Fair & Sustainable Food Systems

HAPA’s Policy Advocacy & Organizing Work


As a part of our policy & organizing work, HAPA is both leading and supporting various bills that seek to rectify injustices and unsustainable practices in our food system. Hawaiʻi is a unique state because it has established a state statute that seeks to increase locally consumed food production and procurement to 30% by 2030.* Presently, Hawaiʻi imports 85 - 95 percent of its food supply, leaving Hawaiʻi incredibly food-insecure, and vulnerable to supply chain disruptions and other climate disasters.

 Not only are food system issues related to the public welfare and health, but to address our carbon-fueled food system is to address many of our climate and resiliency issues; food (and water) are common-ground spaces fertile and ripe for transformative action. Whether you are new to your civic-political kuleana or a tenured kūpuna in the movement, we invite you to join us in advocating for a more fair and sustainable food system.

 We make it easy to engage by providing timely and actionable legislative alerts. You can learn more about the policies we're championing or supporting this session; and you can sign up for our alerts below! 

We have 5 priority areas:

Food Equity 

Pesticide Protections

Support for Food Producers & Regenerative Practices

Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (ITEK)

Farm to School/State

About:

Our current food system is broken by design, supporting increasingly consolidated corporate profits at the expense of public and environmental health, climate and workers. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Transforming our local food system can address some of the most intractable problems facing our local communities. Because our food system is so broad, touching upon every facet of our lives, there is no one silver bullet solution. Policy advocacy is one tool in our toolbox for creating change. HAPA supports a broad food and agriculture policy agenda that seeks to uplift a variety of complimentary solutions along our food system. We seek to provide a comprehensive food systems policy agenda and timely, actionable legislative alerts for key bills moving through our legislative session. HAPA uplift priorities of our partners working across various facets of the food system in one place to provide actionable alerts for engaging in food systems policy advocacy. 


Our FSFS Priority Areas: 

Food Equity 

1 in 3 families in Hawaii are food insecure. HAPA is proud to be a member of the Hawaii Hunger Action Network, Universal Free School Meals and SNAP Access Coalitions. We are working side by side with our partners to advocate for a range of policies designed to address food insecurity in Hawaii and sourcing local food as much as possible. Food equity policy priorities include: 

  • Universal Free School Meals 

  • Improving SNAP Access 

  • Farm to Foodbank

Pesticide Protections

HAPA was founded in 2014 to respond to community concerns about pesticide drift from agrochemical test fields. Data from the first year of mandatory restricted use pesticide (RUP) usage reporting (2019) revealed concerning rates of application of certain highly toxic pesticides. To better assess health and environmental risks and provide proactive public health protections the following measures are needed.

  • Improved reporting on RUP usage

  • Increased RUP bufferzones

  • Pollinator protections (regulating neonicotinoids)

Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge 

Hawaiʻi has a unique and longstanding tradition of robust subsistence food production practices dating back millennia. Hawaiʻi’s ʻōiwi communities, often led by those with lineal ties to place, are increasingly leading efforts to reactivate facets of traditional and customary ahupuaʻa food production systems. A resurgence in these efforts is an important part of Hawaiʻi’s overall food security. 

  • Loko Iʻa (Fishpond) Restoration

  • Support for Makai Watch (monitoring of nearshore fisheries)

  • Designating ʻŌpaeʻula as State Shrimp

Support for Food Producers & Regenerative Farming Practices

HAPA is proud to be a member of the Hawaii Farmers Union. As such we are supporting the priorities of the farmer/food producer membership of HFU. These policy priorities support regenerative farming practices, protection of ag lands from land speculation and farmer housing.

  • Support for Healthy Soils Program 

  • Support for Waste Diversion Plans

  • Repeal GE crop General Excise Tax exemption

  • Farmer Housing Working Group

  • Protection of Agricultural Lands

Farm to School/State

Hawaiʻi is consistently failing to meet its own stated local procurement goals and benchmarks of 30% by 2030. While many states have already implemented robust farm to state and farm to school programs, action is needed to move the needle on local procurement in Hawaiʻi. Increasing markets for local producers is win-win for local food producers and students or other state institution stakeholders. 

  • Increasing Local Agricultural Procurement

  • Incentives for Local Procurement

  • Regionalized Procurement for DOE Farm to School

Take Action!

Legislative Action Alerts: We provide easy in-box alerts to help with tracking and contributing to legislation that moves Hawaiʻi toward a just & fair food system.