AgFood System Study: Planning Workshop

Hawai’i Island Agriculture and Food

System Study

Planning Meeting Summary

June 12th, 2020

Held via Zoom

1.   Participants

2.   Meeting Objectives

Objectives for the meeting were to:

A.    Build a collective understanding of the study purpose and process;

B.    Define and delineate the agriculture and food system to be analyzed; and;

C.    Gather input to guide the collection and analysis of data.

3.   Study Purpose and Process

A roadmap showing the actions leading up to the Planning Meeting and next steps were displayed in the following diagram:

Study Roadmap

The following strategic framework was presented in the meeting outlining how the study objectives and outputs relate to strategic outcomes for increasing the growth and resiliency of Hawai’i Island’s agriculture and food systems:

Strategic Framework

Different types of systems and location maps will be developed during the study to increase and enhance our understanding of the agriculture and food systems on the island. The study will apply an overall market systems development approach, one used by economic development practitioners around the world. This approach’s applications for the study were explained and presented in the following diagram.

Market Systems Development Framework

The process for completing the study includes the following phases:

Study Process

Data collection will start with a broad understanding and framing of the entire agricultural and food systems, but will identify specific components and problem areas within the systems where more detailed analysis is needed. The data collection process will continue to ask key questions to understand the root causes of system weaknesses:

Given the size and complexity of the study, the Planning and Analysis Team is being broken down further into three sub-teams to enable participants to focus their participation on the data and problem areas they are most interested in. Teams are nested within larger teams as outlined in the following diagram:

Study Participation

4.   Survey Results

We initially received 18 responses prior to the meeting and subsequently received an additional five responses afterward. A brief summary of the feedback is provided below. The full survey responses are posted to the shared Google drive for this study.

Primary Interests in the Study

•          Strengthening and transforming community based agricultural and food systems.

•          Building an understanding of how agricultural market systems can be improved.

•          Systems mapping and identifying where new support can lead to system-wide improvements.

•          Applying a collective action approach to the challenges of agricultural development that allows genuinely innovative and impactful solutions to emerge.

•          Identifying economic viability models for Hawai’i agriculture.

Sub-Team Participation

•          Mapping of Agricultural and Food Systems (12)

•          Understanding Agricultural Value Chains (11)

•          Building Food Resiliency and Sustainability (19)

Data Collection Team Participation

•          Yes (3)

•          No (5)

•          Maybe (14)

Current Research and Available Reference Material

•          North Kohala Strategic Plan for Food Self-Sufficiency

•          Social network mapping in North Hawai’i and Statewide Ag Network mapping

•          Food processing facilities on Hawai’i Island

•          2019 ʻĀina Partners survey

•          Hawai’i State Preschool - 20 Agriculture Education framework - includes green workforce development; local beverages hub and processing;

•          Certified kitchens research project and resource creation

•          2015 Ag Land Use Study (Jeff Melrose)

•          Community Development Plans

•          Need for additional tea processing equipment and value-added distributions

•          Hawai‘i County Food Self-Sufficiency Baseline 2012 Report

•          Hawai’i's Food System (Ken Meter) 2017 Report

•          American Farmland Trust: Farms Under Threat (https://csp-fut.appspot.com/)

Information to be Gathered and Analyzed

•          Impact all levels of government have on food security and the agriculture industry.

•          Financial resources available to support increased production and processing.

•          Maps of agricultural infrastructure, services and value chains, comparing value added on island to what is done elsewhere.

•          Who are the key actors in the system, what are their roles and how do they interact with each other.

•          Capacity to increase local food consumption and to store food for emergencies. Availability of cold storage in communities.

•          Quantities and types of products best suited to make value-added processing feasible and sustainable.

•          Social Network Analysis of actors within the market system.

•          Measures of income and poverty, including eligibility for government assistance programs.

•          Details and indicators of the agricultural system’s structure, dynamics and performance.

•          Barriers to entry for beginning farmers, reasons for failure of agricultural entrepreneurs and lessons for involving the entire community in supporting local agriculture.

