Opening Remarks: How Do We Get Back to the Future?
Dr. William Mokahi Steiner, Dean, College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resource Management, UH Hilo
The precious seed of life awakening is a metaphor for what is going on here today at this Symposium.
A study by anthropologists reported in Science last year that the first farmers integrated into Central Europe at the onset of the Neolithic Era. As early as the Neolithic Era man had begun to change plants, and he has been co-evolving with them ever since. Seed is an extension of life into the future, and seed is our legacy from the past. You can envision the future when holding seed in your hand.
Our genetic inheritance is now changing at a rapid pace, a pace which is continuing to increase. We are going to have to change the way we eat and the way we live on the land in order to survive climate change. A global apocalypse is predicted—destroying crops due to excess rains, droughts, and desertification (20,000 square acres per year are currently turning to deserts). Russia and the American Midwest are suffering from droughts. These vast bread baskets are being impacted, and a year from now we will see some really serious impacts. And the world population is continuing to grow.
China and India lack water to grow the soybeans they need. China is importing soy beans from Brazil because they don’t have the water they need to grow their own food. We will need to consider drought-tolerant seeds because we are going to have a dryer environment. The 6–7,000 elevation will become the new rainfall belt as the 4–5,000-foot elevation becomes dryer.
In Hawai‘i, the 2050 Plan is supposed to provide security for us, but it is too little, too late. In the face of global climate change, commodity based trade will diminish and possibly even disappear. We must return to locally based food.
There are opportunities for small farm development on 1,700 acres of land owned by the County on former C. Brewer land. The proposed Kapulena Agricultural Park will include a biochar facility for utilizing eucalyptus from Honoka‘a and Waipi‘o as a soil supplement.
What do we need in Hawai‘i to assure our food security? I believe we need legislative support for seed development; a diversified educational support system so we have knowledgeable staff on each island; funding and land opportunities for aspiring farmers; and a pipeline for upcoming farmers in schools.