AgFood System Study: Analysis Workshop

Topline Recommended Actions from Agriculture Breakout Group A

Who’s already working on this? Who else should be involved?

Marketing // “Hawaii depends on tourism, so we need to find a way to more effectively market local farming together with this flow of revenue to the state.”→ Change the focus of tourism to focus on food, care and honor of land and water.

Frecia COH Tourism Specialist

ʻāina aloha economic futures ,

All produce/value added vendors from Farmers Markets! (marketing to both local and tourists)

UH Extension 

Marketing // “We need to build a stronger brand preference for local products over imports.”→ Coordinated social marketing campaign, multiple industries, sectors of the system (B2B, consumer, etc.)

‘Ulu Coop

Glenn Sako - COH

Hawai’i Farm to School Hui

Farmers’ Markets

UH/Hawaii Sector Partnerships

HTFG members on all islands

HFUU

UH Extension

Market information // There are different connections of ag products to different parts of the food system. There is a need to manage the complexity of the agricultural market system, but this means breaking down the system into specific components with a focus on products, channels, transactions and end markets.

→ Conduct a deeper and more analytical and participatory value chain assessment for key products / commodities.

→ Make a dashboard/data repository accessible for better decision making

Hunter Heaivilin 

CTAHR

UH Extension

Small Farms // There is a need for farmers to work together to overcome different inefficiencies associated with ‘smallness’. Cooperation can lower costs by pooling for bulk purchasing, sharing labor / machinery and pooling to reduce transportation/processing costs.

→ Identify the small farmers that are full time farmers to distinguish between 'hobby farmers" and see who is interested to join cooperative mechanisms

→ create an "information marketplace" where farmers can tap into when need arises

Detailed assessments of the economic / business benefits of working in cooperatives. Using this to improve existing / encourage expansion and use.

→ common database, run by university students

→ Many problems will be overcome through tighter vertical integration and partnerships. So, I think we need to look at opportunities for building supply chain partnerships - based on specific commodities / products - to be able to engage, assess, and invest jointly and be more coordinated moving forward.

Ulu Pono, Kohala Center, HFUU Food Hub Group

HTFG

UH Extension

Value-Add Processing // There is an opportunity to develop a two-fold approach to improving value added processing capacity: one element that develops and supports a network of certified kitchens, food hubs and other small processing facilities increasing their equipment and capacity; and another that seeks to establish one or two centralized facilities for aggregated production and high volume processing that can meet both domestic and export demand.

→ More detailed economic / technical feasibility studies - or model investment profiles - for these different potential options. These can help make the business case and be used to stimulate investment

→ Develop enabling policies, infrastructure, and funding based in the data available

HFMP

HTFG, HFUU

UH Extension

Capital, Land, and Labor // The costs of labor, land, farm and processing infrastructure, inputs, permitting, processing, and shipping are prohibitive for many small producers hoping to produce, scale, and market with any viability. There is a need to increase support for small farms to lower costs and increase access to productive land.

→ Deeper assessments on the economics of the small farm. Identifying key cost drivers / inefficiencies - and use this to engage with policy makers and others on potential interventions to reduce costs and increase productive opportunities.

The Kohala Center*

SBDC

UH Extension

Aggregation, Transportation, and Distribution // Smaller, district-centric aggregators can manage production and practices of a number of small farms and guarantee food safety measures have been followed, opening markets to farmers through larger distributors.

→ Partnership with food standards, large retailers and farming groups to confirm processes / standards and ensure they are fit for purpose

Food hubs (Kohala, Hilo Food Hub)*

Kōkua Harvest (kind of)

UH Extension

Armstrong Produce /Sysco may be able to help on the food standard side

Ecology // There is an opportunity to build Hawai'i island's potential as a model for tropical island sustainability, researching and piloting innovations that will improve our ecological footprint.

→ Identify what these technologies are, based on linkages with other institutions/researchers in similar tropical island locations

→ Reframe our thinking and how we define the inputs and outputs of production or economic activity. Negative externalities can be reframed and reused into resources. Look objectively at our inputs and outputs.

WOCAN for knowledge about carbon markets, equity issues, some other technologies and practices for sustainable ag

CTAHR

UH Extension

Policies and Laws // There is little cohesiveness and coordination of government policy and regulation surrounding ag and food. The government is not aligned enough internally to achieve a shared and sustainable vision of food security.

