County of Hawai'i
Agriculture and Food System Plan
Preliminary Report
March, 2025
The Hawaiʻi County Five-Year Agriculture and Food System Plan provides a roadmap to strengthen Hawaiʻi Island’s farming capacity and improve food security. This plan recognizes that the agriculture and food system is a key driver of the local island economy, which preserves cultural heritage and supports community health.
This preliminary report aims to provide a common foundation for understanding Hawaiʻi Island’s integrated agriculture and food system – what it is, how it works, who’s involved, and what forces are shaping it. By establishing shared definitions, frameworks, and baseline information that recognize agriculture and food as components of a unified system, a starting point for collaborative planning and action in creating the final five-year county plan is created. The report synthesizes existing knowledge about system performance, challenges, and opportunities. It documents ongoing efforts to improve various aspects of the system, highlighting successes and lessons learned. It identifies critical gaps in knowledge, coordination, or infrastructure that need to be addressed. And it presents an initial set of strategic priorities and potential actions for consideration.
This document is not the final plan but rather a foundation for further development. The information presented here is intended to inform discussions that will ultimately shape the final Five-Year Agriculture and Food System Plan. By providing this comprehensive overview, stakeholders can develop a shared understanding of current realities and future possibilities, leading to strategies that enhance the resilience, sustainability, and equity of the island’s food future. Through collaborative planning and action, an integrated agriculture and food system that nourishes the community, honors cultural heritage, supports viable agricultural livelihoods, and sustains the island’s natural resources for generations to come can be built.
.png)
Glossary of Terms and Acronyms
Term / Acronym | Definition |
|---|---|
CTAHR | College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (University of Hawai’i) |
Climate-Smart Agriculture | Agricultural practices that improve resilience to climate change while maintaining or increasing productivity and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. |
Crowding In | The process in which other market actors replicate or adopt successful interventions, leading to broader market transformation. |
Food Access | The ability of individuals and communities to obtain nutritious and culturally appropriate food. |
Food Equity | The concept that all individuals, regardless of income, location, or other social factors, should have access to sufficient and nutritious food. |
Food Resilience | The ability of a food system to withstand and recover from shocks, such as economic disruptions, climate change, or natural disasters. |
Food Security | Ensuring that all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food. |
Food Self-Sufficiency | The extent to which a region or country produces enough food to meet its own consumption needs. |
HDOA | Hawai’i Department of Agriculture |
Horizontal Linkages | Relationships and connections among businesses or organizations at the same level of the value chain (e.g., farmer cooperatives or industry associations). |
Interventions | Strategic actions designed to address constraints, unlock opportunities, and improve overall system performance. Successful interventions stimulate market-driven growth without creating dependency. |
Korean Natural Farming (KNF) | A farming method that uses indigenous microorganisms (IMOs) and natural inputs to enhance soil fertility and plant health. |
Market Systems | A framework that looks at the broader environment in which market actors (farmers, businesses, consumers) operate, including policies, institutions, and support services that shape their interactions. |
Market Systems Development (MSD) | An approach to economic development that seeks to create sustainable and inclusive markets by addressing the underlying constraints and incentives that shape market behaviors. |
NRCS | Natural Resources Conservation Service |
Regenerative Agriculture | A farming approach that prioritizes soil health, biodiversity, and ecosystem regeneration to create long-term sustainability. |
Scaling Up | Expanding the reach and impact of an intervention by integrating it into mainstream business practices, government policies, or institutional frameworks. |
USDA | United States Department of Agriculture |
Value Chains | The full range of activities and actors involved in bringing a product from production to final consumption, including input suppliers, farmers, processors, distributors, and retailers. |
Vertical Linkages | Relationships between different levels of the value chain, such as between farmers and buyers, or processors and retailers. |
Defining the Agriculture & Food System
Understand the definition, scope and scale of the agriculture and food system for Hawai'i Island that is the subject of the new 5-Year plan.
The Agriculture and Food System encompasses the full scope and scale of producers, commodities, value chains, and market systems across Hawaiʻi County. This integrated system includes agricultural operations ranging from small-scale family farms to large commercial enterprises, the diverse array of commodities produced, and the complex value chains that connect production to consumption. The system map below illustrates these interconnections and provides visual context for understanding the county’s agricultural landscape and food flows as parts of a unified whole.
Systems Mapping is a tool that can be used to understand the complex relationships within Hawaiʻi Island’s integrated agriculture and food system. Multiple mapping approaches offer insights into system dynamics. Qualitative approaches such as story mapping capture lived experiences and cultural dimensions, while quantitative frameworks utilizing data sets reveal patterns and trends. The Agriculture and Food System Plan uses the market systems map to the right as its primary mapping tool for identifying and monitoring data associated the key functions, rules and stakeholders in the system. Stakeholders include all entities with direct involvement or interest in the local agriculture and food system.
