Despite popular campaigns to "buy local" and "eat local," statistics that spell out the status of food production and consumption across the state are scarce, so Hawaii County has mapped its agricultural sector as a first step toward greater self-reliance.

"We all know we have to support agriculture, we have to commit to being able to feed ourselves," Mayor Billy Kenoi said in releasing the Hawai‘i County Food Self-Sufficiency Baseline Study 2012. "If you’re going to make good decisions, you have to have access to good information. This is what we need to move forward in a very strategic, tactical way."

The report reveals a checkered agricultural landscape. The island produces virtually all the milk it consumes and more than 17 percent of its beef, for example, but with no commercial poultry operations, it imports all its chicken and eggs, aside from farmers market and other informal sales. Despite vast macadamia nut orchards, the study estimated that less than 5 percent of nuts consumed on the island are macadamias.

Half of the 42,000 acres in crop production on the island are macadamia orchards, with an additional 6,000 acres in coffee, while vegetables, fruits and aquaculture account for another 10,000 acres of active agricultural use.

The baseline study, commissioned by the county for $65,000, was produced by the University of Hawaii at Hilo’s Geography and Environmental Studies Department in partnership with Hilo-based firm Island Planning. It was billed as the first such study by a Hawaii county.

In 2009, the Hawaii Department of Agriculture stopped collecting data on fresh fruit and vegetable exports and imports to and from the U.S. mainland after staff layoffs due to the budget crunch. That data, combined with local production figures, had allowed the state to gauge the proportion of locally grown produce. The baseline study acknowledged that handicap and drew on a wide range of sources to make its estimates — including information from local slaughterhouses and refrigeration facilities — and to augment the 2008 data.

"It is difficult to determine, with any certainty, what is produced locally versus what is imported to the state, let alone provide a breakdown by county," noted the study, authored by land use planner Jeffrey Melrose and Donna Delparte, an assistant professor at UH-Hilo. "It has been several years since even minimal amounts of agricultural data were collected in Hawaii."

The report sums up some of its findings in a "Food Self-Sufficiency Scorecard 2012," which estimates the percentage of different foods that are produced and consumed locally. It notes that an informal food system, including farmers markets, home gardens, informal harvest, catch and sharing, has a significant impact on consumption even though it is harder to measure.

The study also lists "100 Ways to Increase Food Self-Sufficiency," with tips for consumers, parents, children, institutional buyers, restaurants, grocers, government agencies, fishermen, farmers and others. One way to enhance self-reliance is to build demand for what is grown locally, such as starchy vegetables like sweet potato, taro and breadfruit, rather than relying on imported french fries, Melrose said.

"We actually produce close to 12 million pounds of sweet potatoes and we ship those to the West Coast," Melrose said, with another 1.8 million pounds marketed locally. "One of the ways to move the bar is to learn how to eat what we grow."

A major component of the report involved mapping where crops are currently grown on the island, using satellite imagery and cross-checking with farmers. Along with the detailed maps, the report includes a discussion of the factors that drive farm activity in each region. The county gives property tax incentives to pursue agriculture but there is no regular oversight to ensure the land actually continues to be used for farming, the report noted.

Also included is a local take on the traditional food pyramid, dubbed the "My Eat Local Hawai‘i Plate," developed by Andrea Dean of Sustainable Initiatives LLC in partnership with the baseline study. It depicts a diagram of a luau-style cardboard platter, heavy on vegetables and fruits, with lists of locally grown foods from bok choy to watermelon, eggplant to star fruit.

"Solving this is not just putting more farmers on more farms," Melrose said. "That’s too simple. We have to change who we are, we have to think about eating what we grow, we have to think seasonally. It involves institutional buying patterns and landowner commitments. The answer isn’t what the county can do or what government can do, it’s what we all can do."