If you are old as I am, you can remember Hawaii 50 years ago where we grew a lot of our own food. What happened over these 50 years to our food production? We have the agricultural land and water. All the sugar plantations are gone. On Oahu our population has doubled. The number of visitors has tripled. And today, our supermarkets are filled with imported food, not locally grown food.
Today, we import somewhere around 80% of our food. Why can’t our local farmers compete with mainland and foreign farmers?
One major reason for the increase in imports is the incredible efficiency of the container ships that arrive every week carrying our food. These ships can carry the equivalent of over 1,500 40-foot containers. This includes hundreds of refrigerated containers. We have two companies (Matson and PASHA) dedicated to bringing in these containers along with roll-on and roll-off vehicles each week. These companies are good partners, investing over one billion dollars in new ships for our market.
However, like every business, these container companies cannot guarantee service. They can have accidents. External events can affect their service. What is the plan to feed Hawaii when these container ships stop arriving for three months?
Here are some scenarios that result in the container ships stopping their service to Hawaii.
Labor stoppages can shut down the container ships.
The weak links in the container business are the amazing cranes in the harbors. These cranes can unload a ship in hours. What happens when they are damaged? Sometimes ships make mistakes and crush these cranes. Search for “Container crane collapse” and you will see three accidents around the Pacific in the last 5 years where ships smashed these cranes.
What happens if an earthquake in California damages these cranes in San Diego or Los Angeles? What happens if a tsunami rushes across Sand Island and destroys the cranes facing Honolulu harbor? How many weeks or months will it take to replace them? Last time I was on Sand Island, I didn’t see any spare cranes. And then, of course, we have the annual worry about hurricanes.
Are we prepared for these accidents? Who is in charge of the State Food Security Protection Plan? We have less than one month of food available islandwide at any time. Can you imagine what Safeway and Foodland will look like if we have a three month shipping interruption?
Perhaps we have let the pendulum of low prices and great reliability swing too far in the direction of depending on the container ships. We now find ourselves in a precarious position. We are just gambling that there will not be an accident.
With no guarantee of food delivery, it is time to mandate and subsidize local food production. It is time to accept that local small farms cannot compete with mainland farms on price and reliability. This may mean higher prices. This higher cost is our insurance that we can feed ourselves in times of emergency.
At this year’s legislature, our elected representatives should put together a decision making group to analyze these shipping risks and design a minimum food production plan. We need to bring back more chicken, egg, milk, pork, beef, lettuce and tomato production, etc.
We live on the most beautiful islands in the world. Unfortunately, we are over 2,300 miles from the nearest land. We need to take care of our own emergency food needs.
It is time to mandate and subsidize our own Food Security Protection Plan.
Hawaii Kai resident John Brizdle is former co-owner of E Noa Tours and The Waikiki Trolley.
