 Better Tomorrow means scaling up an agriculture. And we have the Better Tomorrow program represented by Robert Perkinson, a professor in the American Studies program at UH Milo. Welcome to the show, Robert. Thanks for having me, Jake, good to see you again. Tell us about, you know, the Better Tomorrow program. It really sounds important for Hawaii. We need to have discussions about all these issues. We need to take action about these issues. We need to have the public conversation going strong. But tell us about Better Tomorrow. Sure, I mean, it's like a lot of university speaker series and that we try to bring both local luminaries and outside experts to address issues in all fields, to represent them in kind of compelling ways and bring the latest research to the public. But what makes ours different than regular speaker series is that we also try to connect our speakers to the decision makers most well positioned to take action on those ideas locally. So we, you know, we hope that it's a speaker series that matters and can inject good ideas into the policy process, into the research process. And that makes it a little bit unique. It does, it does sound unique. So you have a website, which we'll show in this video and you have a YouTube channel, which we'll show in this video. And those sources show a lot of programs, a lot of, you know, discussions and webinars and the like. And one of them is scaling up Hawaii's Food Future, which is a film made by him, Basford, as our filmmaker. She was, you know, doing it for Think Tech Hawaii and it played on the PBS and it's been playing around film festival, Hawaii International Film Festival. And this will be a screening of that particular film. So why did you pick this subject, Robert? I mean, there's a lot of subjects you could pick. You have picked a lot of, you know, broad array of subjects. Why this one? Well, agriculture is really important to the people of Hawaii and to the history of the state and to the future of the state. It touches kind of everything. It touches economic inequality, land use, climate, the environment, our health, our wellbeing. And so, you know, figuring out how to vitalize Hawaii's agricultural sector so that it produces and supports viable businesses so that it advances human welfare, so that we cut Hawaii's carbon import footprint so that we are good stewards of our lands. Like all of those are really core issues. So we're gonna be doing a lot more issues on food systems and agriculture in this one in partnership with you but others in the future with, you know, our main partners for the series are Kamehameha Schools and Hawaii Community Foundation. But on the agriculture side, we're also bringing in Lupono Initiative, the Agricultural College at UH, CTAR, and there's a food systems program at UH West Oahu, that's also really amazing and they're gonna be working with us on that too. Well, you're jumping in a very important subject. You know, let me ask you one more question to go to the 50,000 foot level. American studies, you know, you're talking about issues that affect Hawaii but they also affect, you know, the national welfare. Can you connect it up for me between Hawaii and American studies, the status of our country as it exists today? Well, sure, American studies is a peculiar, creative little niche within the university in which people come together to study US culture, society, history from a variety of different disciplines from sociology to musicology to history and more. So it's a really fun dynamic program to be in. And I started doing the speaker series kind of as a side project some years ago but it's really expanded and has now become kind of the university's leading speaker series. And we're trying to highlight important work that experts at UH are doing. You know, home in on issues that are really of acute importance to Hawaii housing, economic inequality, economic diversification, agriculture, climate, education and so on and try to identify researchers locally and around the world who have solid research grounded ideas to make our future better, better tomorrow, if you will. And, you know, try to get those folks in conversation with local community, business, elected officials, leaders so that those outside folks can learn from us from what Hawaii has to offer the world and so that we might, you know, get some good ideas for us to act on as well. Now, thanks. And, you know, it really sounds like we're running a parallel in terms of our coverage. So all I can say is Mikasa Sukasa, if you want to collaborate on anything we're available for you. We are, our house is also yours. And we are kindred endeavors. You've just been at it along for longer. But yeah, I think there's not a, there's a, you know, one of the great spirits of your show is that you just bring in together so many different perspectives. We're trying to do something similar and the more we can work together to get good ideas out there and catalyze meaningful conversations, the better. Great. So let's talk about the program at the law school. This one on when September 8th is it? And how you organized it and what it's gonna be like and what it's gonna cover and who's gonna speak? It's gonna be at the law school. And it's a lovely film that you produced that profiles a lot of small scale but successful and innovative agricultural initiatives, farms and kind of product