•          Local food prices and availability, Food Hub mapping, emergency feeding data, food entitlements bundle analysis, hunger mapping, meal gap and import substitution information.

Who should we seek input from?

•          Cross section of all market actors including farmers, processors, distributors, retailers, government agencies, extension agents, non-profits, educators and trainers

•          Dept. of Water, HEL, grocers, consumers, insurance, govt departments who provide permits, lenders, ʻāina aloha group, recent HS graduates

•          Landowners, transportation, and government

•          UH CTHAR, UH-H CAFNRM

•          Hawai'i Public Health Institute, Dept. of Health

•          Kupuna and community leaders

•          Schools/DOE

•          Hawai’ian/Indigenous farmers and leaders

•          HDOA, USDA, PBARC, CTAHR

•          Farmers who would potentially benefit from infrastructure as well as entrepreneurs or businesses looking for opportunities to create or sell locally made value added products.

•          Hawai’i Emergency Management Agency

•          Hawai’i Farm Bureau

•          Hawai’i Farmers Union

•          Hawai’i Cattlemen Council

•          Eric Batha (Big Island Produce)

•          Raymond Kawamata (Kawamata Farms)

•          Richard Huynh (Big Island Ag Products LLC)

•          Calavo Growers Irradiation Facility

•          The Kohala Center

•          Parker Ranch

•          Diane Ley

•          Hilo Farmers Market

•          Kamehameha Schools

•          Hawai’i Beef Processors

•          Mike Hodson (Waimea Hawai’ian Homesteaders’ Association)

•          Kristing Albretch (Food Basket)

•          Sarah Freeman (County Food Coordinator)

•          Chin Lee (Univ. of Hawai’i)

•          Matt Loke (DOA Head of Stats)

What Questions Should Be Asked?

•          What are the biggest constraints to agricultural growth and food security on the island?

•          What infrastructure is most needed to increase value-added processing of ag products on island?

•          What do you think consumers might be willing to sacrifice in terms of price and availability to support local farms?

•          Are community members willing to show their support for local ag by volunteering to harvest? By encouraging their own children to work in agriculture?

•          Are consumers willing to be unable to access specific produce (bananas, avocados, etc.) during certain times of the year so that we can support local suppliers for the majority of the year and stop importing products that compete with local supply?

•          What are farmers interests in scaling beyond their current size and growing into new target markets?

•          What do you believe is the largest solvable challenge facing Hawaiʻi agriculture right now?

•          Who is working in what (sub) spaces and how are they connected? If connections don't exist where they should, why is that?

•          What major challenges came up for you as the supply chains were interrupted during the pandemic?

•          What is the greatest opportunity you see that is not being fulfilled here and why? What dream do you see as possible, if there could be a coordinated effort?

•          What are the networks by which you procure food and how can these networks be supported to increase agricultural and food resilience?

•          What would make it easier to become an agricultural entrepreneur? What opportunities do you see in agriculture? What resources do farmers need?

•          What would be your specific policy recommendations in order to build greater food system resilience and equity on Hawai’i island?

5.   Break-Out Group Discussions

The Planning Meeting was broken into five sub-groups of diverse participants to discuss a set of questions related to the study. A summary of the feedback gathered during the meeting is outlined under each of the three questions below.

1.       What Information Will Best Help us to Understand the Structure and Dynamics of Hawai’i Island’s Agricultural System?

Youth

·       Look at consumers and links to educational efforts to influence diet and appreciation of food in youth.

·       Look at farm laborers, there’s a real shortage problem of labor because of cost.

·       Understand aspiring famers’ interests, they have some interest, but in higher ‘tech’ farms. They are inhibited by the high costs and access to land, finance (for tech), and ‘knowledge’ and ‘support’ systems.

·       To better understand, may want to examine data on:

o   Changing trends in consumer tastes and how they are being influenced by young people;

o   Cost of labor and impact of this on farm productivity and profitability;

o   Farm holdings by age size;

o   Rates of transfer of land holdings;

o   New land put to farming use – answer is farming land growing or shrinking.

