Hawaiʻi’s food security shaky heading into hurricane season

Albie Miles studies food security, especially Hawaiʻi’s, as an associate professor of sustainable community food systems at University of Hawaiʻi West Oʻahu.

“My principal concern at this point is, we’re in the middle of a pandemic, there are a lot of interruptions of our normal social behaviors and opportunities and our economy has contracted profoundly,” says Miles. “At the same time, we’re entering our hurricane season.”

Miles points out most of the food the entire state of Hawaiʻi consumes comes through the Port of Honolulu–and there is currently no redundancy, no back up, for that port in the event of an emergency like a hurricane.

Daniela Spoto is director of anti-hunger initiatives at Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice. She says currently, hunger is greatest in the very agricultural areas where Hawaiʻi’s food is grown.

“Rural communities are the ones bearing the brunt of this pandemic in this economic downturn,” says Spoto. “I think there’s a correlation here between rural communities being the ones that grow our food, raise our livestock, and the fact that we are not tapping into that as a source for our food system. [It] is a symptom that we’re extracting wealth from these communities.”

Spoto says aiding these communities would support both families and farmers.

“And we can do that through existing federal nutrition programs, things like Farm to School are great for that.”