→ Figure out who/what is informing the current policy making process. Is it the data? Is it actual economic data, social data, environmental impact? Who is in the ear holes of the policy makers? Identify the key informants and assess their quality of information.

The Mayor’s new Ag Commission

ThinkBigHawaii (formed by Councilwoman Heather Kimball)

Glenn Sako COH

UH Extension

Topline Recommended Actions from Agriculture Breakout Group B

Who’s already working on this? Who else should be involved?

Market Information // There’s a lack of market signals - producers don’t have information about demand, supply, and price. We need more market information that will enable producers to plan businesses with confidence and address asymmetries. We particularly need more data available to smaller producers.

→ This should be a priority -- better information on pricing, supply, and demand is needed to support both existing and potential operations. Need to identify a government/institution or unbiased entity to figure out how to gather and share this data.

Should: Big business involved in Hawaii in all categories!

 DOA

CTAHR 

Should:  UH Extension

UHWO

Other food unions eg. seafood, meats, 

CSAs

Farm Bureau 

Food Hubs and Local Aggregators 

Value-Add Processing // There is a need to increase the amount of processing done throughout the system. Firstly to reduce post-harvest losses. Secondly to deal with seasonal price fluctuations of fresh produce. Thirdly to compete against imports, exploit new market opportunities and achieve higher prices and margins.

→ Identify other value-added models for post-harvest throughout the system.

teahawaii.com

shaka tea folks

ʻUlu coop folks

HMFP

Should:  UH Extension

Value-Added Processing // There is a need for slaughterhouses that function for the broader community. This could include mobile slaughterhouses or other shared facilities.

→ Reopen the slaughterhouses that are still here but closed in all districts.

→ Identify barriers for establishment/use of existing mobile slaughterhouse coop

Akamai Working Group

DOA

The Kohala Center 

COH - R&D

Hawaii Island Meat Cooperative

Should:  UH Extension

Value-Added Processing // There is an opportunity to develop a two-fold approach to improving value added processing capacity: one element that develops and supports a network of certified kitchens, food hubs and other small processing facilities increasing their equipment and capacity; and another that seeks to establish one or two centralized facilities for aggregated production and high volume processing that can meet both domestic and export demand.

→ First Maximize the use of the existing facilities.

→ Increase funding and initiatives to support upgrades for existing kitchens and facilities to meet community needs and food safety requirements

→ Develop a business model to operate a centralized aggregation and processing facility. Identify key crops, equipment, etc.

teahawaii.com

The Kohala Center

ʻUlu Coop 

Puna Chicks

Hilo Products - very old established - can learn alot from them 

Should:  UH Extension

HMFP

RE: upgrades - Hawai’i Energy (upgrade grants for energy star appliances)

Capital, Land, and Labor // There is an opportunity to develop a database reference and on-line system on the island for enabling farms to easily find good quality labor and similarly for experienced farm workers to easily find work.

→ Perhaps this could be a county function with first an online application both from the farm and the worker. Connecting interests.

→ Digital farm labor bulletin board

→ Explore non-digital ways to share this information as there may not be great overlap between reliable laborers and their use of these systems/tech

*Hawaii Community College Cohort Project (labor)

Angela Dean

Should:  UH Extension

Education & Awareness // Efforts to make the food system more resilient need to involve education, to see and understand the values of food resiliency and sustainability. The demand side of the equation is critical and needs to be understood along with the production side.

→ Policy at all levels (school to state) to support the integration of sustainable food systems education into daily curriculum. Policy to support funding of teacher training and professional development as well as youth led efforts in this topic.

→ Create a curriculum database for K-12 educators - work with existing groups to compile and disseminate

→ County informs the Department of Education that Ecoliteracy/Sustainability Education is a priority and part of the Strategic Plan and initiates a dialogue as to how to make this happen K-12.

→ POS education. Explore opportunities to work with retailers to increase education and awareness of how $spent on local food impacts our community.

Hawaii Island School Garden Network a program of Malaʻai

Hawaii Farm to School Hui a program of HIPHI

DOE Ai Pono program 

UHWO - sustainable community food systems program 

*Hawaii County Food Access coordinator has been AWESOME

County council can also make a priority 

Complex area superintendents

Principals

DOE partner w np orgs like hui malama i ke ala ‘ulili etc.

Hawaii Master Food Preservers, Inc.

