Food

The poke you buy at the supermarket could soon be getting a country of origin label. That’s if the state Legislature passes a measure that would require retailers selling raw ahi to disclose the nationality of the fishing fleet.

The top priorities for state lawmakers in key agriculture positions this year are agricultural crimes, biosecurity, and the formation of a sustainable food system. HPR's Mark Ladao has more.

The state House of Representatives majority caucus will focus on preparing keiki for school, combating high costs of living and food insecurity across the state. They also shared that natural resource preservation and food insecurity are also priorities.

Today we head over to Hawaiʻi Island where the ʻUlu Cooperative has been busy scaling up. Think ʻulu flour and pancake mix. Could ‘ulu be turning up on school lunch trays? The Conversation talked to Dana Shapiro, the CEO of the ‘Ulu Cooperative, about plans for an ʻulu-filled future.

The Hawaiʻi County Council could urge the state Legislature to implement a universal free school meals program for public school students statewide.

The state Department of Education hasn’t made any progress in a mandate to source more of the food it serves from local farmers. Since being given the 30% mandate, the DOE has said that local farmers can’t reliably provide enough food for the 100,000 meals it serves daily.

Local fishers have been bringing in around 100,000 pounds of fish daily over the last week or two to meet the increased local demand for fish that comes at the end of every year.

At the Made in Maui County Festival, we saw a number of small businesses trying to make it big at this premier food and product event. Some of the companies there for the first time included those that got their start thanks to the Food Innovation Center at the University of Hawaiʻi Maui College.

Maui’s Jamie Woodburn says he doesn't care much for eating olives — but he does like growing them for olive oil! We talked to Woodburn as he was winding up his harvest at the end of October.

One solution that’s been proposed for land degradation, both around the world and in Hawaiʻi, is agroforestry. The Conversation spoke to John Parziale, the director of agroecology at Common Ground Kauaʻi, about agroforestry.