The Research Methodology of this preliminary report builds on a wealth of existing knowledge and data collected about the island’s agriculture and food system. The system has been extensively studied through numerous collaborative initiatives, resulting in a rich repository of data, stakeholder insights, and strategic recommendations that inform this planning process. The data foundation includes comprehensive value chain analyses, market assessments, community-based research, and emergency planning frameworks developed through participatory methodologies that prioritize community voice and expertise. Various stakeholder groups have contributed to this knowledge base through interviews, workshops, community meetings, and collaborative planning sessions, ensuring that diverse perspectives from across the agriculture and food system are represented.
Specialized research on agricultural innovation, processing infrastructure, market opportunities, and economic development further enriches this foundation. This existing body of work provides critical baseline information on agricultural production, food security challenges, market dynamics, and system vulnerabilities that have been collaboratively gathered, shared, and analyzed by successive stakeholder groups. This collaborative approach to knowledge building distinguishes the current planning process, which is intended to build upon, rather than duplicate, previous efforts.
Guiding principles and core values that inform this plan include:
-
Increasing awareness and availability of resources to support agricultural activities;
-
Upholding rights and facilitating compliance navigation for farmers and workers;
-
Reframing economic development to prioritize investments that build the desired future food system;
-
Strengthening community networks and evaluation mechanisms;
-
Promoting circular economy principles to minimize waste and maximize resource utilization;
-
Supporting biocultural restoration through traditional land stewardship and community-based resource management; and
-
Acknowledging place and Hawaiʻi values through a place-based approach that honors local context.
Review Performance of the
Agriculture & Food System
Review key indicators and trends by crops/industries, districts, system functions and stakeholder groupings.
See a summary of challenges and opportunities identified by stakeholders and where we still have gaps in system data and understanding.
Jobs & Establishments
The line graph below lists the number of agricultural establishments in Hawai'i County over the past decade. Overall, the number of establishments declined by 23 over the decade, representing a 0.6% average annual decline rate over the period. Significant losses in establishments resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic can be observed in the sharp declines from 2019 to 2020 levels. Industries most affected by the pandemic declines include Specialty Agriculture (-33 establishments), Nursery & Floriculture (-15), Ag & Food Processing (-15), and Livestock & Dairy (-12).
Source: The Your Economy Time Series (YTS) from the Business Dynamics Research Consortium (BDRC), a project of the University of Wisconsin, Institute for Business and Entrepreneurship.
The line graph below lists the number of agricultural jobs in Hawai'i County over the past decade. Overall, the number of jobs declined by 107 over the decade, representing a 0.3% average annual decline rate over the period. Job losses resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic can be observed in the sharp declines from 2019 to 2020 levels. Industries most affected by job losses from the pandemic include Ag & Food Processing (-189 jobs), Ag Supplies & Equipment (-84 jobs) and Nursery & Floriculture (-80 jobs). Over the ten-year period, Fruits, Vegetables and Tree Nuts saw the biggest decline, losing 166 jobs. The biggest gains over the decade were observed in Aquaculture & Fisheries, which added 112 jobs, and Specialty Agriculture, which added 111 jobs over the decade despite experiencing losses in 2020 from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of State and Federal Agriculture Department employees is also added to this graph and shows the 45% decline (-60 jobs) in government agricultural workers over the decade. Combined with the declines in Ag Support Services (-19 jobs) and Ag Supplies & Equipment (-68 jobs), this means overall supporting functions for agriculture on the island decreased by 147 jobs or 23% over the last decade.
Source: The Your Economy Time Series (YTS) from the Business Dynamics Research Consortium (BDRC), a project of the University of Wisconsin, Institute for Business and Entrepreneurship.
Using the YTS database, the economic performance of the entire agriculture and food system can be evaluated over the last decade, focusing on growth and regional competitiveness. The bubble chart below shows the performance of each sector in the cluster using average annual growth (the X-axis), the concentration of jobs on the island compared to the rest of the state (the Y-axis) and the number of jobs in the sector (the size of the bubble). A Y-value greater than 1.0 means that there is a larger concentration of jobs in that sector in Hawai'i County than there are in other counties within the state.
Source: The Your Economy Time Series (YTS) from the Business Dynamics Research Consortium (BDRC), a project of the University of Wisconsin, Institute for Business and Entrepreneurship.