·       Need to recognize the other careers associated with agriculture, including trucking, shipping, and buyers.

·       Young farmers need increased business and management skills, not just technical.

·       Implications of this means it’s really hard for younger, non-established farmers to enter agriculture.

·       Cost of advice and permissions is also prohibitive – “It’s easier to go to Iowa and find a friendly banker to set you up!”

Consumption Patterns

·       Distortionary influence of tourism on availability, price, access to food. Should also look at seasonal variations. Should understand where locally produced food ends up, including domestic raw, domestic processed, and export.

·       To be profitable farmers are generally looking at higher value, and therefore possibly export markets including coffee, tea, chillies, and avocados. It’s not clear the extent to which local produce is ‘fit’ for local markets and tastes.

·       Who eats what? Lots of work with kids to value ‘raw’ healthy foods. Patterns? Demand? Changes? How these tastes connect with what we can and do grow.

·       Understanding supply and demand dynamics. Where can people sacrifice demand to support local farmers.

·       Bad records for how much potatoes people eat on the island.

·       Should look at what people want to eat and why? Take into consideration the following factors:

o   Cost

o   Availability

o   Cultural 

o   Other

Production

·       Challenges of increased production at the farmer level. Where do they find the investment and where does it go.

·       There’s still a need for basic production and consumption data.

·       First step is to understand what is being grown and consumed.

·       Should look at social value chains and constructs and layer that base data on top of what is produced in this place.

·       Hawai’i island is unique, it’s not commercially focused. The focus is on sustainability and taking care of people. Not many requests coming in for marketing assistance from DOA.  

·       We need to understand where we are right now. In order for something to exist it needs to generate revenue. Economic management and stewardship needs to fit in, but it needs to be balanced. 

·       Limited use of ‘modern’ irrigation and hybrid seed varieties. Introducing new crops which might be more resilient, but hard to introduce. 

·       Climate impacts are really starting to emerge and impact farmers – there’s incidence of drought. Planning by farmers is really difficult. Need to understand implications and patterns better to understand the implications on risks and crops. 

·       No economies of scale; so much is high value crops (tea, coffee, cacao). Cooperation would help through structures like cooperatives and food-hubs. Need to understand how many, where, and what they do (constraints response). NB coops cut through the system.

·       There are very divergent production types. Some farmers are very high tech, with greenhouses, lots of tech, and expensive and intensive input supply. Would like to know how much production comes from conventional versus non-conventional methods (break production down by methods and type). 

·       Sustainability and commercialization – the island has yet to emphasize commercialization, but most farmers are thinking about it.  

Processing

·       It’s important to look how processing works and how it’s decentralized.

·       Most profit comes from the value-added section of the chain.

·       If we focus on value-added and high end processing, we will tend to miss opportunities to feed the local community.

·       Should look at farmers' relationships to the value-added processing chain, those doing commercial farming have to participate along the entire chain, which is a tremendous task. Most are not able to do it.

·       It’s key for farmers to participate in portions of value-added processing so they can keep more profit share. 

·       It would be helpful to identify an inventory of state-owned infrastructure (it’s not well accessible, but pivotal). Warehouses. Cold Storage. “Need to be in the know, to know…”. 

·       Private infrastructure needs assessing. Some large distributors are willing to support local agriculture, but there’s no real dialogue here. 

·       Ready to drink beverages. No co-packing facilities for beverages such as tea. Farmers have to ship off-island, then ship back final product. 

Labor

·       Labor remains a limiting factor for many farmers.

·       Access to labor is a real problem. There’s not enough labor. “Lots of coffee goes unpicked.”

·       Should look at folded in social services to access cheap labor.

·       Perhaps international internship programs could help where individuals get free room and board in exchange for ag labor.

·       Green Workforce Development is a real gap. It’s not present on the island.

·       Training schools are mostly absent as well.

Housing

·       The cost of housing remains a limiting factor for many farmers as well.

Insurance

·       Interested in having more information around the role of insurance.

COVID-19

·       COVID-19 has shown there’s a high interdependency of food to tourism – if the latter drops it affects the former. 

