Lawmakers must do more to invest in Hawaiʻi regenerative agriculture

By now, the statistic has been repeated often enough: Hawaiʻi relies on imports to satisfy more than 80 percent of its food demand. This leaves us especially vulnerable to natural disasters and supply chain disruptions. Furthermore, local residents have expressed a growing dissatisfaction with tourism and its related harms. Along these lines, sustainable (or regenerative) agriculture could become a viable alternative for economic growth. In fact, regenerative agriculture is necessary to diversify our economy and mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Earlier this month, Governor Ige signed two bills that are intended to support Hawaiʻi farmers: House Bill (HB) 817 and HB767. HB817 requires state departments to purchase an increasing percentage of their produce from local farmers, and HB767 mandates that 30 percent of the food served in public schools will be locally sourced by 2030. These bills will do much to bolster farmers’ income, but additional measures are needed to ensure their economic security.

Since the early 1900s, industrial agriculture has steadily degraded the soil quality of arable land around the world, leading to massive losses in productivity (Noble, 1–25). In the near future, the conditions brought by climate change are also predicted to cause increased food shortages. Alongside these challenges, rapid population growth has pushed human consumption to unprecedented levels, and food production must be expanded to meet the demand.

Despite these concerns, real estate, service-oriented industries, and government spending continue to drive most of the state’s economic output. Between 1980 and 2017, the inflation-adjusted value of Hawaiʻi’s agricultural production declined from $2,151,360 to $583,484 (2019 dollars). In 2019, agriculture comprised just 0.43 percent of the state GDP (Bureau).

Figure 1. Despite a recent emphasis on the need to develop Hawaiʻi’s agriculture sector to provide greater food security, the share of Gross Domestic Product represented by industries that produce food is still less than 1 percent.

There are several factors that have contributed to the decline of agriculture in Hawaiʻi. Owing to Hawaiʻi’s geographic isolation, local farmers are burdened by outsized production costs. For example, the input costs for agriculture in Hawaiʻi are up to 40 percent greater than they are in California. It is possible to compensate for these costs with larger-scale operations but, in 2017, the majority of Hawaiʻi farms were under 10 acres. Moreover, the amount of available farmland in Hawaiʻi decreased by 42 percent between 1982 and 2017, making it increasingly expensive for farmers to lease or buy land. Consequently, many farmers across the state can barely break even, much less expand their operations.

Local farmers have difficulty weathering economic and ecological crises. During the 1990s, the papaya ringspot virus swept through farms on Hawaiʻi Island and reduced the state’s papaya production by nearly 40 percent. These farms were only able to rebound after they acquired a genetically modified variety of the papaya that was resistant to the disease. More recent infestations of the coffee berry borer beetle threaten to have a similarly disastrous impact on local coffee production. As climate change accelerates over the coming decades, warmer temperatures will increase the geographic range of pests, along with the diseases harbored by them. As such, it is likely that these kinds of outbreaks will increase in both frequency and severity.

Hawaiʻi farmers have access to a number of federal grant programs. The federal government already subsidizes the production of crops that would otherwise be marginally profitable, as is the case with corn. Beyond subsidies, agencies such as the Department of Agriculture or the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR) provide the agricultural sector with invaluable data, loans, and technical expertise. In the process, they help farmers market their products, access new revenue streams, and identify best practices for their production.  

However, these agencies do not have adequate funds to fully address the mounting challenges faced by local farmers. In the near future, the success of sustainable agriculture in Hawaiʻi will be contingent on sizable government investments in both small-scale farmers and the agencies that serve them.

Citations

Bureau of Economic Analysis

Noble, A. D., & Ruaysoongnern, S., The Nature of Sustainable Agriculture. Soil Microbiology and Sustainable Crop Production, 2010, p. 1–25