 Think Tech Hawaii Code Green. Welcome one and all to a beautiful Honolulu afternoon. You know, I was born and raised here and I swear that as early as I can remember, the talk has been food self-sufficiency. We must grow our own food, reduce our dependence on important food. And as far as I know, we've hardly made any progress in that direction. Everybody wins when we have local food. So here to talk about that issue are two distinguished members of the Climate Future Forum, which is a group of young people totally dedicated to the 800 pound gorilla in the room, climate change and all its ramifications. With me is Emi Matsuura of Kunoho School and Vivian Momohil of Waldorf Academy. Welcome to both of you. Yes, let's get right into it and then I will chime in with the questions. So Emi, take it over. Okay, awesome, thank you. So I just wanted to start by saying thank you so much for having us here. And I wanna talk about a little bit about why Climate Future Forum is so important. And so as youth, it has become very apparent to us that simply waiting on the sidelines for our government to piece together an effective and comprehensive strategy to tackle the climate crisis is really not an option anymore. We've just been caught in this temporary cycle, a cycle of temporary fixes and individual acts of responsibility that while very commendable, barely scratched the surface of the deeper systemic issues that we face. And so Climate Future Forum aims to support a link between the energy and ideas of young people and the mechanisms of our legislative process because the task of driving lasting change is falling on us the younger generation. And so Climate Future Forum aims to amplify the voices of youth in climate conversation so we're able to hold our leaders accountable so they can deliver not just these promises but real impactful change. And so in Climate Future Forum, there are a couple groups. They're sustainable infrastructure and development which plans and develop sustainable communities with cleaner infrastructure. There's the clean energy and transportation group which increases accessibility for cleaner energy and transportation. There's the climate and the economy group which corrects the market failures of an unsustainable economy and helps transition towards a more sustainable one. We are part of the regenerative food systems group which aims to transition Hawaii's food systems towards sustainability. And finally, there is the climate justice and just transition group which ensures that these transitions towards sustainability are equitable and they reduce the burden on marginalized groups. And let me jump in and say that there is a tie-in between clean transportation and locally sourced food because to get locally sourced food to us, all you have to do is drive from Haulah or any other place where we have agriculture just take it into town and boom, your transportation is sold whereas for most of our foods, it has to come from the mainland and not just the West Coast but from all over the mainland. And that is very, very fuel-spending there. So we have a nice tie-in there. Yeah, absolutely. There's a lot of overlap within these groups which is really great. Yeah, our reliance on imported foods does substantially increase unnecessary emissions. So we did have an events for Climate Future Forum right before this legislative session and we broke up into a couple of working groups within regenerative food systems. And I think Vivian has the next slide. Yeah, hi, my name is Vivian. I'm a junior at the Honolulu-Wallor School. I'm so excited to be here. And I think part of what made the Climate Future Forum so amazing was that it brought together different groups. It brought together legislators and youth and nonprofits. And often youth aren't really included in the conversation. We're told like, it would be so amazing if you pitched in. We want to hear what you think. But then there aren't a lot of settings for that to actually happen. So it was just amazing to get together and see all these young people of all ages excited about climate advocacy. So, yes, we had multiple key policy areas that we split into groups for. It was sustainable infrastructure and development, clean energy and transportation, climate and the economy, regenerative food systems. And like Emmy said, climate justice and a just transition. And so important. And we were the youth policy leaders for the Regenerative Food Systems Group, which was specifically about local agriculture and just supporting that through a myriad of different ways. So first, before we really get into policies and what we really did, I think it's important to define what it means to be, to have a regenerative food system. So we took a definition from the Nature Conservancy. The idea is to produce food, whether on land or at sea, in ways that actively restore habitat and protect biodiversity in and around production areas while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In some cases, regenerative food systems can produce even more food than traditional systems. And crucially, they preserve the livelihoods of the farmers, fishers, ranchers and others who work to provide our food now and in the long run. And that's especially true here in Hawaii because we have such a long and rich history of being really connected to the land. You know, Kalo, Tarot, humanity's older brother. So we have a real connection. Yeah, just to the land in general. So it's especially important because of that. So within that, we split our group into multiple systems, multiple key policy interests based on what the students were interested in. So basically, the first one was dependence on