Green Postcards: Big Changes, Tiny Farms

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The island of Oahu contains Honolulu, Waikiki, eight-lane freeways and a melting pot of cuisines: In the restaurants of Sam Choy and Allen Wong, poi, kalua pig, bok choy and won bok get ratcheted up to gourmet grade. But Oahu, too, has unspoiled valleys where farmers cultivate taro, sweet potato and other crops alongside mountain streams. In the rural district of Waianae, where unemployment is three times the state average and the Native Hawaiian residents suffer some of the state's highest rates of obesity and cardiovascular disease, one small organic farm and café have begun to make a very healthy difference.

"We're not small-we're tiny," says Kukui Maunakea-Forth, who with her husband, Gary, runs the 2.5-acre Ma'o Organic Farm and the Aloha Aina Café, which sits directly across the street from the Waianae McDonald's. "Most of our produce goes straight into the café," says Maunakea-Forth, whose food systems initiative was a finalist in Yale University's national non-profit business plan competition last year. The café also buys from the edible gardens program at Waianae High School. In addition to advising the school's farm, Ma'o Organic has for four years provided paid part-time work to 12 student interns, and has recently hired more full-time staff. Soon they'll be adding another 2.5 acres to help meet the demands of their Honolulu outlet, the Town Restaurant, for Ma'o's lettuces, kale, chard and orchard fruit. "We [also] focus on directly marketing to the consumers through farmers' markets, rather than adding on costs by using a distributor," Maunakea-Forth says.

Over the past 20 years, the state's small taro farmers have assembled a strong and creative distribution system for poi, sold at supermarkets and small grocery stores, farmers' markets and as near the source as the Waiahole Poi Factory on Oahu's northeast shore. "We've got more demand than we can fill," says John Reppun, part-time taro farmer in Waiahole Valley for more than 25 years. During that time, Reppun and his fellow farmers have succeeded in blocking developments that would have destroyed natural and agricultural lands, and getting water flow restored to streams (see Green Guide #59). As sustainable farming takes root, thanks in large part to demand for such niche crops as poi and organic mesclun, it helps Hawaii to feed itself and preserves the environment that makes it such a fabulous place to visit and live.

Resources

www.oneandonlypalmilla.com

Da Imu Hut, 808-335-0200

Aloha Aina Café, 808-697-8808

Town Restaurant, 808-735-5900

Ma'o Farms 808-696-5569 waianaeorganic@hawaii.rr.com

Waiahole Poi Factory, 808-239-5117

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