Going Green with Andrea Dean

Well, here is your golden opportunity to come aboard the Golden Princess while it is docked in Hilo Harbor. And the best thing about it is you can support the Hawaii Island School Garden Network.

If you don’t know- Nancy Redfeather has been hard at work and has helped network together and launch about 50 school garden programs here on the Big Island. This is crucial work for educating our youth about healthy food and for growing future farmers- a critical piece in our local food self-reliance pie.

From Nancy: On Friday October 16, the Hawai’i Island School Garden Network will host a gala luncheon aboard the Golden Princess when she is docked in Hilo. The purpose of this luncheon is to share the successes and the challenges of building this new curriculum for all the schools on Hawai’i Island. At least 20 of our School Garden Teachers will be in attendance, along with Mayor Kenoi, Senators Kokubun and Takemine, and many other supporters. We cordially invite each of you to join us and support the future for our keiki and communities.

All tickets for this wonderful event must be purchased by September 30. Please contact Molly Hui at The Kohala Center for easy ticket purchase. mhui@kohalacenter.org

Please forward this email to anyone who supports building this living laboratory for our keiki and youth. The School Gardens and Agriculture Programs at our High Schools provide nutritional education, physical exercise, connect our youth with their food and cultural values, introduce them to concepts of a healthy ecosystem and stewardship, and help them to connect their classroom studies with “hands-on” work. Ma ka hana ka ike… By doing the work we will learn. These ideas when practiced will help us build a sustainable island community.

Last week I gave a talk at the University of Hawaii, Schidler College of Business. I was invited by the local Net Impact chapter. The mission of the local chapter is to grow and support a community of leaders focused on making a positive environmental, social, and economic impact through the power of sustainable business. Our vision is to foster a new generation of business leaders who incorporate people, planet, and profits into decision-making and action to create a better world.


Following is my presentation (sorry, its a bit dark, but you can still hear it!)

In this podcast I interview Guy Kaulukukui, Director of the Kohala Center’s Food Self-Reliance Program.

Guy has been tasked with developing a “critical path” to food self-reliance for Hawaii Island- mapping a strategy for how the island will decrease food imports and the increase consumption of local food. Guy Kaulukukui, who has a Ph.D. in economics education is uniquely suited to this complex task of how to transition from a import economy to a locally-based economy. Guy feels that it is important to increase the demand side of the food equation by reinforcing the message of eating locally produced food as well as working on increasing efficiency on farms to decrease the costs of local produce to the public.


If you are an itunes user, you can subscribe to my podcast through itunes and receive automatic weekly updates. Or you can listen below:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:47 — 4.8MB)

The Big Island (with two locations in Waimea and Waikoloa) joined 250 groups in all 50 states today in a National Day of Action to get REAL FOOD in the schools spearheaded by Slow Food USA. No more Tater Tots? No more Mystery Meat? Ahhh… such fond memories of school lunches… NOT!


I am sure the Tater Tots will be safe for a while as the task at hand is to get the U.S. Congress to change the Child Nutrition Act to dedicate enough resources for the schools to buy REAL FOOD. SIGN THE PETITION.


Our local “eat in” at Waimea School was great. The cafeteria was full and the local food was great- lots of fresh, local food prepared lovingly by many hands. Missed it? Check it out:





From Slow Food USA: Together, we are publicly rejecting the notion that our schools cant afford to feed kids anything but the bad food that makes them sick. And the way were making this statement is by bringing neighbors together in the spirit of good will and for the joy of sharing good food.


Check out the Slow Food USA National Day of Action website for interviews with Michael Pollan and others on this national movement.
The New York Times article Stars Aligning on School Lunches is also great.

Well, well… those of us who have worked on the Clean Elections issue for years were very dismayed that back in April certain members of the Hawaii County Council tried to overturn years of public effort with a resolution to undo the public funding for Hawaii County Council races in 2010. See my original blog post and testimony.


It would seem that their message was WE MUST PRESERVE SPECIAL INTEREST FUNDING AT ALL COSTS. And indeed, it now appears they were willing to go pretty far- like travelling to Oahu together to lobby the legislature- (if proven) a clear violation of Hawaii’s Sunshine Law. Read the story in today’s West Hawaii Today:

WHT suit alleges multiple council violations


I must add that my own Councilmember Pete Hoffmann has always been a strong supporter of Clean Elections and did not vote for that screwball resolution.


My original testimony: