricultural technology. They were talking about a whole range of stuff, and the college was just so interesting. And when you found out about those sort of things, it was a little hard not to be concerned. It was, yes, yes, yes. So you have just been an activist, like I said, for as long as I can remember. And so now you have, is this your first campaign? No, actually Jim and I ran when Lingo was in office. So we ran in 2008, and our program is basically just the same as it was then a little more fleshed out because things have happened since, you know, the decade since then, and given us details of what we need to follow. What is the Green Party? Now, you know, of course, we all know about the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, but now on the ballot we have the Constitution Party and the Green Party and the Libertarians and what, so what is the Green Party? What differentiates you from any other party? I don't know if it distinguishes us from any other party, but I guess if you had to choose one word that describes what we're concerned about is sustainability, sustainability of not only the environment, which is where the Green Party started in Germany as an environmental party, but we need to be able to move on and what's happening at the national level with the Green Party also to become a party that includes not only sustainability for the environment, but also sustainability for the communities, sustainability for our democracy, you know, and so basically that's a big thing with us. Yeah, okay. Well, we talk about sustainability, the people throw that word around, it's one of those things you hear, excuse me, all the time, and you wonder if people really understand what they mean about sustainability. My first thought, of course, is we see so many people in distress and I would think that food security, the thought that you know where your next meal is coming from, what is, how do you define food security? What is that? Food security is always having food to eat and that is a real concern right now, you know, all of these climate change catastrophes that have been hitting both floods and wildfires and that sort of thing, hurricanes, they've been devastating our food production capabilities, they've been devastating farms, you know, pigarees and that sort of thing, and it's not only that, that comes to mind recently because of the wildfires, but the thing is with the drought and with the U.S. mainland not being able to produce as much as it had before, that means we will not be getting food coming to Hawaii, they're going to feed themselves first. Sustainable, that means you can continue to sustain yourself, eat, in other words, and so we need to grow our own food here, I mean if we could do it, they say for a million people pre-contact, we should be able to do it again and you know, that means we need land to grow our food on and one of the things that as a green party, we are saying whole peely land, which is, you know, above below Makakilo, Kapolei, is the best land in the state for agriculture, I'm told best land in this country because it has four growing seasons, the only place, I mean, mainland doesn't have four growing seasons, it has beautiful soil, it has great irrigation and sunlight, it was called the golden triangle in the days of the plantation and they're digging up that beautiful soil, meters deep and throwing it out and building whole peely on it, which we don't need apparently, but anyway, so what do you mean by building whole peely? They're building a housing development on it, they're taking our best agricultural land and paving it over, so we would like, through eminent domain, a green governor would ask that we buy that land back, whole peely land back through eminent domain, we have a billion dollar surplus, if it costs 78 millions to drop in the bucket for the future of our kids and our state and we need that kind of thing to grow on. We do and we have farms on every island, of course, the ones on the big island have to be rethought, we have to re-plan, we do that, however we do have farms on every island, are they being supported? Are the farms on these islands because you take an island like Molokai where water is an issue, but they still have farms and ranches? And even Kauai where the rain has diminished, you're lately, after their flood and now, so if we look at farms on every island, are they being sustained? They are not being supported the way our farming industry needs to be supported, the way they were after, during the World War actually and all the way up until the 70s, we had a huge, they call it victory gardens. Yes, I remember victory gardens. Oh, gosh, I do, yes. You remember it, okay, anyway, and so they had this huge agriculture infrastructure that included, for instance, now the state gives one percent of its budget, at that time the state gave grants to agriculture. I think if my memory serves me, it was about five percent. We had a huge UH infrastructure that did research for the farmers that would, of course, train farmers and then would also go out, extension services would go out and share best practices. And for instance, one of the things that five percent grants can do would be to say having a processing co-op for farmers where they all can come in, they don't have to have their individual ones come into a processing place, you know, clean, cut, pack their produce for shipment, that sort of thing. So that that would be another support, but they should also be supported as far as the water infrastructure goes. I mean, it should not be a fight for them to do something individually. That needs to be something that is part of state policy to make food sustainability sustainable. Yes. Yes. So and oh, I'm sorry. Governor E. Gay wanted to have to double the food production by 2030. We should 20 or 2030. Anyway, we should do that and we should double it again by 2040. But can't we double it now? Yes, we should. We should go a long way down the road. I know. Oh, well, we should begin to build the infrastructure to double it. And one of the things, you know, Gubern, Green Gubernatorial Candidate Jim Brewer has been talking about is carts and agriculture sustainability is the perfect place to have carts because who knows better than the farmers? What the conditions out there and that particular part of the island was all of these micro environments, right? That particular part of the islands, the the sun, like the irrigation, whatever, is capable of growing what kind of crops, what they they would know more, what they need to have in order to build a diversified ag system. And while you're at it at UH, I understand that right now they're on a GMO track, they need to get off that track and go to diversified ag for the GMO food. Now, I don't know this for sure. So don't quote me. But the GMO track means that Monsanto is giving them grant money to do the research. Exactly. Yes. So that's all that is. Yes, this is money. And for anybody that doesn't know, when you plant the GMO seeds because they are artificial, they don't reproduce. So the farmer has to come back next year and buy more. Can't save a seed and plant next year. No, see, a natural seed, natural, like people, like bears, they reproduce. Right. These seeds do not reproduce. So next year after you harvest, you have got to come back to Monsanto and buy more. So that's the that is the real issue with the GMO is that it keeps that in business. Right. Right. But beyond that, they've been talking because Monsanto is on trial right now. They've been talking about how the effects of the GMO on rat and possibly possibly human fertility and the effect on our DNA is really, really dire. And the effect on the bees. The bees have a built in guidance system that they go and they can come back. But this has the same effect on them like Alzheimer's. They can't find their way home. You know, so it has too many bad effects. So off GMOs, on to healthy, normal, normal food. And ag, ag car, ag citizen action round tables. Ag carts would be perfect to help us build that infrastructure. My question, though, and I don't expect that you have a answer. All of these farmers that have this land that's in GMOs, if we said no more GMOs, what happens to them? What happens to Monsanto? No, to the farmer, not Monsanto, the farmer. The farmers, we have a problem. Because apparently, once it's GMO, always GMO. So other than, you know, just off the top of my head, don't quote me on this either. It seems to me it would be kind of like the lava land devastated. Once GMO, it's forever GMO. So I don't know how you can sequester the GMO, but it would need to be, you know, the farmers are also in their knowledge is also an infrastructure that we need for agriculture. So we would probably have to find other places where they can farm, sequester the GMO on their existing lots, you know, so that it doesn't because apparently it also disperses to nearby lots, you know, without anybody actually consciously planting it, which is scary. It is scary. So we need to take a break and when we come back, there's so much I want to talk to you about. Yeah, about the medical Medicaid for all. And of course, where do we go from here to make sure that these people have this? So we need to take a break and we'll be back in a minute. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. I'm Yukari Kunisue. I'm your host of New Japanese Language Show on Think Tech Hawaii, called Konnichiwa Hawaii, broadcasting live every other Monday at 2 p.m. Please join us where we discuss important and useful information for the Japanese language community in Hawaii. The show will be all in Japanese. Hope you can join us every other Monday at 2 p.m. Aloha. I'm Marcia Joyner. This is Community Matters. And we have visited with candidates all over the state who are running for election or re-election from as far away as the Big Island and as far north as Nihihau and everything in between all kind of places that most of us in urban Honolulu didn't know existed. So today we are talking to my friend Renee Ng, who is running as Lieutenant Governor for the Green Party. And most of us again don't have a clue about the Green Party. But the Green Party, as she has told us, kind of makes sense that their name would be Green, given their whole idea is about sustainable way of living. Now, the biggest issue in sustainability in Hawaii, which I have discovered talking to people from every island and every district is housing. Every district, every one of them has people living on the street, living in their cars, not enough housing. And we've heard people talk about building affordable housing and we know that's not going to happen. It can. It can, but it isn't. When you talk about the developers, the cost and all the costs that goes into developing, then we have to rethink this thing. So one of the things you mentioned that I read in all of your details was creating Ohana zones. What do you mean by creating Ohana zones? Ohana, yes, great. And this is another place where we have to think outside of the box. It can happen. We were being told by the housing experts that no place on the mainland, a tent city, and those people became residents of low-cost affordable housing. But Ohana zones, the way the state, the 2018 legislature gave it funding and the way the state is here, it can happen. For instance, if you take Puu Honua, Ohana, which has about 200 people in it, if you, because we have so much state, we have so much government land, half of the state is government land. And so if you found a big piece of land in Ohana, and why and I, if you took that 200 people, they built a tent city, or rebuilt their tent city or whatever, built temporary housing on one half of that lot, and on the other half of the lot, you build quickly because the bill is only for three years, the funds expire after three years. So you need to build affordable, portable, low-cost housing on these other side. Then after you've finished, you need to build it quickly, then the people break down their tent or whatever, dismantle their tent cities, or leave it and go and become residents of a low-cost affordable housing state. So did they build it themselves? No, no, no. It would have to be the state would have to be. And I want to talk about affordable, affordable modular housing. So there's a prefab home kit for one bedroom, 576 square feet, for under $12,000, two bedroom, 768 square feet for $16,000, three bedroom, 1,000 square feet for 215, five bedroom, 200 square feet for $40,000. It needs to be affordable. It needs to be built quickly. Modular housing can be built quickly. So if we look at this, these are modular housing. And so it would be put on the state land. Yeah. Yes. And the state land needs to be kept in state hands and affordable forever. But these... So the state retains the title to the land. Yes, and makes sure it stays affordable. No developer gets their hands on it. Right, and so the infrastructure, water, streets, lights, electricity, that's done by the state. The ideas or the city. But anyway, the thing is this is deceiving. Because actually it's just... You know how those steel framing for houses they have now are going up all over the place? Basically what it also means is that you have... It's called structural integrated panels or something like that. Anyway, so you have a piece of metal, not just the framing, piece of metal, foam insulation, about that big piece of metal on the inside. And you just, it's kind of