imported food. Basically, everyone knows we're very isolated. We're on an island or a chain of islands just miles away from any main continent. About 85 to 90% of Hawaii's food is imported, which is just an astronomical amount. And that makes us particularly vulnerable to natural disasters and any global event that might cut off our food supply. It's especially true because we don't really have like large stores of food, but the ones we have are often on the shoreline. So if you think about if there was a tsunami or a strong earthquake, we're just, we don't have any backup plan. We're completely isolated until the ports get set back up. Second was farm to school. So farm to school is a very complicated concept that means a lot of things to different people, but basically it is just the idea of wanting to support school gardens, farms, agriculture plus nutrition education and getting school lunches from local sources. Studies, and there have been numerous studies that show the positive impacts of farm to school programs in a myriad of different ways from economic development, public health, community engagement, education and environmental conservation. Next up, native Hawaiian farming practices. Like I said earlier, it is so intrinsic to our culture here and it has been for such a long time. And this is arguably the one that ties back to the land and to supporting it in a holistic way. So it is essentially- Vivian, let me jump in and point out that when Captain Cook first arrived in Hawaii, the estimated population here was between 500,000 and one million people and the early accounts of these early Hawaiians was that they were strong and healthy. They were feeding themselves up to one million people. How did they do that? They were geniuses at maximizing the use of the land and of the sea. We have so much to learn from them which I assume you're gonna be talking about but up to one million people, that's just astounding. Yes, 100%. And then I didn't really want to get into it but we also have a lot of history of when the missionaries came in and they started sugar cane plantations and that was essentially what ended our food sovereignty. That was it. Because you brought in a bunch of other people to work the farms or the plantations and then you needed to bring more imported food to feed them and it just escalated. It is very interesting the role of sugar and that isn't necessarily food production but more just product consumption and looking at general global systems of health and food. It's fascinating but that's not what I'm supposed to be talking about. So native Hawaiian farming practices, it is so important. It addresses the problem of overpriced imports and food insecurity, it helps repair the land that has again been systematically ruined essentially, grow staple foods. So whether it's canoe plants or true indigenous plants rebuild a sense of community through farming. I mean, just going on a coliform is so much fun and you learn so much. So that is a really big part of it provides food security and build resistance to climate change. So like I said, we don't have a total dependence on this imported food. Food waste, we waste 522 million pounds of food each year which is 26% of the state's food supply. Environmentally, just talking about the effects of that wasted food rotting away in our landfills cause greenhouse gas emissions such as methane which is 25 times more toxic than carbon dioxide. Preventing food waste can help reduce these emissions and improve climate change, improve I guess the effects of climate change and working to an actual solution. So yes, that is all the food regenerative food working groups we had. I feel like it was pretty split up evenly at the event. We did have more interest in food insecurity. Emmy, do you want to correct me? Native Hawaiian farming practices. Native Hawaiian farming practices, you're right. Yes, everyone was very interested in that one. Yeah, which makes a lot of sense. And let me interject that there was the concept of nutrient rich foods versus nutrient poor foods and what the Hawaiians raised were basically nutrient dense. For instance, they had Ulu, the breadfruit and little babies could start punching Ulu just when they were little infants and that helped them grow big and healthy at a very early age. And most of the other Hawaiian foods that I know about were likewise very nutrient dense. Yes, 100%, there's nothing more hearty and filling I guess is like a colo or a lot of the more traditional plants as opposed to like eating a tomato or the foods that were brought in. Emmy, I believe you are next, so take over. Yeah, so if we move on to the kind of priority sections, I think we already touched a lot on why import dependency, especially here in Hawaii is very damaging to us. It decreases our resilience to natural disasters. It inflates food prices, increases our carbon footprint as you mentioned. And it really undermines our local economy. It harms our community's ability to sustain itself. And so one of the bills that is very important to address this is SB 2479. And this would establish and appropriate funds for a Hawaii Farm to Food Bank program. And it would fund food banks in Hawaii to purchase, store and transport locally grown or produce food to food insecure communities. And so this would address the state's food needs and it would also provide a stable market for local food producers. This would keep money circulating in our state. It would boost our local economy and it would help ensure that everyone has access to nutritious food, which is so critical to regenerative food systems. And so this would propose the appropriation of $5 billion for