Move 10% to Local Food, Keep $300 Million in Hawaiʻi

0:00 Vincent Mina: What's going to take us over the edge, well, maybe around the corner, around the corner, is the energetics of being around folks that are growing real food and doing it in a way that is in alignment with mama nature. It's something special. And, you know, there's two things that we have working for us. And that's people are getting sicker, unfortunately, and the soil is just not cooperating with the nonsense. And so because of that, that's where exponentially we will grow and prosper in this whole world of being about what's in our best and highest interest,

0:50 to stay on this plane and enjoy while we're here. So there's a champion that has been all in at a political level to represent what this is all about. And he's right here in your district, and he's here tonight, and he's a senator, and you need to really give a warm welcome to Senator Russell Ruderman.

1:20 Russell Ruderman: Thank you very much. I guess this is a friendly crowd there. Thank you all of you for having me here. I'm Russell Ruderman. I kind of have two hats related to food. One is I'm the founder of Island Naturals Market, for those of you here. I'm also state senator and one of my main areas of focus is agriculture and local food culture. I did start the local food caucus over at the legislature, which has proceeded in fits

2:07 and starts, and I was briefly the chair of the agriculture committee in the senate, trying to make some progress on local food issues in that regard. Local food is just so important for many reasons. I'll be very brief, by the way, or brief for a politician. You know, if we can just move the local versus imported food, if we move that meter 10%, it's worth $300 million to our state. And that's, of course, it's approximation, but it's in that range. It's not just the money that won't be shipped to the mainland. It's also the health of our people, the health of our soil,

2:46 all the benefits that come from having those jobs here rather than on the mainland. So there's economic and environmental and health benefits to doing so, as well as just the money that we would keep in this thing. You know, to me, natural farming and Korean natural farming is an incredibly important step in development and getting to where we need to be. And I don't need to tell all you guys that. You guys know it much better than I do. but I welcome this so much and this meeting, this conference here has been so valuable, I'm sure.

3:23 But for all those people that developed natural farming and the people that have spread the word and they're teaching it and they're bringing it around the world and home to the Big Island, I say a really deep felt thank you. Starting from Master Cho, all the people whose names I don't know. I know Mike DuPonte is doing an incredible job here on the Big Island. And all of you, you know, it's something that's transformative. We will look back on this technology the same way we look at Newton and Einstein. It's going to change everything.

3:59 It's especially true for those of us in Hawaii where one of the things that keeps local farmers from being competitive is the tremendous cost of imported inputs, farm inputs, fertilizers, other treatments. They're expensive to any farmer, but they're much, much more expensive to anybody in Hawaii. So the technologies that allow us to develop our own inputs and to develop the health of our soils to increase our capacity to grow local food is extremely important. You know, I've observed, being in the food business my whole career, I've observed that

4:43 healthy food, organic food, and local food are the biggest trends in the food industry over the last seven or eight years. And I've also observed, with a few small exceptions, our state completely ignored that trend. And I think it's something that we have to change. We all know that. Everybody in this room knows that. But those people in power in our state government, they don't know it yet. And so we need to push that. We need to push them a little bit. I was able to get a couple of small steps moving this year in the Agriculture Committee.

5:29 One of them was a commitment from the Department of Health to develop a program to allow cottage foods to be sold. I tried to get it as a bill. The bill died because the Department of Health promised to develop the rules on their own and asked us to give them a year to do so. That will allow people to make certain kinds of non-hazardous foods at home and sell them legally. It's a small step. The other step that I consider very important is that we created a position for a farm to school coordinator because our schools are by far the biggest single market we have and

6:05 they're essentially closed to local farmers at this time. And that's because of the way the bureaucracy is set up and the resistance to change. The resistance to change is the bad news I have to tell you about. It's very strong and it's very real. It's not very visible but it's there and we have to overcome it. And in my mind, getting a farm to school position is a very, very tiny crack in the wall. It's a big, big concrete wall. And it's a tiny crack in it. And with the help of what we're doing here, we all have to keep pushing.

6:44 We have to crack that wall open and allow our local markets to be available to our local farms. Oh, there you are. In that regard, I want to encourage any of you, whatever level you might see for yourselves, to get involved in politics as well as farming. I know it's not the natural thing for a farmer to do, but it's not natural for anybody. It's not. And the system needs fresh blood, and it needs to be changed frequently. And we need people who care about the kind of things that you folks care about to get involved.

7:24 Maybe you don't want to run for office, but maybe you know someone who can, or maybe can get involved in those campaigns. We need a few good people in there to tilt the balance. People do, over there at the legislature, people do pay attention to who wins and loses elections. They pay attention to that a lot. If a couple of the people who are resisting the changes we want lose an election, that'll get people's attention. the more people who are in there can change everything. I think that next year is a unique opportunity for us politically. First of all, it's a

8:02 presidential election year. Second of all, in some areas, especially East Hawaii, there's going to be a remarkable number of open seats. I don't know if that's true on all the other islands, but it certainly will be true here. And you know, there's a very exciting candidate on the national scene that may bring out a lot of voters there's a lot of excitement around it and who knows so so it may be a big voter turnout here. Of course, I'm talking about Donald Trump.

8:30 No, I'm talking about Bernie Sanders. [unclear] But in any case, when there's a good turnout, it helps progressive candidates, and there will be good turnouts next year so if ever there was a chance to make a difference next year's or this is the best one I can see I encourage you all to get involved. People who are not involved, people who tune out and think you can't do anything politically, are doing exactly what our opponents want you to do. And being involved is the way that we can move our government forward. It needs to be pushed. It needs to

9:05 be dragged, kicking and screaming to do the right thing, and it's our job to do it. So, you know, you folks who are here, and forgive me if some of you have heard this metaphor before you folks are to me the seeds the gardeners they're going to nurture the trees and plants that we desperately need and the fruit of seeds that you're planting is a healthier local food economy and that if we can if we can increase local food we will benefit not only our health and our kids health but also our environment our entire agricultural sector as well as

9:47 the economy of our state. The benefits are tremendous and it's entirely within our reach to do so. So my hats are off to you guys. My hat is off to you guys. And I really commend you for what you've done. I especially want to thank Jackie Prell. and the many Silverstein daughters who have helped, everyone else who is part of this, thank you so much, and the Farmers Union, I know. It's an honor to have you guys here. I thank you for the work that you all do and the vision that you have to make this happen, And I also thank you for the honor of inviting me to speak.

10:34 Thank you very much for that. So let's make local healthy food production a reality. Thank you very much. Thank you.