Community Voices for Local Food

How do local foods help our community? Our personal health and our families’ wellbeing?
Slow Foods Hawaii will be at the Local Food Celebration event and their president, Clare Bobo shares that “Slow Food is about reconnecting to our food sources. The easiest way to do this? Shop at the local farmer’s markets! Food tastes so much better when you know the person who grew your vegetables or raised your meat or fed the chickens who laid your eggs. The food is fresher because it hasn’t been shipped here in a container and you’ll be supporting our local economy rather than huge corporations somewhere thousands of miles away. Learning to cook and teaching your children is another great way to reconnect to your meals. Kids are fully capable of peeling vegetables or shaking up ingredients in a jar for a simple salad dressing. It connects them to the meal. It’s so important for them to know that all food doesn’t come from a drive thru window. Eat Slow, eat local!”
Regarding re-localizing our food system and food safety, Lokahi Garden Sanctuary owner Richard Leibmann notes “Local food production is vital to the North Kohala community. North Kohala historically has been providing healthy clean food to its community for many generations. Today more than ever local food production can play a pivotal role in connecting people, and providing healthy food choices. Knowing where your food comes from and how it was grown is becoming super important as poisons in the form of pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers and GMO alterations pose significant health risks.”
As a healer and nutrition counselor, Dr. Hanalei Roberts, ND comments that on the personal food choices level “Our diet and the health of our GI tract is intrinsically important in managing all chronic disease. There are many different therapeutic diets out there. However eating more local whole foods seems to be the common denominator of them all. By making local starches and veggies our staples, we naturally consume less allergenic and gut irritating foods like processed grains. By eating more grass fed and pastured local animal products we are increasing the nutritional components of these foods, while supporting more humane animal husbandry.”
Making the connection between our personal food buying choices and our wider community, Dr. Roberts notes “As we eat more local foods we not only nourish our gastrointestinal microbiome, but we also nourish the regeneration of our soil microbiota with sustainable farming practices. As a community we gain food security and support local business. As families we join at the table and in our backyards to enjoy these foods together. It is an all-around “win-win” solution for the multiple problems we face as a community.”