watch: island earth

To feed all the humans on the planet, we are going to have to grow as much food in the next 35 years as we have grown since the beginning of civilization.

Shocked when he found out that chemical companies were using Hawaii as the testing ground for their GMO crops, director Cyrus Sutton decided to take action. This film documents the three year journey that he embarked on. Island Earth tells the stories of Malia Chun, Cliff Kapono, and Dustin Barca – three Hawaiians seeking to make Hawaii a beacon of hope for an uncertain future.  Their journey takes us from GMO corn fields to traditional loi patches in order to uncover the modern truths and ancient values and wisdom that will help us to halt our unsustainable depletion of the earth’s natural resources and to discover how we can feed the world without destroying the planet.

workshop: regenerative agroforestry in hawaii.

Hawaii based Agroforestry Net and FARM Centre are teaming up to offer the Aloha Syntropica-Regenerative Agroforestry Workshop series in Hawi, North Kohala, Hawaii from August 20th to 31st, 2017. The workshops are designed to immerse farmers in regenerative agroforestry and will include personal training in the theory and practice of planning, planting and managing diverse food forests in a way that is both ecologically and economically sustainable.

Rodale Institute’s 2014 report on regenerative organic agriculture and climate change confirms the value of the work, “Changing farming practices to organic, regenerative and agro-ecological systems can… improve farm profitability and revitalize traditional farming communities while ensuring biodiversity and resilience of ecosystem services.”

Costs:

August 20–25, 2017—Part 1: $1195 ($1075 before July 7)

August 27–31, 2017—Part 2*: $1195 ($1075 before July 7)

Parts 1 & 2: $1995 ($1795 before July 7)

10% early registration discount for payment before July 7

To find out more about this workshop and to register click HERE

to reduce food waste, farm insects

It’s called protaculture, and Robert Olivier has made it accessible using an invention he calls the “biopod.” The idea is simple: put food waste into an enclosed space with the black soldier fly to bioconvert the food into proteins and fats that can then be used for livestock feed. Unlike composting, the biopod can even be used to convert animals products. The paradigm shift he proposes is this, what if we didn’t need to grow corn and soy to feed livestock? What if we could do it with our food waste alone.

Tune into the Greenhorns Radio Show on Heritage Radio Network tomorrow at 4:00 to learn more when Sev interviews Robert Olivier. Or, as always, catch the podcast!

 

Haiku Aina Permaculture Initiative

Respected Internet explorers and seekers of Harmony with Nature; welcome to this entry portal, introducing you to our work at the Ha’iku Aina Permaculture Initiative (also known as HAPI).

The project, as we see it, is a way of applying principles of agroforestry and permaculture in an area of rainforest on this beautiful island in the South Pacific Ocean.

Integrating principles and wisdom of native Hawaiian spiritual culture, we are aspiring to create a model of soil renewal, reforestation, and human interaction with nature in a paradigm of respect, harmony, and adherence to the natural law.
Welcome to our vision and our world. We hope you will find something here that can serve and inspire you as well.

(In the Hawaiian Language, which is filled with mysteries and hidden meanings, “HA” represents the Breath of Life – The Spirit, “I” represents The Self, and “KU” means “rising upright” it is the name also given to the Rising Sun. So Hai’ku, the name of the place where our project is located can be said to represent The True Self Standing Upright in Spirit).

 

dreamy dream job

For those of you whom have fantasized about growing on an organic biodynamic farm IN HAWAII, we feel like it is our solemn duty to inform you that Pu’u O Haku Ranch on Molokai is hiring for a ground manager position. See posting below:

Grounds Maintenance Specialist.
Primary Responsibilities: This position is typically responsible for performing a variety of tasks, which may include any combination of the following; manual weed removal, pruning, mowing, trimming, planting, transplanting, watering, fertilizing, digging, raking, sprinkler installation, landscape lighting, pool, waterscape and drainage maintenance and occasional seed collection and installation of mortarless loose rock paths and small wall units.