Should:  UH Extension

Education & Awareness // Consumer familiarity with products and culture-building through farm-to-school, garden-to school cafeteria programs increases the familiarity of students and parents about what grows here. It cultivates a palate and a culture around local food. We need to continue to build familiarity and develop a taste for local foods.

→ Integrate more local foods into school feeding programs

→ Policy to release funds or appropriate funds from tourism, Sugar/HFCY beverages tax, to this.

→ Utilize PSA and other advertising venues to normalize locally grown and sourced ingredients and WHERE these foods can be accessed

→ CULTURE -BUILDING Raise the status of vocational education (like the Germans) so that we have youth who can fix the currently broken facilities, develop new technology (machines for processing - we now have to buy from China) etc.

Farm to School hui

Hawaii School Garden Network

HIPHI

DOE

Sarah Freeman - COH

ag tourism farm tours

*Hawaii Community College Cohort program Farm to Table (Culinary)

HMFP

Should:  UH Extension

Topline Recommended Actions from Food Breakout Group A

Who’s already working on this? Who else should be involved?

Market Information // We need to look more closely at the staple food crops and understand what actually feeds people here and identify where we can shift from imported to local starches.

→ Education and awareness on how to eat/prepare these starches.

C4GTS & Koh Ming Wei

‘Ulu Cooperative 

Sarah Freeman - COH

Should:  UH Extension

Value-Added Processing // There is an opportunity to increase processing of local crops with equipment for dehydration, grinding, pickling, juicing, canning and bottling, HPP, etc. We need to enable production of more shelf-stable products that allows for non-refrigerated storage and that can be shipped.

→ We need feasibility studies funded for this.

Tea folks - eva and shaka tea

Economic Dev. boards

HMFP

Should:  UH Extension

Capital, Land, and Labor // The costs of labor, land, farm and processing infrastructure, inputs, permitting, processing, and shipping are prohibitive for many small producers hoping to produce, scale, and market with any viability. There is a need to increase support for small farms to lower costs and increase access to productive land.

→ Policy can help with this - at all levels county, state. Tax credits, change permitting procedures, can stay on farm, etc.*

→ KS could make more land available for small holder farmers , requiring them to follow certain sustainable ag practices, etc.

Kamehameha Schools 

DOA

COH - Planning & R&D

DLNR

Other large landholders like WH Shipman, etc

Should:  UH Extension

County Council members

Aggregation, Transportation, and Distribution // There is a need for increased aggregation and distribution networks. The capacity exists to produce more food, but the processing, aggregation and distribution pieces of the agri-food system need more support.

→ Systems-thinking needed. Bringing all parts together to design the flow of the whole system. Marketing, Aggregate, process, storage, distribution, how to cook and eat

Food hubs?

The Food Basket?

The Kohala Center

HFA

Ulu Coop

Adaptations - Tane guys

Should:  UH Extension

Education and Awareness // Consumer familiarity with products and culture-building through farm-to-school, garden-to school cafeteria programs increases the familiarity of students and parents about what grows here. It cultivates a palate and a culture around local food. We need to continue to build familiarity and develop a taste for local foods.

→ As I had added in the previous breakout session for this point: i would collaborate with the Food Corps that is already doing this education and learn what they need to upscale.

→ CULTURE -BUILDING Raise the status of vocational education (like the Germans) so that we have youth who can fix the currently broken facilities, develop new technology (machines for processing - we now have to buy from China) etc.

Hawaii Island School Garden Network, a program of Malaʻai Hawai’i Farm to School Hui, a program of HIPHI 

FoodCorps (these guys are pulling out in July - sad!)

‘Ulu Cooperative

Ku-A-Kanaka

Sarah Freeman - COH

DOE Ai Pono program 

DOH? (SNAP-Ed? Nutrition Education?)

*Hawaii Community College Farm to Table (Culinary)

HMFP

Kamehameha Schools

Should:  UH Extension

Policies and Laws // There is little cohesiveness and coordination of government policy and regulation surrounding ag and food. The government is not aligned enough internally to achieve a shared and sustainable vision of food security.

→ Cross-sector work (esp. academic and social service/non-profit) with government to 1) clarify govt. current aims and 2) build shared definitions of security, self-sufficiency, etc. built on long-term resilience goals.

Thereʻs a lot going on this leg session:

Mike Gabbard

Mark Nakashima*

Amy Perusso*

Rep Onishi* 

Should:  UH Extension

Cooperation // There is a need for strengthened coordination and advocacy, joining up thinking, planning and action. Cooperatives and others up the supply chain can work together to build markets through exploiting comparative advantages.

