[Carol]

As some may or may not know Hawaii depends on 97% of its food to be flown or shipped in. In fact, even Taro is shipped in and we can't get enough of it to keep on the shelves.

My big concern after listening to George Green and his concerns about friends who live here on the islands is what are we going to do if shipping stops? We can live with out gas and electricity as our climate is temperate.. but we do need food. Even though we are surrounded by miles of farm land with one of the biggest cattle ranches in the United States and the ocean to feed us fish.. we have barely tapped our own natural resources.

When I was a Public Health Educator I was trained on how to do both county-wide and State-wide communications, education coordination and activism. Part of my job was to work with the schools, businesses, medical community , law enforcement, Social Services and Mental Health. My major role was one of Co-ordinator. Now I see a very growing need for this state to be self-sustainable food-wise.

I've already done some activist work with our State Governor and representatives to promote aquaponics (growing fish, vegatables, frutis) and have been in training learning what is needed to set up a commerical system. However, what really needs to happen is to down scale this system to a family model that can easily fit in one's back yard or flat roof top for city areas.

These self-contained units are designed to circulate and clean the fish poop out of the water so that it goes back into the fish tank. The fruit and vegetables from these systems are incredibly nutritious and taste wonderful due to the roots being exposed to the fishes excrement. The roots act as a biomass filter for the water to pass through before being pumped back into the fish tank (comercial system tank is made out of plywood and is 12' by 12'. The plywood is treated with a fiber glass coating so as to preserve the wood. The water beds on the commercial system are 30 feet long 2 feet wide and 12 inches deep.

The two primary problems with this system is keeping the fish alive and the electricity needed to run the water pumps and airiaters for the fish. If the electricity were to stop, one could lose their fish in a matter of hours so electricity is a real concern. Solar is expensive and wind works when there is wind.. so this situation has to be handled correctly to have a successfull aquaponics system.

Vegetables being grown include lettuce, spinach, leeks, tomatoes, kale, taro, herbs, strawberries and the list goes on. There are large insulation rafts that are floated on top of the water beds with holes punched in where the 2" baskets with seeds are dropped into and under the rafts one can also grow prawns.

The fist being used is talapia... but cat fish are air breaters and may be a better choice if the electricity goes out.

The plan is to work with the schools which have been already been getting grants to put in gardens.. the govenor has already made funds availabe as loans but that just won't work if one is setting up a system for family use given the econmic times.. meaning the overhead costs to set up this system needs to really be under a few thousand dollars. The commercial system would cost 20k. So the next step is to get federal funds to help or grants.

With working with government, farmers and schools this would be a good way for this project to trickle down to families with children where the children learn how to operate these systems in school and then create a community base (much like the habitat housing program) where families would get together to help other families set up their systems.

One of the most lovely things about Hawaii is the people. Here the children learn to call all the woman aunties and all of the men uncle. This is the true heart of what ohana means.. we are all one family and we all need and support each other. So my project is to design a community based coalition to work toward sustainablity with respect to growing ones own food at home. Everything that is needed is within that system. Also a few chickens to provide eggs would top it off because... eggs and spinach can be mixed/blended to make a thin pancake which is also used as a bread.. but not bread to hold other types of food (eggs salad or fish salad for example).

So this is where my heart is.. in feeding people food that is nutritious and getting away from GMO and the bland food sold at the grochery store shelves.

What is needed.. know how, set up system, seeds, fish, prawns, mosquito fish for the water beds.. and one is good to go. I hope this project also spurs others onto thinking how they can help sustain their own communities and spin off other ideas which will be of benefit to their communities.. we really don't have too much time life to get this up and going. I plan to give this a year. I've done major statewide projects in the past and was one of the first involved in the anti-tobacco program in California.. so I know something like this would be far more popular than what we've accomplished in the past. Time to go. Cyu