The Grounds Maintenance Specialist is also responsible for many different projects related to planning, planting and caring for grounds, orchards and gardens including;

hawaiins fight in court to preserve GMO ban

In case you missed it, two weeks ago, our friends and allies at the Hawai’i Center for Food Safety took five cases through the 9th circuit appeals court focusing on the rights of local communities to regulate and legislate genetically engineered seed crops and pesticide use. The video embedded below has the live recording of court proceedings. Scroll to 1:40:00 to see CFS lawyer Andy Kimbrell in action in court. See fellow CFS lawyer Sylvia Wu speak about the impacts of these cases here.

hawaii to ny in a double hulled sailing canoe

Hōkūleʻa, our Star of Gladness, began as a dream of reviving the legacy of exploration, courage, and ingenuity that brought the first Polynesians to the archipelago of Hawaiʻi. The canoes that brought the first Hawaiians to their island home had disappeared from earth. Cultural extinction felt dangerously close to many Hawaiians when artist Herb Kane dreamed of rebuilding a double-hulled sailing canoe similar to the ones that his ancestors sailed. Though more than 600 years had passed since the last of these canoes had been seen, this dream brought together people of diverse backgrounds and professions. Since she was first built and launched in the 1970s, Hōkūle’a continues to bring people together from all walks of life. She is more than a voyaging canoe—she represents the common desire shared by the people of Hawaii, the Pacific, and the World to protect our most cherished values and places from disappearing.

To learn more, click HERE!

hawaii back story of colonialization

What We Want vs. What We Can Get:Colonizing Ourselves

Colonization can take place in many ways. One of the ways that it occurs is diverting our energy away from organizing for what we actually want, to instead organizing for what we think we can get under the current system.

Large environmental groups in the U.S. have diluted community activism for decades. When coalfield communities wanted to ban strip mining in the 1970s, the large environmental groups steered them toward “practical” alternatives, such as the regulation of the practice, rather than the banning of it. Today, of course, those laws do nothing to keep mountain tops from being blown off in West Virginia, or to prevent longwall coal mining in Appalachia from dewatering streams and polluting drinking water. Long-term effects of those practices, of course, include the combustion of coal, which is not-so-slowly cooking the

planet.

And it’s not just stories of yesteryear – today, communities who know that they need to ban fracking, factory farming, pipelines, and other developments are reminded by the large environmental organizations that banning those operations is not only impractical, but illegal and unconstitutional under the U.S. system of law

To read more, read:  Community-Rights-Paper-10-Paradis-Lost

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seeking young food movement leaders

Food Sovereignty Tours, a program of Food First, is seeking young leaders, farmers, and food activists from diverse backgrounds who are working to advance the mission of food justice and food sovereignty in their local communities, nationally and/or internationally.Preference given to applicants from underserved communities. People of color strongly encouraged to apply.

One selected applicant will be awarded a full scholarship plus airfare to join a Food Sovereignty Tour educational delegation to Hawai’i August 14-22, 2015 to explore food justice and sustainable agriculture on the island of O’ahu.

About Food Sovereignty Tours

Food Sovereignty Tours is a project of Food First/Institute for Food & Development Policy. Our goal is to expose the realities of the global food system, educate participants about alternatives, and help you engage with the global movement for food sovereignty. We do this through educational tours that offer an opportunity to travel to international destinations to experience local food systems first-hand.

About the Hawai’i Food Sovereignty Tour

Food First’s inaugural Hawai’i Food Sovereignty Tour will take place August 14-22, 2015 and will focus on the stunning tropical island of O’ahu and explore its movement for food sovereignty in the face of a globalized, corporate food system. We’ll tour farms across the island and meet with diverse actors to see how the movement is nurturing the next generation of farmers, community leaders, and scholars cultivating food justice in paradise. Click here to read about the tour. (Tour is open to the public, all other interested people not meeting criteria for this scholarship are invited to please contact Kbrimm@foodfirst.org for details about the delegation).

outgrow monsanto

http://www.gmofreemaui.org

shaka movement

You want to check this out. Shaka Movement.org
A model for addressing the GMO issue.

The SHAKA Movement is an advocacy, communications and educational outreach program and hub, where people and organizations come together to work in unison toward sustainable practices to affect a positive change for the environment and for the people of the Hawaiian Islands.

We are a self-organizing grassroots movement, which means that each of US who participates, IS the movement.

The goal of this website is to educate and organize citizens. We provide the best information available and give all citizens the opportunity to participate in affecting change in a way that best suits their life, their passion and their time availability.

here’s what happens when a billionaire buys an island as a “hobby”

A fascinating read in the New York Times Magazine.