→ Build and support HIAP

Sarah Freeman& Glenn Sako (CoH)

Hawai’i Public Health Institute 

Food hubs

HFUU

Mayor’s new ag commission

Shold:  UH Extension

Cooperation // There is a lack of connection and visibility to each other (who has what, who is doing what, etc.) that impedes the building of resilient systems. There is a need to increase connections through multiple layers and channels within the agri-food system.

→ Networks are key, getting those networks to talk to each other. For example: the Mayorʻs sustainability summit is making a deep effort to have a wide range of stakeholders at the table. right now, here at todayʻs meeting - we donʻt have Hawaiians really represented.

→ Utilize HIAP and HIAP platforms

Sarah Freeman (CoH)

Hawai’i Public Health Institute 

HIFA

HIAP

Should:  UH Extension

Topline Recommended Actions from Food Breakout Group B

Who’s already working on this? Who else should be involved?

Market Information // There’s a lack of market signals - producers don’t have information about demand, supply, and price. We need more market information that will enable producers to plan businesses with confidence and address asymmetries. We particularly need more data available to smaller producers.

→ Create an accessible dashboard/data repository that provides the raw and interpreted and constantly updated data to the multiple stakeholders in the food system*

→ Identify trusted non-biased entity/institution/agency to gather and share this data, and figure out how to collect the data*

kohala center

HDOA

Should:  CTAHR CES Agents (S, Sand)

HIFA 

Small Farms // There is a need to encourage more small farms to participate within the market system through Coops and Food Hubs, increasing their economic resilience and keeping more of the dollars spent on food and agriculture within the local economy.

→ encouraged through incentive programs

nobody

 Food Hubs

HFUU

Ulu Coop

HIFA?

Should:  UH Extension

Small Farms // There is a need for farmers to work together to overcome different inefficiencies associated with ‘smallness’. Cooperation can lower costs by pooling for bulk purchasing, sharing labor / machinery and pooling to reduce transportation/processing costs.

→ Advocate for bills/legislation that seek to expand types of coop models allowed in Hawaii

HFUU researching

*

The Kohala Center/Teresa doing a lot in this space

Hawaii Ulu Coop

HIAP

Should:  UH Extension

Value-Added Processing // There is a need for slaughterhouses that function for the broader community. This could include mobile slaughterhouses or other shared facilities.

→ Anaerobic Bio-digesters to deal with waste at localized facilities to support with waste and energy issues.

value added smoked processors?

Riley COH  R&D

HIMC

Should: UH Extension

Capital, Land, and Labor // The costs of labor, land, farm and processing infrastructure, inputs, permitting, processing, and shipping are prohibitive for many small producers hoping to produce, scale, and market with any viability. There is a need to increase support for small farms to lower costs and increase access to productive land.

→ private sector incentives

Aggregation, Transportation, and Distribution // There is a need for increased aggregation and distribution networks. The capacity exists to produce more food, but the processing, aggregation and distribution pieces of the agri-food system need more support.

→ Establish programs to enable ag operations, food relief, and distributors to purchase/lease equipment for loading, transportation, etc.

→ Increase capacity of FSA to promote/administer/streamline Transportation Reimbursement Program

USDA-FSA

Should: UH Extension

Aggregation, Transportation, and Distribution // Non-profit and food relief centers should be further supported to enable food distribution to communities in need. They should be outfitted with adequate storage and equipment and assisted with well-established distribution practices to serve the entire island in future disaster scenarios.

→ Provide funding to allow relief groups to continue their work, purchase local products, and build/maintain/lease infrastructure and equipment

→ Provide long-term funding - an immense amount of energy is wasted chasing grants.

→ funding more pilot programs retrofitting manufacturing equips

→ Identify opportunities for shared for-profit/non-profit use. For profit food hubs can pivot to emergency food distribution centers in times of crisis if designed that way on the outset.

Approach specific corporations with data and proposals

Should: UH Extension

Sarah Freeman - COH

Education & Awareness // Efforts to make the food system more resilient need to involve education, to see and understand the values of food resiliency and sustainability. The demand side of the equation is critical and needs to be understood along with the production side.

→ Increase partnerships with DOE and schools to introduce local products, provide education about local ag

→ Fund and support the cooperative extension service to be what they are supposed to be-educators, connectors, facilitators. Prioritize education. See education as a marketing and behavior modification tool that will move our food system towards increased resilience and sustainability.