In 2023 and 2024, the Market Systems Development Initiative (MSDI) facilitated value chain analysis of three segments of of Hawai'i Island's agricultural economy. Click on the links below to see details of this analysis
Community Food Security
Food Insecurity
Food insecurity is a significant concern on Hawaiʻi Island, with a substantial portion of the population facing uncertain access to adequate nutrition. Economic challenges, high food costs, and geographic isolation all contribute to this issue, highlighting the need for targeted interventions to improve food access and affordability.
-
23.5% of children in Hawaiʻi County are food insecure, affecting over 10,110 children.
-
Hawaiʻi County faces an annual food budget shortfall of $29.5 million, reflecting the amount food-insecure households need to meet their basic nutritional requirements.
-
The average meal cost in Hawaiʻi County is $5.41, among the highest in the country, compounding affordability challenges for families.
-
An estimated 85-90% of food consumed on the island is imported, creating additional vulnerabilities in supply chain disruptions.
-
Rural communities and ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) populations face disproportionate challenges in food access.
Efforts to improve food security include expanding local food production, enhancing distribution networks, and strengthening programs that reduce economic barriers to nutritious food.
Food Relief and Distribution
Food relief and distribution systems on Hawaiʻi Island play a crucial role in connecting local agricultural production with residents facing food insecurity. Strengthening these systems is essential to improving food access and building resilience against supply chain disruptions.
-
The Food Basket, Hawaiʻi Island’s food bank, plays a vital role in both emergency food relief and the development of long-term infrastructure through its planned Agriculture Innovation Center.
-
Food hubs, such as the Hawaiʻi ‘Ulu Cooperative, have expanded their services to aggregate and distribute multiple crops, improving local food distribution efficiency.
-
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs have grown in popularity, with innovative approaches such as workplace CSAs helping to expand consumer access to fresh, local produce.
-
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the adaptability of local farmers, who rapidly developed direct-to-consumer delivery systems to fill supply chain gaps.
-
Geographic disparities remain a challenge, with rural communities facing limited access to consistent food distribution services.
Addressing these challenges will require continued investment in transportation infrastructure, cold storage facilities, and stronger partnerships to ensure equitable food distribution across the island.
Food Imports and Exports
Hawaiʻi Island’s food system faces significant imbalances between imported goods and locally produced export crops. While import dependency creates vulnerability to supply chain disruptions, opportunities exist to improve local food self-sufficiency while sustaining profitable export markets.
-
An estimated 85-90% of food consumed on Hawaiʻi Island is imported, creating risks during shipping disruptions and driving higher food prices.
-
The livestock sector heavily depends on imported animal feed, with costs 200-300% higher than mainland prices, reducing competitiveness.
-
Hawaiʻi Island exports include high-value crops such as Kona coffee, macadamia nuts, and tropical flowers, which are sold globally.
-
The beef industry exports approximately 60% of its cattle to the mainland for finishing and processing due to limited local slaughter capacity.
-
High transportation costs for both imports and exports pose significant economic challenges for local producers.
Increasing local food production capacity and developing more efficient processing and distribution systems will reduce the island's dependence on imports while maximizing export opportunities.
Commercial Kitchens and Food Processing Infrastructure
Food processing infrastructure is essential to supporting Hawaiʻi Island’s agriculture sector by expanding opportunities for value-added production. However, gaps in facilities and services limit local farmers’ ability to capitalize on these opportunities.
-
The planned Agriculture Innovation Center at The Food Basket’s Food Campus in Hilo will provide processing services to support both food relief efforts and local food entrepreneurs.
-
Shared-use facilities with dehydrators, flash freezers, and cold storage would help small farmers engage in value-added production.
-
Fruit powder production, oil extraction, and dried vegetable products were identified as key value-added opportunities for local farms.
-
The island has only two USDA-certified slaughter facilities, limiting local beef processing capacity and resulting in large-scale cattle exports.
-
Complex permitting processes and high infrastructure costs present significant barriers to expanding food processing facilities.
By investing in shared-use facilities, simplifying permitting processes, and supporting cooperative models, Hawaiʻi Island can expand value-added opportunities and improve food system resilience.
Environmental Considerations
Over the past five years, Hawaiʻi Island has experienced a growing emphasis on sustainable agricultural practices in response to climate change and environmental concerns. The Hawaiʻi Carbon Smart Land Management Assistance Program has awarded $1 million to ten grantees to implement regenerative practices such as agroforestry and soil health improvements, aiming to enhance carbon sequestration and climate resilience. Additionally, the Hawaiʻi Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities has been developing equitable practices and decision support tools to promote climate-smart agriculture across the state.