Larry Ellison Bought an Island in Hawaii. Now What?
By JON MOOALLEM; SEPT. 23, 2014

Henry Jolicoeur is a retired French Canadian hypnotherapist and a glass-products importer who enjoys making very low-budget documentary films. In the summer of 2012, Jolicoeur read that Larry Ellison, a founder of the Silicon Valley giant Oracle and the fifth-richest man in the world, had bought 97 percent of the Hawaiian island of Lanai — not a 97 percent stake in some kind of company, but 97 percent of the physical place. Jolicoeur was curious, so he booked a flight and packed his camera.

Jolicoeur knew a little about Lanai, having lived in Hawaii in the ’90s. It is among the smallest and least trafficked of Hawaiian islands — a quiet, spectacular place where Cook Island pine trees vault up everywhere, like spires or giant peacock feathers — and can feel like a charming wormhole to an earlier era. There is only one town, Lanai City, where virtually all of the island’s 3,200 residents live. Ellison now owned a third of all their houses and apartments; the island’s two Four Seasons-run hotels; the central commons at the heart of Lanai City, called Dole Park, and all the buildings around it; the town swimming pool; the community center; the theater; a grocery store; two golf courses; a wastewater treatment plant; the water company; and a cemetery. In a single sweeping real estate deal, reported to cost $300 million, he had acquired 87,000 of the island’s 90,000 acres. And he would subsequently buy an airline that connects Lanai to Honolulu as well. On all of Lanai, I heard of only a handful of businesses — the gas station, the rental-car company, two banks, a credit union and a cafe called Coffee Works — that are neither owned by Ellison nor pay him rent.

Jolicoeur spent about three weeks strolling around the island, asking locals to hold his ungainly, foam-sheathed microphone and tell the camera how they felt about the big acquisition. Everyone seemed to feel very, very good. “I want to thank Mr. Ellison,” one fishing-boat captain says. “He’s got a vision, and he’s taking care of us over here on Lanai.” A pack of landscapers, shown assiduously raking dirt, say things like: “Thank you for work, Mr. Ellison! Thank you very much!” The owner of a salon: “I just want to take this time to thank Mr. Ellison for the unbelievable, incredible takeover of Lanai.” Inside the island’s Catholic church, a priest in a purple robe, surrounded by children, says: “Heavenly father. . . . We ask for your blessings for Mr. Ellison, particularly, and those who work with him, that all the good plans and intentions that he has for Lanai be fruitful.” Elsewhere, a woman shouts a little breathlessly: “Mr. Ellison! Thank you for being here! We love you! I’ve never met you before and really would like to, and I can imagine that you will do awesome wonders for this place!”

continue reading HERE

hawaii: food industry innovation online courses now available!

The University of Hawaii at Maui is now offering Food Innovation Courses ONLINE!  In this series National food-marketing expert, Lou Cooperhouse, takes you from market overview to legal and safety details. Find the edge you need in the food marketplace and help connect Hawai`i’s farms to tables everywhere!

The following courses will be offered this year: 

• Food Trends and Food Marketplace Overview
• Food Technology and Product Development Process
• Quality Assurance and Food Safety Principles
• Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) for Food Producers

Sign-up online or call EdVenture 808-984-3231 to register.
(10% online discount valid through August 15th)

farm manager job on maui

Job Opening – General Farm Manager

Around the world, a new generation of farmers and practitioners of regenerative agriculture are redefining our relationship with the land and are producing healthy, nutrient-dense food. In this spirit, Bio-Logical Capital seeks to train and develop the next generation of sustainable Hawai’i farmers who will impact local food production, regenerate damaged soil, and improve the overall health of the land and the people it feeds.

Bio-Logical Capital is a land investment, development, and conservation company that operates a small-diversified farm in Kula. Farm operations include bio-intensively managed fruit and vegetable crops, orchards, and the creation of a variety of value-add products. The goals of the farm are to build living soil, produce nutrient-dense food, implement innovative practices, and create a beautiful, diverse, productive landscape that will become a standard for an international brand of “beyond-organic” products.

Success on the farm is dependent on building a strong local team and we are searching for farmers, with varying levels of experience, who can demonstrate a strong work ethic and enthusiastic focus on our farm’s long-term health and productivity.

permaculture design course in hawaii

Here’s a note from Meleana Judd of Waihuena Farm:
Since earning a PDC with Robyn Francis in Australia in 2003 I committed to bring more ‘permaculture’ to Oahu. The PDC provides a framework & skill-set to approach living sustainably and is an experience I feel you, our community & the planet will benefit from. Please join us!

For more information, contact Meleana at meleanajudd at gmail.com or at 808-551-8132
Sign up for the course HERE