development from Manoa chocolate to Kahanarum and more in Hawaii with some, you know, really preliminary speculation in the film about some steps that we might take to scale up the agricultural sector. But it's a short, easy to digest film but we're also bringing together a diverse set of voices to kind of use the film as a springboard and to start thinking about what, how we want to advance the agricultural sector. So we'll be bringing in Kaio Duarte, vice president from Kamehameha Schools, Murray Clay, the president of Ulupono Initiative, folks from SITAR, from GoFarm Hawaii, a couple of local farmers. We'll have the ag chairs from both houses of the legislature in attendance. A lot of nonprofit folks. So it should be a really interesting conversation. Yeah, it should be. And you know, I really appreciate the springboard idea that you have because we haven't done that much and this should be covered in the conversation. We've been talking about it, but we haven't done that much and maybe this program will spring into action. How do you see the conversation in that regard going? I mean, what kind of action points do you think will come up, will be focused on? Well, we are fortunate to have on the program a well-respected community leader who's serving as our expert emcee. That would be Mr. Jay Fidel. Okay. So this will be partly up to you to kind of like help guide our speakers toward the action points. But I think, you know, there's, the agricultural sector is full of now good ideas, scientific innovations. There's a lot of research going on even in like soil microbiome research at UH. CTAHR is the first college of UH. The film advances, you know, ideas about boutique agriculture, you know, developing kind of high value products that could be exported, not like mass exporting sugarcane and pineapple once upon a time, but higher level like Kona coffee obviously being that are kind of premier export agricultural product. You know, there's a question of how to make farming, local farming larger scale or small scale viable. So the kind of cooperatives and supports that they need in the United States, the agriculture is hugely subsidized, you know, tens of billion dollars a year, not counting all of the subsidies for the transportation sector. But that money overwhelmingly flows to, you know, massive mechanized farms in the Midwest and not to the vegetable and fruit farms that might be most appropriate for, or at least would form an important part of what is the agricultural sector going forward that are really important to the foods we eat on a daily basis and the way we manage our land. So I hope we'll have a kind of wide ranging conversation. I don't think we'll get to the bottom of this, but it could be a sort of opening where we get a lot of good ideas on the table. You know, like how to use agriculture to reinforce and advance traditional Hawaiian culture. How to use agriculture to cut Hawaii's climate impact. How to use agriculture to kind of protect our watersheds and how to keep ourselves healthy. How to use agriculture to, you know, introduce kids in school to healthier eating, alternatives and fight diabetes and obesity. There really are a wide range of issues that we could begin to address. And I think we'll just, I think this will just give us a kind of opening flavor to some of what could be possible. Yeah, as you say, the film, you know, it's modest in the sense that it raises issues, that raises awareness. It's easy to take. You can wrap, you know, your experience around it and you can connect back up with the plantations and the kinds of things that were happening to make agriculture successful back years ago. But, you know, the points you make are the points that I would make, too, that I would want to make as moderator. I would want to bring out exactly what we can do. In the film, there's a little clip from Glen Wakai in the legislature. And he says, you know, the legislature spends 1% of its budget on agriculture. That's not enough. And in the larger sense, we really have to talk about how to become sustainable and resilient in the face of climate change. You know, so logistically, we know climate change is coming and one of these days is gonna be a real profound biblical test of Hawaii, which relies on, you know, mainland imports of food. You can't live at McDonald's. You have to have your own and you have to have an industry and you have to have an industry that works, you know, with the culture, with hospitality and with people who, you know, might otherwise not want to get their hands dirty. We have to use the technology, all of this has to come into play. So this is only the beginning of a long conversation. And frankly, I think that, you know, you or Think Tech or a combination of organizations like this or to keep on pushing, pushing the legislature, pushing the public, pushing the hospitality industry, pushing kids to get involved and be entrepreneurs in, you know, in agriculture. It's not an option. It's critical. And that's the, those are the points I would like to bring out in this discussion. So how do people sign up? You know, we're kind of booked up already but we're gonna put this on as a webinar so we want people to know about it. Yeah, so you can check it and there might not be many tickets left. If you go to our website, just Google the Better Tomorrow speaker series, you'll find our website