fiscal year 2024 to 2025. And a very related bill to this, and which is especially important given the aftermath of the Lahaina wildfires is HB 2590. And so this allocates $2 million for food bank purchases from local farmers. And this is just so critical following the disaster of the Lahaina wildfire, which dramatically increased the demand on food banks. And so by supporting this bill, we would be preparing for future disasters, building a stronger, more resilient food system that supports local agriculture. And then of course, make sure that no one goes hungry because we see that Hawaii's food banks have provided very critical relief after disaster situations such as Hurricane Iniki COVID-19 and of course the Lahaina wildfire. And after the wildfire within three months, Maui food banks are past its usual annual supply of 3 million pounds of food. And this just shows the state's need to expand its food storage capacity for further disaster situations. So this bill is incredibly crucial for this disaster preparedness. So now we can go back to V for the farm to school priorities. Yes, thank you, Emi. There are multiple active bills right now that cover farm to school priorities, but I have chosen three to highlight in particular. The first one is HB1969, which regards shade and fruit trees in DOE organization schools, essentially. So this would essentially set up a program in the Department of Education to support educational activities and encourage propagation of native shade trees or fruit trees for planting in department schools. It basically appropriates funds for the program. And this is so important because we are talking about nutrition education and that being a very big part of making the transition to regenerative and healthy living. We want kids to be excited about eating local, excited about, this is a local, these are local trees. Like these are what we're supposed to be here and just education around that in general. Next is SB3241, which regards plant-based meals. It's an option grant program. And as a vegetarian, when I saw this bill, I was like, oh, that's awesome. It establishes essentially a plant-based meals option within the Department of Education and declares that basically there will be funding for it. Which again, you're talking about. I mean, yeah, as a vegetarian who has gone to DOE schools, it's tough. There's no option to eat at school. You always have to bring your own lunch, which is okay, but there should be a program in place for that. Next, there are two bills active right now. SB3260 and HB1969, which is essentially trying to bring locally sourced food to schools. It requires by a certain date, 100% of the food purchased by certain state departments. So not just the DOE, consist of fresh local agricultural products and local value. So this would be a huge change if put in place. I mean, it's still kind of pushing the date to a later time, but it still sets a precedent where this is a goal and we're gonna work our way there and see more steps towards it. So all those bills are active as of right now. And if you research them, submit testimony, and I think Emmy has the next category. Yeah, so the next category is food insecurity priorities. And these don't immediately, I think come to mind when you're thinking about regenerative food systems, but addressing food insecurity is very important to create this resilience and this equity within Hawaii's food system. And so HB 1661 expands SNAP eligibility and SNAP stands for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. So right now people who are eligible for SNAP benefits are people who have an income of 200% or below of the federal poverty level. And so this bill would increase SNAP benefits for people whose monthly income is equal to or less than 300% of the federal poverty level. So it would expand this. And so this bill kind of recognizes that many people are struggling to afford a lot of the basics in Hawaii because of the high cost of living and the high cost of food prices because somebody who has a household with an income of $69,000 a year wouldn't qualify right now for the SNAP program, but you would need an income of a household with an income of $100,000 or more to afford the basics like housing and food here in Hawaii. And so this expanded SNAP program or this expanded SNAP bill is really looking at the high cost of living, the high cost of food and trying to ensure that more people have access to food security. And so HB 1525 or the debuts bill is also related to food insecurity and this would appropriate funds. So this debuts, double up bucks food program could continue to help provide local food or fresh produce to SNAP beneficiaries. And the goal of this bill is to make fresh local produce more accessible. So this would match funds for SNAP beneficiaries to increase their buying power at farmers markets or local stores, which can help feed families as well as invest in our local farmers. And the beauty of this program is it's really simple economically to look at because every dollar spends on local produce for this program generates $2.10 in economic activity. So for example, a $3 million state investment matched federally would give our local economy over $2.6 million annually. So it really is this win-win situation. And let me point out that for especially low-income families, the cheapest food they find are carbohydrates. Absolutely, yeah. Rice leading the way, but all kinds of bread products, wheat products. And they're fine for supplying calories, but they're not so good in supplying all the vitamins and minerals that we need. Yes, yes, thank you for mentioning that. That's so important because when we're looking