·       It would be helpful to understand lessons from the Covid-19 responses on the availability of food and food security.

·       Coronavirus has caused farmers to rethink everything; growing, marketing. There will probably be a lot of changes going forward.

Historical Context

·       History and roots of agriculture on the island including how agriculture was formed, what best practices did the Hawai’ians use, and how did it change.

·       How did extractive structures of the sugar plantations and colonization era affect farming practices.

·       Power structures of big ag changed everything. We need to understand how we got here so we can better understand where we want to go with agriculture.

·       Understand historical successes and challenges, including but not limited to about:

·       The Kona Coffee Growers Cooperative;

·       Community projects; 

·       Supporting or opposing projects;

·       Feed mills;           

·       The historic scenic byways project in North Kohala. 

Economies of Scale

·       We need to understand and solve the economies of scale problem here. It has to do with how we grow the economic pie for everyone, not just a few large farmers.

·       We have to make something the world wants to buy.

·       Need to ask how to close the island’s economic loop, not just have economic value exporting.

·       Challenges to solving economies of scale include getting information on and addressing the following:

o   Infrastructure issues

o   Water and waste issues

o   FISMA

o   Political and public will (there’s a lot of bureaucratic roadblocks)

o   Levels of capital

o   Risk distribution

o   Cutting monopolies to get more competition, especially with community-based developers

o   Interstate laws and commerce

o   Opportunities to grow local business

o   Private sector incentives and technical assistance

Market Actors

·       It would be helpful to have a comprehensive list of market players, including:

o   What role they play;

o   How they interact with each other and the systems they create within themselves;

o   What we see overtly;

o   Underlying social dynamics and barriers;

o   insights into their perceived opportunities and constraints; and;

o   Where people choose to participate and why.

·       A key challenge to addressing any agriculture issue here is getting a broad coalition of people aligned. It would be helpful to know how by understanding who the informal thought leaders and community leaders are.

Policy and Regulations

·       Need good public policy supporting agriculture.

·       Need to understand where funding is going and who’s it coming from. With most grant funding at the federal level, questions of sustainability will continue to come up. Projects need to have the ability to be sustainable.

·       Another key challenge more data is needed on is land use and associated regulations. There are a myriad of regulations that influence a host of land and farm issues.

o   In terms of land use, this is not only in relation to converting land to farming purposes; but evidently also what type of farm and even crops can be grown. This seemed a particular problem with diversification and intercropping. It’s also important to mitigate some of the impacts of climate change (drought then deluge issues).

Inputs

·       cost and purchasing power of farmers; access to land (water access / rights / laws - and all different by County administration; 

·       Differences between livestock / arable); 

·       You can lease land to the farm - but you can’t live on the land (which leads to theft which is a real risk / cost factor to farming) - linked to lack of sanitation infrastructure

·       Land tenure / ownership issues - state vs county vs private (all with different regulations) 

·       Land use regulations - determining what land can be used for?

·       What bundles of support enable viable ag?

·       Public land use, ag parks, labor mechanisms, broader context of HI regional cuisine, 

Wholesaling and Distribution

·       Understanding contract requirements and needs, including state purchasing. Many farmers are not able to access certain markets because of issues with standards, volumes, barriers, etc.)

o   There’s a link to cooperation issues, can farmers ‘pool’ resources to overcome constraints? 

·       If the consumer is king, how do farmers know what the king wants? This affects planning and futures markets. Distributors control this information which is a problem.

Infrastructure

·       Apparent lack of accurate records of key public and/or private infrastructure which is or could be used for agriculture and value-added functions.

o   Things like cold storage, warehousing. Evidently there seems to be a lot of potential capacity, but either most infrastructure locations remain unknown or are not currently used for agriculture.

·       It would be good to map what’s there, how it’s used, capacities that exist, spare capacities, and costs etc. as a starting point. This seemed particularly important in the context of potentially developing an agriculture innovation center.

Cooperation

·       A clear acknowledgement that given land issues there’s limited economies of scale to be gained. So, we need to look more at economies of scope – which could be specialisation of production (which seems to be happening), but also through increased cooperation which is evidently happening.

