2020 Theses Master's

Food and Farming in Hawaii: A study of the obstacles to establishing resilient systems of local food production in Hawaii

Sudhakar, Kirthana

The purpose of this study is to identify existing obstacles to establishing resilient systems of food production in Hawaii, and to determine what some of the best practices in planning would be to address the same. The obstacles identified, have been bucketed widely into three categories, namely, obstacles related to land-use; policy related obstacles; and systemic issues.

The methodology employed was primarily in-depth semi-structured interviews, respondents were selected through the snowball technique. This was accompanied by an online survey to determine respondent’s food habits and preferences, here, the respondents were selected again through the snowball technique. The third element was mapping of data using the mapping tool ArcGIS, to determine the degree to which land-use related obstacles relate to the research.

The literature indicated that the three most significant obstacles were the military land holdings, the Jones Act and large-scale crop monocultures. However, the findings indicate that invasive species and pests, the lack of labor and the high cost of land are the three most considerable obstacles to be tackled.