and you can register there. If it's booked up, then we will be making the, we'll be making the film and some of this discussion available for everyone on the internet afterwards. And you can also see some of the future programs there we have that are also addressing really important issues to the future of Hawaii. Well, I would like to aim for, as you suggest, action. This is an area where action is absolutely, you know, essential. We have been struggling with what to do with agriculture since the plantations failed. And now is the time when we have to, you know, create an industry. Technology was nice, but this is more important, frankly, and to the, you know, to the survival of our people. And it's a chance also, I think, to revitalize the agricultural industry and do it right and think about all of the, think of kind of our whole food and economic system as a web that we want to use to enhance our environment and our wellbeing all through the system. And so, you know, it may not, I'm not sure, I'm not an expert in the area of agriculture, but I'm not sure it makes sense to kind of seek to return to the period when cash crop export agriculture was a key driver of GDP in the state and a massive portion of the labor market, but it does make sense to figure out how we can feed our kids healthier food, how we can take better care of our lands, how we can, you know, grow in terms of population without necessarily spreading out and eating up all of our agriculture and conservation lands. And, you know, if we think about it comprehensively, then agriculture can be a really vital, important part of the puzzle that can make us healthier, happier, can give really cool, meaningful jobs to people and, you know, can make Hawaii a nicer place to live. And it tastes good. Yeah, I mean, it's such a, as we all know, right? Like if you get a mango off of somebody's tree, that's perfect, that's, or a carrot out of your garden, it's just a totally different experience from getting something at Safeway that might have been picked several thousand miles away and with a huge carbon footprint by the time it gets here and weeks after harvest. And we do, we can certainly do a better job of getting, you know, opening up that farm to school pipeline, helping irrigate, so to speak, some of those food deserts that exist in some of our poorer communities, you know, like on the leeward side of the island on Oahu. And, you know, I'd like to really see us think about agriculture and food as a system that, and that's one of the things we'll be trying to deal with in this series that we're working on with UH West Oahu that's partially funded by the Kellogg Foundation, is to try to think about agriculture as a business, agriculture as it fits into the environment and into human health and well-being and economic opportunity too. You know, we had a show just a few days ago with a local guy who, you know, went to many restaurants and culinary school on the mainland and came back here, now he's the, Hazama is his name, he's the chief chef of the Hawaii Food and Wine Festival. And, you know, the point of that discussion, of that show of his return to Hawaii is to make Hawaii a hub of good eating, of good ingredients, you know, from the soil, from our local resources, and also from our expertise, our cultural expertise, our gastronomic expertise, you know, and all that we have. And so I really feel that it goes with, it's a marriage with hospitality and it could be, and actually there's a fair chance that it will be, you know, a place for excellent restaurants, excellent preparation. You know, food is so important these days. It's important globally, but it's important in the Pacific. It's important in Hawaii. So this is the beginning of something, you know, bigger than just production of food. This is the beginning of a reputational change to make Hawaii known around the world for its special talents and skills. So I see this film as only the beginning. I see our effort with government to have government incentivize these efforts as only the beginning. And I really appreciate that you're covering it because I think it is promising for Hawaii. Perhaps as promising as anything we've seen since statehood. Yeah, agreed. I think it's a compelling vision that you outlined there to make it. And you know, to tell you the truth, we're trying to bring a similar spirit to all of the issues that we're addressing in this fall. We have a lot of events coming up on climate, action on coral reef protection, early childhood education are among some of the issues. Food insecurity are among some of the issues that we're gonna be working on with the series this fall. And I'm sure we'll be talking more about that too. That's great. Well, Robert, thank you for putting the program together. Thanks for talking with me today. Thanks for organizing all these speakers. And I am looking forward big time to digging deep on this and finding thoughts we never had before and places in our economy and our culture that we maybe haven't connected yet. So this will be an important discussion and we will publicize it as much as we can in the hope that it raises public awareness including in government so that we take it seriously going forward. I'm with you 100% and I look forward to seeing you there on September 8th. Thank you, Robert. Aloha. Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.