·       It would be good to know the number and representation of cooperatives and informal farmer groupings. Social Network Analysis could help in this regard, particularly if it could help different groups connect to different sources of input, output, and support market access.

o   Could be helpful to know if there are social or managerial characteristics of some groups (over others) which align with improved networks, access, and resulting productivity and profitability.

·       If we can bring both together without relying on farmers to execute both there is great potential in our culture to create liaison group to connect both areas.

Import and Export Markets

·       There’s little knowledge of export flows and patterns. It’s important to understand more.

·       There’s recognition that farm profitability is dependent on prices and value addition ‘within the value chain.’ But it’s also determined by access to inputs, outputs, and support markets.

Technology

·       There’s a real difference between traditional versus modern farms emerging. The latter tends to be more productive and climate-resilient. But the availability, cost, and barriers to the adoption of technology remains mostly unknown.

o   Need to see if we can differentiate between output and economics by type of farm (traditional vs modern) in analysis.

2.    How Does the Island’s Food System Fit into its Agricultural System?

System Elements

·       In terms of the agriculture system, key components to look at include:

o   Producers, although perception may be too focused on only producers;

o   Inputs;

o   Machinery; 

o   Accounts; 

o   Food safety;

o   Transportation; 

o   Storage; and;

o   Value-added Processing. 

·       In terms of the food system, key components to look at include:

o   Consumers, although perception may be too focused on only consumers;

o   Water;

o   Energy;

o   Waste;

o   Transportation;

o   Intersection;

o   Distribution;

o   Storage; and; 

o   Accessibility. 

System Structures

·       There was discussion and general agreement it should be the other way around - the agricultural system fits within the island’s larger food system.

·       Growing and supporting agriculture has to be done in the context of the food system and its market relations.

·       It’s important to remember there’s a lot of non-food products produced in agriculture.

·       The food system captures more waste and community-related issues than agriculture.

·       Food distribution and access are two key intersection points between the systems.

o   We need to be able to distribute more food locally.

·       Need to analyze the connections, logistics, and supply chains in the food and ag sectors to see where they overlap and how they can be improved.

·       Need to diversify the economy to more agriculture and reach greater scale within ag.

·       A key potential missing link is to have an entity serve as a wholesaler that can take locally produced ag products, aggregate them, and get them to larger chain stores.

·       The CSA model has helped in many ways, but there are still opportunities for improvement.

·       Need to understand consumer taste preferences.

·       Need to look at more social marketing to help consumers switch to locally produced food - greater consumer awareness and education will be key to help them pay extra for local food.

·       We should look at how much of our agriculture is focused on:

o   Local consumption;

o   Hotel consumption; and;

o   Export.

Coordination

·       Greater coordination is needed since a lot of producers are still not making a profit.

·       There’s been little intentional coordination and integration of the food system into the ag system.

o   If there is a concerted approach to integrate ag into food security there will be increased food security.

·       Greater investment and coordination needs to be strategic in order to be feasible and independent.

Nutrition and Food Security

·       Should look at USDA’s Food Box distribution.

o   Hungry people are not concerned if their food is local.

o   There’s not enough food produced for and consumed on-island.

·       Need to determine how much food Hawai’i can grow and then look at what we will need to supplement and import.

o   In terms of marketing, we have the market with a population of roughly 200,000. If 5 pounds of food/person/day = 1milion pounds of food/day.

Agro-Tourism

·       Lot of overlap between the food and agriculture systems within agro-tourism.

·       Tourism needs to be redesigned going forward. Tourism should focus on teaching people, for example where tea comes from.  

·       Government is struggling to keep ag and tourism separate but we need to combine the two. 

o   Ag tourism is a high percentage of income generation for tea farms.  

·       For sustainable ag business, we need the ability to focus on an ‘all the above approach’ including, tourism, value-added processing, education, and local consumption.

End Markets

·       Need to look at whether we can focus on exporting for high end products and utilize off grades for local consumption and value-added products. Need to understand if we have the ability to produce at the levels required to make it work.  

