Human Impacts

What are the significant changes caused by natural events or human actions, including current policies and practices, on the place/population/problem?

Humans have created an unsustainable world with poor agriculture practices among other things. Poor agriculture has created numerous other problems such as affecting the water cycle, creating food insecurity, changing the soil quality, converting land, contributing to habitat loss, soil erosion, pollution, and climate change. In addition, since Hawaii is an island, 92 percent of it’s food is imported from elsewhere with 67 percent being fresh vegetables and 65 percent being fresh fruit. This contributes to Hawaii’s eco-footprint as well as carbon footprint. The largest cargo vessel that serves as Hawaii’s resident’s food truck can emit as much pollution as 50 million cars in a year, contributing to about 4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, there are more problems with importing food from elsewhere. Invasive species and pest carrying diseases might be hitching a ride on these cargo ships and a destroying Hawaii’s endemic and beautiful wildlife.

POLICIES & PRACTICES: What is the current implementation of laws, policies, and management practices?

The Hawaii Department of Agriculture works to support, enhance, and promote Hawaii’s agriculture and aquaculture industries. In addition to Hawaii’s main department, there are smaller organizations that are working toward Hawaii’s agricultural sustainable goal. Farm to School is just one of the organizations that does this. This non-profit organization’s goal is to connect communities with fresh healthy food and local food producers by changing the way food is purchased and educating students. In 2015, a Farm to School Act 2015 was introduced to congress to provide more funding, materials, and opportunities that would further enrich the students. Furthermore, on March 11, 2016, a senate resolution was offered to designate the month of October of each year as a “Farm to School Month” in Hawaii to strengthen and support the organization’s initiatives. Hopefully, as this organization grows and the idea as aquaponics as a sustainable urban farming practice becomes more popuar, Farm to School will start to incorporate it into their vision.

HUMAN ACTIONS: Overall are human actions improving the situation related to your topic or making it worse - explain, using your research and findings.

Humans are overall working to improving the situation of unsustainability and food security. As people are starting to realize the effects of transporting our food from thousands of miles away, they are creating sustainable approaches remedying this problem. One approach is the “Increase Food Security and Food Self-Sufficiency Strategy.” This strategy has three main objectives: increase the demand for and access to locally grown goods, increase the production of locally grown foods, and provide policy and organizational support to meet food self-sufficiency needs. By doing these things, the support for their ideas will grow and eventually fix Hawaii’s food problem.