Down on the farm we’re looking at a mixed harvest of news. There’s hope on the horizon, but the context is gloomy.

The Legislature is close to passing a bill that could really help: House Bill 2703 would commit the Aloha State to doubling the amount of food we grow in the islands by 2020, and we appeal to the people of Hawaii to support this effort.

Yet it’s hard to be upbeat. Thirty-four years ago we added Article 11 to our

Constitution, committing us to conserve our land “in

furtherance of the self-sufficiency of the state.” Since then, our food self-sufficiency has plummeted. Today we grow just 8 percent of what we eat and spend $4 billion every year to import food. Our food supply is hostage to the next hurricane or tsunami, the next dockworkers strike or spike in the price of oil. And since vitamins and nutrients rapidly degrade as soon as fruits and vegetables are picked, the shortage of locally grown produce undermines our health.

If Hawaii is to get serious about feeding itself, there’s plenty we can do.

We can help farmers get leases. We can invest in irrigation infrastructure. We can provide covered port facilities to encourage inter-island commerce. We can build processing and purchasing networks and revise procurement codes so institutions like the state Board of Education can start buying local. We can invest in training and loan assistance programs. We can do a better job marketing our products.

Also, we can put EBT (food stamp) transfer machines in farmers markets. We can encourage state-subsidized health insurers to offer discounts for Community-

Supported Agriculture subscriptions — the weekly vegetable box schemes that improve diets and provide farmers with guaranteed customers.

The list goes on.

The Legislature wants to kick-start the economy by unleashing the bulldozers. But construction is not the only way to create jobs. A 2008 “white paper” by the state Department of Agriculture concluded that if we replaced just 10 percent of imported food with locally grown produce, we would create more than 2,300 new jobs, pump $300 million into the economy and generate $6 million in tax revenues.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie made it clear after last year’s legislative session that he wants a bill or bills that create a foundation for local agriculture to thrive and grow. But none of this will happen until the Legislature writes law that empowers the administration to take action.  

Skeptics say food farming can’t be done here without subsidies, that no one wants the work. Nonsense.

The folks who run the training program at Ma‘o Farms reckon they have 600 graduates of their program who’d jump at the chance to become full-time farmers.

All over the Windward side, the North Shore, the Waianae Coast, even in Palolo Valley and Hawaii Kai, enterprising new farmers are trying to make a go of it, despite all the obstacles the state keeps putting in their way — like shutting down farmers markets and imposing burdensome safety inspection regimes.

Hawaii’s farming renaissance has started. Between 1990 and 2004, the acreage growing vegetables increased 475 percent. We don’t have more recent statistics because the state Department of Agriculture shut down data collection as a cost-savings measure. Today it can’t even tell us how many farms there are in the state.

That’s one thing HB 2703 would fix. This is a bill that would finally tell the administration to make our farm economy a priority.

It has one last hurdle to clear: today’s conference committee between the Senate and the House.

If you’d like to see your food supply become fresher and more secure, while boosting our economy, contact Sen. Clarence Nishihara at sennishihara@capitol.hawaii.gov and Rep. Clift Tsuji at reptsuji@capitol.hawaii.gov.

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This commentary was also co-signed by Glenn Martinez, owner of Olomana Gardens farm in Waimanalo; Sandra Scarr, owner of Scarr Family Farm in Holualoa; Jeanne Vana, owner of North Shore Farms; and Gerry Ross and Janet Simpson, of Kupa‘a Farms on Maui.