·       The island does have the resources. (land and land availability -we need to get better here though, water, potential workforce and culture of agriculture).

o   But society here has to accept all that goes along with agriculture (long hours, noise, dust). 

o   We need to remind society where food comes from and what goes into it.  

3.    What Information Will Best Help us Understand Where the Systemic Constraints (i.e. System-Wide Problems) Lie in the Agricultural and Food Systems that are Holding Back Growth and Efficiency?

Policy and Regulations

·       Should look at information related to:

o   Role of permitting and impact of those inefficiencies;

o   Legal history of when food and ag regulations were created, why they were passed, and who they primarily benefit;

o   Ag housing;

o   Policies and regulations, especially those focused on permitting, at the County, State, and Federal levels; 

o   Bottlenecks within the systems; and;

o   Food Safety.

Coordination

·       Ag working groups are trying to better collaborate.  

·       Should look at lessons learned of the types of bundled support that’s enabled successful and viable farming operations on-island.

o   For example, public land, labor mechanisms, etc.

·       Social organization overall here remains a constraint.

Investment

·       Need to understand what industry groups need and want.

·       Should look at the supply and demand for capital, currently being researched by Ron Porter, titled “Hawai’i Investment Ready.”

Imports and Exports

·       It would be helpful to look at the lost economic opportunity with imported food.

o   Need to understand how much economic value is being lost by having so much imported food.

·       Studies have probably analyzed this in the past, but it would be good to have updated economic quantification which can help legislators make better policy decisions - frame changes in economic terms. For example, if we sourced this much more of local food, the county would generate an additional amount in increased profit.

·       Consumption data would also be useful, we need to look at demand as much as supply.

Cost of Infrastructure

·       In terms of infrastructure, it would be helpful to look at the following factors:

o   Cost of building;

o   Water infrastructure;

o   Climate change;

o   Weather patterns;

o   Sea level rise; 

o   Inefficiencies and what infrastructure is useful for farming; and;

o   FSMA.

Community Input

·       A typical concern is many community members look at increased agriculture as meaning increased development.

·       It would be helpful to get community input on the privatization of agriculture.

·       Clearer market signals are needed, a better understanding of demand across different sectors.

Water and Waste Issues

·       In terms of water and waste issues, it would be good to look at:

o   Energy;

o   Issues related to taking water from streams;

o   better understand financial; of cost of production and where the money is coming from;

o   Sales and revenue sources, including:

§  Hotels;

§  Emergency Food;

§  Grocery stores;

§  Direct to consumer; and;

§  Export.

o   Packing Houses and Storage Units (Dry and Cold)    

§  Livestock, slaughterhouses, dairy; and;

§  Waste systems.

Consumption Patterns

·       We should look more closely at consumer purchasing power. 

·       Need to understand what it will take to scale the system to a point where we are producing and consuming more locally. 

o   Scalability is key, we should ask producers what their ideal scale is. 

Production

·       Key data to examine in terms of production is access to land, the impact of large landowners, labor, and livable wages.

o   Hunter has data that can be shared. He completed a 2018 farmer needs assessment – http://Hawai’ifarmersurvey.com/.

·       Access to Land + large landowners 

Processing

·       Process data should focus on value-added opportunities and what’s holding them back. For example, in Waimea strawberries are a key product, but transportation remains an issue. Need to look at those underlying problems.

Transportation

·       Opportunity to tool and retool agriculture going forward. Transportation is a big component of that (i.e. Young Brothers issues).

Farming Practices

·       There’s still a sense of tribalism that needs to be overcome. Agriculture groups are comprised into groups like non-GMO, GMO, and organic versus conventional. Need to understand how to foster collaboration to get past those differentiations.

6.   Conclusion and Next Steps

The meeting concluded by explaining the Hamakua Institute would reach out to participants with:

·       A summary of the meeting and participants’ feedback in the surveys and discussions;

·       Plans for meetings of the three sub-teams; and;

·       More information about the data collection team roles and time commitments.