like, kind of cute. So you just take this, you know, the four by eight, you have the steel framing, you go shoo-took. The next one, shoo-took. It's like tic-tac-toe. Anyway, not tic-tac-toe, but, you know, tic-toy. And it's pre-made in a factory. It's insulated, so that means it's insulated. For instance, they said that shipping containers were too hot and you have to insulate it. Well, it's insulated against sun and wind, cold. We don't get too cold here. But anyway, against the sun. So it's basically just like any other housing, but the construction and the materials are different. But it can go bang, bang, bang. It can just go up really quickly. And we need to do it really quickly because the Ohana zone money is only available three years. So now that you said that Bill passed the legislature. Yes, this year. This year. And the governor signed it? Yes, he did. Okay. On July 10th. So when do we get started? Or how do we get started? Or who gets started? I have no idea how the state would do it. I have my own ideas, but I don't know if it'll happen. I don't know if they can. I do know that they're looking at it already, but I don't know who would be the agency. Who is they? Who is the state? I don't know if the state would choose, say, HHFDC to develop it the way they've developed other places. The Hawaiian House? No, no, Hawaii Housing, Oh, those people. With the whole state. Anyway, I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, maybe if it's on Hawaiian homelands. I don't know if... No, they lost $300 million. Well, anyway, we're talking... No, that's... We don't even want to talk about that. We just want to talk about the state. Okay. So I don't know if they would give it to them to develop, but they need to move quickly and they need to have a plan. You know, we have the land. 50 to 75 percent. This is Hawaii. It's really expensive. 50 to 75 percent of the cost of housing is the land under it. Right. So when you take on government-owned land, you take that cost off, you're making affordability possible. So if you have... We have the land. We have the money now. The ledge gave us and the governor gave us $1,200,000. And we can start moving. I know they're looking at it, but for Ohana zones, they need to move fast because the funds lapse in three years. So they need affordable, portable modular in order to do it in that timeline. That's my thought, anyway. Well, that makes sense. What about mobile homes? With all this state land that's available to tell you the truth, I really prefer that we do development that goes up. Mobile homes, unfortunately, are only one story so that there's not a good use of the land. And we have such a housing shortage, we need to build up. To tell you the truth, in town is where most of the jobs are. People nowadays, the younger generation, are looking at their work play in town and in that case, if you find parcels of land in town, you need to make low-rise three-story or mid-rise four-story. But if you go through Kalihi near the waterfront, what used to be, and all of that is just sitting there, what used to be factories, what used to be warehouses, if you drive through Kalihi, there's all of this that could be high-rises. To tell you the truth, with climate change and its mid-century is just around the corner, I don't want to spend all waste, all of this resource that we have now, this hard, hard-won resources. People have been working on this for a lot of years. I'm saying that those are empty. Put it above Baritannia's G, put it above the freeway when the water comes up, whether it's groundwater inundation or high seas rising, put it where you'll have beachfront property in front of you and you'll still be in their house. Where we live, when we moved in in the 80s, at high tide, the ducks would fly up to the seawall. Now at high tide, the ducks walk across. People would say, oh, it's not happening. It's happening. But those are the kind of things you can mark. Those are benchmarks. It's kind of hard to see when you look at the ocean and it's so big. It's kind of hard to see the rise. But those, like I said, but the ducks, they just walk across. The IPCC, the inter... I forget what that means. Climate change, international panel or something like that. 99% of the people, the scientists in that UN commission says, global warming is happening. We need to take it into account. The city and the state are also on board. We need to take it into account and we need to have it embedded in our housing policy. We're not going to be around for it, but we want the young kids to have some place that is dry above land. You're right. You're right. I have to remember that the next time I drive through Kali, I have to remember that all of Kali, he's going to be a little... Oh, my God. Anyway. Okay. Now, I want you to look into this camera and I want you to tell all of us why we should vote for you. Okay. You should vote for us because we stand for out-of-the-box thinking. All of these details that I've been talking about, my husband and I, my husband mostly, he's the analyzer, the researcher, I've been researching housing for decades. We need out-of-the-box thinking. We need fast action, and that's what the Green Party candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor are about right now. We cannot wait. We cannot play politics. We need to just get the job done, and we need to get everybody on board under those terms. Get the job done because this is a critical time. We need to be moving, you know, because we cannot wait, and we cannot wait for people to say, well, why didn't you do something? That's too late. We can see the problems. We have the solutions. We have the money. We have the land. We have the plan. We have the solutions. This thing on state land, it's been happening all over for many years. The state's been doing that for a long time. We need to expand it out and put it above the freeway. Well, thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Now, for people that haven't voted yet, when you go into the booth, you will see your ballot, and they will have all of the parties separate. So don't think you can vote on this one and then move over here. So if you select this party, you have to go all the way down. You can't go or it voids your ballot. So read the ballot carefully. This is the green party. So read the ballot carefully. Be sure you stay within the lines. You don't want to have your vote discarded. So again, thank you. Thank you all for staying with us through this whole series that we have met so many wonderful candidates. Again, the election is the 11th. Saturday, August 11. I expect all of you to vote. Early voting is happening now. Please, thank you again. Vote, vote, vote. Aloha, and we'll see you next time.