The development of the Kaua‘i Food Access Plan 2030 is a great accomplishment for us, as it highlights community needs and participatory planning to identify areas of change our community wants to focus on. Kauaʻi FARMS will begin work on one of the final 11 community-designed objectives: "Stable land access for food production is consistently available to farmers and ranchers, with a focus on long-term leasing and Kanaka Maoli land ownership".
In Hawaiʻi there is a distinct and unscrupulous layer of colonization, gentrification, and corporatization of our island’s culture and resources for exploitation going back hundreds of years causing acute generational trauma for the Native Hawaiian population and plantation era community. This sordid history is why equity has remained at the forefront of MK’s work. People of color and Native Hawaiians especially have not been treated fairly in governmental systems at all levels for all of time, and providing them equity means going beyond applying equal treatment. Instead we aim to sustain genuine equity. To do so we must make a purposeful effort to invest in indigenous self-determination and in immigrants who have experienced similar or equally immense challenges both in their countries and in coming to Hawaiʻi, as a priority. For us, equity is also about investing in small and low-income communities, over the rich and powerful.
We are currently in the early stages of planning a Buy Land Back educational program and hui for 2024 for Kauaʻi based Kanaka Maoli residents seeking to purchase agricultural land in the next 1-3 years.
Participants will learn the ins and outs of buying ag land on Kauaʻi, including connections with various landowners and technical assistance providers. If you’d like to be on the list of interested participants to be notified of the program's launch, please sign up here.