The island's heavy reliance on imported food, with approximately 85-90% of food being imported, raises environmental concerns due to the associated carbon emissions from long-distance transportation. Efforts to increase local food production are seen as critical to reducing these emissions and enhancing food security. The devastating Lahaina wildfire in 2023 highlighted the need for improved land management, as invasive grasses on abandoned agricultural lands contributed to the fire's severity. This event has spurred discussions on integrating traditional Hawaiian land care practices to restore ecosystems and prevent future wildfires.
These developments underscore the importance of adopting sustainable practices and policies to ensure the long-term environmental resilience of Hawaiʻi Island's agriculture and food system.
Challenges
Stakeholders identified their most critical challenges in several workshops, summits, interviews and focus group meetings. Following is a brief summary of the highest priority challenges they identified.
Gaps and Unknowns
Despite a wealth of reports and surveys, Hawaiʻi Island’s agriculture and food system still faces critical data gaps and unknowns that hinder effective planning. Fundamental demand and consumption data are notably lacking – at present Hawaiʻi lacks an established set of benchmark figures on how much food local residents consume and where it comes from. On the supply side, farm-level production details (such as individual crop yields and sales) are often incomplete or outdated. Many available statistics are broad estimates or aggregated at the state level, and in some cases data collection has even been discontinued (for example, the state stopped collecting many crop-specific statistics after 2008, leaving holes in tracking fruits and vegetables). These blind spots make it difficult to quantify the island’s true agricultural output, local food consumption, or market potential with precision.
Another set of unknowns involves the evolving challenges and informal activities that fall outside formal datasets. Climate change impacts on agriculture exemplify this: farmers are already seeing more aggressive pests and root-borne pathogens when heavy rains create favorable soil conditions, yet there is little systematic data on how such stressors are affecting crop productivity or soil health at the local level. Meanwhile, a substantial portion of Hawaiʻi Island’s food economy operates in the informal sector – backyard gardens, subsistence farming, farmers’ markets, community sharing, and even hunting and fishing – which contributes greatly to local food security but remains largely unquantified. Official statistics rarely capture these informal flows – especially in remote, rural communities where residents depend heavily on them – leaving a blind spot in understanding those communities’ true resilience and vulnerabilities. In short, significant portions of what people grow, trade, and eat on Hawaiʻi Island go unrecorded, obscuring the full picture of food availability and needs.
Closing these data gaps will require concerted efforts in information gathering and sharing, aligned with a market systems development approach. One priority is to invest in new primary data collection – conducting regular surveys, measurements, and field research to capture ground-truth information rather than relying on rough estimates. Equally important is establishing creative incentives that encourage producers, businesses, and other stakeholders to share data they might otherwise withhold; many farmers and small food enterprises, for example, do not report detailed figures due to privacy concerns, a lack of reporting channels, or minimal external requirements. Building trust and offering value in exchange for information – for instance, providing participants with useful aggregated insights – can encourage transparency without compromising sensitive details. By fostering a culture of collaborative data sharing, Hawaiʻi Island can begin to assemble a more holistic and accurate picture of its food landscape, laying a stronger foundation for informed, market-driven development initiatives in the future.
Efforts to Improve the
Agriculture & Food System
Review a summary of the many efforts, programs, initiatives, coalitions and huis working to improve Hawai'i Island's agriculture and food system.
The New Agriculture and Food
System Plan
Explore the topics and draft framework of the new 5-Year Agriculture and Food System Plan for Hawai'i Island.
Plan Development Process
The County of Hawai‘i’s Five-Year Agriculture and Food System Plan will be built through a structured, inclusive process designed to reflect community priorities and support producer-focused strategies. The plan will be developed in collaboration with local partners, using extensive stakeholder input gathered through a series of regional summits and advisory committee meetings.
The planning process will involve three key phases:
-
Plan Development (January – August 2025): This phase will collect and analyze data, summarize key findings, and draft a strategic framework that outlines goals, objectives, strategies, and actions.
-
Food Summits (September 2025 – May 2026): Nine district-level summits will gather community insights to refine the draft framework, ensuring it reflects local priorities.
-
Final Reporting (June – August 2026): Findings from the summits will be integrated into a final plan, complete with measurable outcomes and clear implementation strategies.
Recommendations
1. Goals (Long-Term Vision)
The five-year plan should establish clear, ambitious goals that focus on strengthening Hawai‘i Island’s agricultural systems while improving food security, economic opportunity, and environmental resilience. Goals should:
-
Emphasize producer success as the foundation of a resilient food system.
-
Support local market growth and improved distribution channels to ensure island-grown products are widely available.
-
Integrate climate resilience and environmental sustainability into agricultural development.
-
Advance community-driven food security by strengthening regional networks and resource-sharing.
2. Objectives (Specific Milestones)
To translate these goals into actionable outcomes, the plan should propose clear objectives that align with producer priorities. Suggested objectives include:
-
Increasing on-island food production to meet a greater share of local demand.
-
Expanding market linkages for small and mid-sized farms to improve sales.
-
Improving access to affordable equipment and infrastructure for producers.
-
Establishing data-sharing platforms to improve decision-making for producers, policymakers, and businesses.
-
Strengthening biosecurity protocols to mitigate pest and disease risks.
-
Promoting regulatory reform to ease compliance burdens on small-scale producers.
3. Strategies (Broad Approaches)
The plan should emphasize strategies that align with Hawai‘i Island’s existing initiatives and foster collaboration among stakeholders. Recommended strategies include:
-
Rather than launching entirely new programs, focus on scaling up successful initiatives such as GoFarm Hawai‘i, HIAP’s collaborative efforts, and the Food Basket’s processing and distribution projects.
-
Align public sector actions (e.g., County and State policy changes) with community-led initiatives to create a supportive environment for producers.
-
Encourage farmer-to-farmer mentorship, cooperative equipment sharing, and peer learning to improve technical skills and build trust.
-
Prioritize investments in cold storage, aggregation hubs, and improved transportation networks to expand local market reach.
-
Develop programs that improve the availability of farm labor, increase training for farm managers, and reduce barriers to hiring.
4. Challenges (What Needs to Change or Be Improved)
Key challenges identified throughout the stakeholder engagement process should shape the plan’s priorities. These include:
-
Infrastructure gaps such as limited processing facilities, aging irrigation systems, and inadequate cold storage.
-
Regulatory burdens that deter investment in local production.
-
Labor shortages that prevent farm expansion and growth.
-
Market constraints that limit producer access to restaurants, grocers, and institutions.
-
Data collection barriers that hinder accurate planning and resource allocation.
5. Actions (Concrete Steps)
Recommended actions should be practical steps that align with existing efforts while enabling new opportunities. Examples include:
-
Partnering with UH CTAHR and The Kohala Center to provide technical support for regenerative agriculture practices.
-
Expanding the County’s investment in local processing facilities to improve producer access to value-added opportunities.
-
Supporting HIAP and HIFA in establishing a data-sharing platform that improves the availability of actionable information for producers and policymakers.
-
Developing a County-led equipment grant program to help farmers access affordable tools and machinery.
-
Promoting the adoption of climate-smart agriculture by working with USDA and local conservation organizations.
-
Collaborating with non-profits like Vibrant Hawai‘i and Hui Mālama i ke Ala ʻŪlili to improve food access in underserved communities.
6. Assets (Resources, Organizations, Funding)
The County’s plan should leverage the strengths of existing partnerships and initiatives. Key assets include:
-
HIAP as a platform for collaboration among producer groups, local government, and industry stakeholders.
-
The Food Basket’s Food Campus as a central hub for food processing, workforce development, and value-added services.
-
Hawai‘i Island Farmers Alliance (HIFA) as a grassroots network for connecting producers across the island.
-
USDA funding programs such as EQIP, REAP, and Value-Added Producer Grants to support climate-smart practices and infrastructure investments.
-
Cooperative Models like the Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Cooperative to enhance producer access to shared services, marketing support, and aggregation networks.
7. Indicators (Measurable Outcomes)
To ensure the plan’s progress is measurable, it should include clear indicators tied to key objectives. Suggested indicators include:
-
Percentage increase in total acreage under production for local food crops.
-
Number of new or expanded local food businesses.
-
Volume of food purchased by local institutions from island-based producers.
-
Number of farmers receiving technical assistance or training.
-
Reduction in producer-reported regulatory delays or compliance challenges.
-
Expansion of cold storage, processing, and distribution infrastructure.
Final Considerations
The plan should emphasize the County’s role as an enabler and connector, focusing on creating a regulatory environment that supports producer innovation, streamlining processes to reduce barriers for farm businesses, and providing public investments in shared infrastructure that benefits multiple stakeholders. Meanwhile, partner organizations such as HIAP and HIFA should serve as hubs for data sharing, strategic alignment, and ongoing coordination. The plan should clearly distinguish which actions are County-led, which rely on State or Federal support, and which must be community-driven.
By focusing on enabling producers, aligning partner efforts, and creating opportunities for collective action, this five-year plan can strengthen Hawai‘i Island’s agricultural system in ways that are impactful, achievable, and inclusive.