Lucas McKinnon /
Pacific Gateway Center /
Honolulu, HI /
I have been incredibly fortunate to be re-homed at PGC, a local nonprofit organization working at the intersection of immigrant rights, public policy, housing, and food security. Despite my recent start date, my direct supervisor has entrusted me with significant work responsibilities. Over the past few weeks, most of my time has been spent surveying land from the Kunia-Wahiawa corridor up toward Waialua for suitable farmland that might be leased at an affordable price. As a consequence of previous land disputes and landlord histories, the organization likely will need to relocate a dozen or so farmers within the region. Finding affordable, arable land in central Oahu is a near impossibility; nevertheless, due to strong preexisting community relationships of PGC, I was able to find a number of suitable alternative sites.
Still, leasing land and farming land are two distinct challenges. The land we are now considering is home to its own complex social, economic, and environmental history. Originally managed through the traditional Ahupua’a system of land management, this region was subdivided by large, racially divided plantation systems that used mono-cropping. At the present, the area is further divided into hyper-specific, fraction-of-an-acre lots that are waveringly owned or managed by public, private, military, and nonprofit institutions.
This disparate matrix of land management has a direct and inordinate impact on land use and therefore, a farmer’s livelihood. Some farmers have been forcibly evicted, have been prevented from growing traditional crops, or have been pressured economically into using unsustainable agricultural practices. Insecure land tenure and predatory or exclusionary agricultural land mandates creates a scenario where land, soil organic matter, indigenous microorganisms, water quality, and animal husbandry are diminished by the demands of a myopic cash economy.
This past week, I have established partnerships with University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture & Human Resources, UH West Oahu, GoFarm Hawaii, and numerous local smallholder farms. Through steady coalition-building and emphasis on environmental and community resiliency, I hope to help–in some small way–the harvest of future generations.