→ Provide incentives to the production side along with the education

The Kohala Center

Should: UH Extension

Glenn Sako - COH

Sarah Freeman - COH

Farm to School Hui

Hawaii Island School Garden Network

Policies and Laws // There is little cohesiveness and coordination of government policy and regulation surrounding ag and food. The government is not aligned enough internally to achieve a shared and sustainable vision of food security.

→ Figure out who/what is informing the current policy making process. Is it the data? Is it actual economic data, social data, environmental impact? Who are in the ear holes of the policy makers? Identify the key informants and assess their quality of information.

→ Promote coordination between government and higher education to develop and support new and existing industries in Hawaii.

Should: UH Extension

Cooperation // Industry, government and academia need to work together to find scalable solutions on key productivity related issues, focused on labor substitution where possible. A lot of solutions have been tried, but with low rates of adoption. We need to find out why.

→ Gather and analyze list of solutions tied to scaling or labor substitution that have been tried

→ Work directly with mid-size/larger producers to assess success of mechanization, promote findings, offer funding to allow adoption of new machinery

→ focus on Industry development

→ Ensure adequate funding/support for extension from legislature to develop collaborations to enhance productivity

→ Create opportunities for peer-to-peer/ farmer-to-farmer learning to aid in adoption of practices that work.

→ public institutions need extensions funding

Should: UH Extension

CTAHR

UH

Ways to improve coordination and collaboration moving forward?

target specific corporations/investors r&d  to get involved or reach out to update hawaii ag systems

******Have facilitated discussions and brainstorming activities such as this but tied to specific action areas.  Sounds Like  GACC which was very good to help pinpoint bottlenecks in industries and come up with funding

***Make a concerted effort to inform/educate legislators/policymakers/funders

*Identify specialization areas of different orgs and support them. IE don’t recreate the wheel. 

Diversity of networks

Connect directly with HTA Hawaii Tourism Authority for localized funding of ag/food related projects at destination points

*****Support and find ways to build HIAP and HIFA membership and involvement 

Establish “coalitions” of interested groups over specific areas and executable task lists - we can talk and talk but talk is cheap

*Regular review and dialogue around system wide data like we did for this study, but focused on continued alignment of existing action plans and identification of new ones

*Create County level ag commissioners

*I don’t know how but encourage leaving your ego at the door. If you can come into a space willing to expand your horizons collaboration happens easier

***Seems we need to establish a platform for investors/funders that can support our efforts, where innovations can be pitched

****A structured system for collaboration, that is clear and identifies different networks, working /action groups and clear avenues on how the community can stay informed and/or participate. (Needs to be adopted and “owned” by the community)

Identified and dedicated persons within organizations who are point people

***Online network database to allow folks to see who is doing what and plug in 

HIFA working groups

Better advoc

What are some topline insights from the study as a whole?

**It was useful to see where the connections or lack of connections are.  

******Validation of the Farm-to-School work - the work has been a challenge (financially and policy-wise) and this study has verified the need. 

It was useful to be able to see the level of knowledge, the attitudes, and perceptions of a diverse set of key informants/stakeholders.  

***An incredible resource of information contributed, consolidated shows strength and need per action potentials. Thinking now and very important these days shows ag, food, forestry. land use needs important on climate change as well, another draw for support. and incorporation to local culture and communities.

****With the diversity of views and perspectives from different stakeholders, there needs to be some action plans developed.  Lots of great information - key is how to move forward from here so it’s not just ANOTHER study like other studies done in the past.t (action plans and follow up to the plans!)

****People are ready for action and we need to make sure that small voices/producers are heard as they make up majority of farms

*We have to keep a focus on the smallholder farmer and understand her/his constraints.

*There is actually a lot of agreement on what needs to happen, but need to clarify pathways to action

******We need to start funding what we say we value in order to realize change.  Not just in theory, in practice.

We are all a small piece of the larger whole. Everything we do contributes and reflects back to us in a bigger picture 

*Even people who are active in this work don’t know everything. We need each other

**Small farms matter!

*****Systems are not broken, they are producing the results they are designed to, even if it's not the result we want.

Coops, collaboration, education, plug ‘n’ play incubators/solutions for small scale farmer to graduate to sustainable farming operations

emergency solutions?

*There is a lot of missing data but we can’t wait for that information to move forward.  A good place to start is small actions that have big impact that don’t require the government to be the driver.