SOWING Food SOVEREIGNTY
Kaua‘i’s Common Ground farmers and innovators are demonstrating how local food systems can thrive without reliance on imported inputs.
by KEVIN WHITTON photographs courtesy of COMMON GROUND
/ DIRTY BOOTS SPR UT
Fortunately, Hawai‘i has a growing contingent of local farmers who are eager to return to a more sustainable, regenerative form of agriculture to produce diverse crops for local consumption and value-added food products, such as chocolate, tea, honey, and even ‘ulu chips. Common Ground, a lifestyle company situated on a former sugar plantation and guava farm on the verdant north shore of Kaua‘i, is raising awareness of the benefits of regenerative farming by creating a community of farmers, food and beverage business owners, and visitors on its 83-acre agricultural campus. Through its demonstration agroforest, Food Innovation Center, community food hub, restaurant, and business incubator for farmers and food entrepreneurs, Common Ground is practicing the future of Hawaiian farming today.
When Polynesian voyagers came to settle the Hawaiian Islands between 1000 and 1200 A.D., they arrived in canoes filled with two dozen species of useful plants that would become the elemental food and material sources to establish a thriving, self-sufficient society in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Known as canoe plants, kalo (taro), niu (coconut), ‘uala (sweet potato), and ‘ulu (breadfruit) are just a few of the crops that were traditionally grown through sustainable, regenerative farming practices that linked the resources of entire watersheds, from upland farms along cold, freshwater streams to shoreline fishponds. Most of the canoe plants can still be found growing across the Aloha State today, but Hawai‘i’s traditional farming practices have been superseded by modern Western agricultural systems that rely heavily on imported fertilizer, pesticide, and fungicide to grow large swaths of monocrops (single crops grown repeatedly on the same land), like pineapple and corn. This method of farming strips soil of its nutrients, requires higher use of pesticides and water, and reduces biodiversity, creating a ripple of detrimental effects in the environment.
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS IMPORT A STAGGERING 85% TO 90% OF THEIR FOOD.
“As growers, we need to develop agricultural systems that don’t rely on mainland inputs. You can’t talk about food security and resilience in the same breath if all of the farm inputs — animal feed and fertilizer — are coming over on the same barge as the food,” Common Ground Director of Agroecology John Parziale tells The Rooted Journal. “Farmers must adapt and develop agricultural ecosystems that can be productive without those inputs, and the time to develop these systems is not when the mainland inputs are gone.”
Adaptability is one of the hallmarks of traditional Hawaiian agriculture, and it will once again be required of the islands’ farmers as they reimagine agricultural systems that could reestablish Hawai‘i’s food sovereignty. Parziale, who has been practicing organic, ecological agriculture on Kaua‘i for 23 years, sees the return to regenerative farming practices as a solution that can be modeled and scaled to farms across the state, creating self- sustaining ecosystems. At Common Ground, Parziale is employing what’s known as suc- cessional agroforestry: cultivating a rainforest ecosystem that is intercon- nected from fruit to fertility. And by in- corporating multi-species animal graz- ing into the system, he’s eliminating the need for imported inputs like fer- tilizer and animal feed. “Using nature’s operating instructions on how forests are created and then managing yields throughout that process, I’m filling ecological niches with the appropri- ate plants and animals, which provide yields as well. The climax of this system is a food forest,” he explains.
LMOST 200 YEARS AFTER THE first sugar plantation opened in Kōloa, Kaua‘i, the business of growing food mainly for export has devastated Hawai‘i’s food sovereignty. In fact, Hawai‘i imports 85% to 90% of its food, making island residents vulnerable to supply-chain and shipping disruptions caused by natural disasters and global events, while paying more out-of- pocket for the same fruits and veggies enjoyed for less on the mainland.
LEFT: COMMON GROUND’S JOHN PARZIALE HAS PRACTICED ECOLOGICAL AGRICULTURE ON KAUA’I FOR OVER 20 YEARS. RIGHT: COMMON GROUND’S 83-ACRE AGRICULTURAL CAMPUS IS A COMMUNITY FOOD HUB, RESTAURANT, AND BUSINESS INCUBATOR.
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