at equity within our food systems and just who has access to fresh produce or who can support buying locally, it tends to be people with more money. And so these bills, I think are, yeah, they're just so important in letting people have access to consuming locally grown or fresh produce, which is just so important to health. And another thing is the fresher the produce, the better retention there is of the nutrients they're in. Yeah, absolutely, yes. It's really great that that does support local farmers here in Hawaii too. And so I think Vee has the next part about native Hawaiian farming practices, priorities. Thank you, Emmy. There are multiple priorities that regard native Hawaiian farming practices. I recommend, and we're gonna go over this later again, but Hawaii Food Plus Policy for those interested in all of these, but especially native Hawaiian farming practices, there's a lot of resources out there with that organization. So the first bill that I looked at was SB 2478, which is essentially about imu in state parks. And that just basically sets up infrastructure and support appropriates funds to establish imu and a variation of state parks, which again, if you want people to be really invested in supporting locally and supporting native Hawaiian practices, it can't be something at the back of your mind, right? It's we implement them, we see them, we see this local agriculture, and then we, I think generally realize how much more we need to preserve it. The second bill, HB 2626, it's easy to remember, streamlining fish pond leasing. So this essentially just makes it easier for leasing government-owned wine fish ponds. It appropriates funds to the Board of Land and Natural Resources to create a standard lease application and basically just again, streamline the process, which if you wanna encourage people to lease and make it more of a attainable goal, then of course that makes a lot of sense. So just we're gonna quickly go over the next steps for those who are watching and might be interested in this topic, might be interesting in more events like the Climate Future Forum. We have a slide for that. Next steps we grow. Exactly, thank you. Basically, this event is hosted by the Hawaii Youth Food Council, a statewide council established in 2020 to engage and empower youth in the process of rewriting the present narrative of Hawaii's food system, essentially engaging in policy advocacy work, and Hawaii Food Council specifically centered around farm-to-school programs, but if anyone's interested in the topic in general of regenerative food systems, it's a really good place to start or continue. They are hosting the Hawaii Food Summit February 16th and 17th, the first day Friday is at We Grow, yes. It's the first day is at the Capitol and you get to meet with legislators. They have a really great program being set up right now and the second day is We Grow Youth for Farm-to-School. So this gets more into the, I guess, nitty gritty of the policy work and just general work and it's at Punahou School. So I really encourage anyone interested to come, yes. And it's open to pre-K to seniors and educators from Hawaii schools. Yeah, and I just wanted to close it off and Emmy you can add that there are lots of resources for youth and for people of all ages to be engaged in this topic. It doesn't need to be scary. You don't need to be a policy expert. There are a lot of resources out there such as the Hawaii Food Council, Hawaii Food Plus Policy, the Blue Planet Foundation. They're not centered around regenerative food systems, but if you want more structure and guidance surrounding bill testimony, those are really good places to look. Emmy, do you wanna say anything else? Yeah, I just want to, I guess, yeah. Thank you again for inviting us onto the show. It's been really great to be able to share these incredibly important bills and these priorities for regenerative food systems. Last session, there was pretty much no regenerative foods related bills that were passed and it's really great to be able to talk about this. So thank you. We have about one minute left. Let me bring up a related topic, namely, instead of machines mowing down all the long grass along our highways in the rural areas, what about farming out sheep or goats to have them munch their grass up and fatten them up and then their droppings will cultivate the soil? Has there been any thought of that? No. I haven't heard about that. That sounds like a fantastic idea. I know after the Lahaina wildfires, they were considering having animals come and graze over some of the weeds, the invasive species that were, and that seems kind of related, that had kind of caused that problem. I think that just sounds like, yeah, a fantastic idea. Yeah, and we are having more and more solar farms. Those are the photovoltaic panels just out in a flat land and the grass grows all around them. They could get some animals in there, too. Yeah, I've been to a couple of those solar farms and it's just amazing. It's so cool to see this truly regenerative, truly just new way of just cultivating land. It was so great to see. And just very finely, you mentioned planting more fruit trees and other trees. The more you do that, the more you cool the planet down. Trees are the ultimate shade givers. And you're absorbing carbon dioxide, you're exuding oxygen. So on that very, very cheery note, we must bid adieu. Emmy and Vivian, thank you so much. You are inspirations to us all. All we need to do is multiply you by about 1,000 and all our problems would be solved in a few years. So thank you and keep up the excellent work. This is Howard Wiig, Code Green, Think Takeaway. See you next time.