A coworker and I polished off a fellow worker's bottle of Colorado Cherry Wine tonight, so it was an especially tasty (and tipsy) pau hana.
It was hot today, especially in the tasting room, which doesn't have the best air circulation. With no trade winds, it's humid, too. But it didn't rain and the vog was a little less thick today, so that's good, yeah?
With all the talk of buying local and sustainability as today's buzzwords for a better world, we are finding it increasingly difficult to do this. Today at Safeway, Ron found shrimp from China and Taiwan and Vietnam and scallops from Bangladesh, but none from the U.S. Yikes! I'm thinking the waters off the coast of India are not the place from which to harvest filter feeders you actually plan to eat. Here in Hawaii, we're seeing tuna and mahimahi from far away places like the Marshall Islands and Australia, when those fish can be readily caught off our own shores. Even the edamame they sell comes from China. Soybeans grow nearly everywhere, including here, but the only ones the local Safeway caries come from there. We try to buy most of our produce at the local farmers market. It's fresher, cheaper local, requiring a minimum of fossil fuels to transport. But there are many food items it's virtually impossible to buy locally. We hear of locally grown pork and lamb, but I have no idea where or how to purchase it; it's not at any of the grocery stores. Local grass fed beef is available and I buy that when I can. Chicken? Our choices are Tyson or Foster Farms. It's tough to find free range and/or organic chicken let along local. And yet there are chickens roaming all over the island. I suppose I could just go grab one. Of course that would never work for me. By the time I got the feathered foul home, I'd have critter named. It would soon be part of the family. Foghorn Leghorn was one of my favorites as a kid, after all...
I do buy local eggs when I can. It pains me a bit, because they cost twice as much as eggs shipped across the ocean. But they do taste great and I know they're fresh and free of chemicals. The point I'm trying to make, I guess, is that this island is capable of producing enough food for everyone who lives here. It did so before Captain Cook arrived. There were some 400,000 Hawaiians living here then and they did quite nicely without edamame from China, Chicken from Arkansas or fish from wherever. They had chicken, however, along with pork, fish, vegetables and fruits. The islands were self sustaining for quite some time after Cook's arrival, even as hordes of immigrants began to swell the population. People grew and raised their food here. They didn't have ready access to Apples from Washington and didn't feel compelled to buy fish from SE Asia.
There's talk about a Super Wal-Mart being build behind the existing smaller Wal-Mart in Hilo. It would be built on Hawaiian Homelands land, so would not be subject to any state or county zoning regulations. I know I'm just a malihini haole, but aren't Hawaiian Homelands supposed to be reserved for Hawaiians? And with thousands of Hawaiians on a waiting list to receive Hawaiian Homelands land and/or homes built on said land, I'm wondering how many families will actually live in the Wal-Mart? I'm very confused. Of course, that could be because I drank a little too much cherry wine.
A hui hou. Aloha!
It was hot today, especially in the tasting room, which doesn't have the best air circulation. With no trade winds, it's humid, too. But it didn't rain and the vog was a little less thick today, so that's good, yeah?
With all the talk of buying local and sustainability as today's buzzwords for a better world, we are finding it increasingly difficult to do this. Today at Safeway, Ron found shrimp from China and Taiwan and Vietnam and scallops from Bangladesh, but none from the U.S. Yikes! I'm thinking the waters off the coast of India are not the place from which to harvest filter feeders you actually plan to eat. Here in Hawaii, we're seeing tuna and mahimahi from far away places like the Marshall Islands and Australia, when those fish can be readily caught off our own shores. Even the edamame they sell comes from China. Soybeans grow nearly everywhere, including here, but the only ones the local Safeway caries come from there. We try to buy most of our produce at the local farmers market. It's fresher, cheaper local, requiring a minimum of fossil fuels to transport. But there are many food items it's virtually impossible to buy locally. We hear of locally grown pork and lamb, but I have no idea where or how to purchase it; it's not at any of the grocery stores. Local grass fed beef is available and I buy that when I can. Chicken? Our choices are Tyson or Foster Farms. It's tough to find free range and/or organic chicken let along local. And yet there are chickens roaming all over the island. I suppose I could just go grab one. Of course that would never work for me. By the time I got the feathered foul home, I'd have critter named. It would soon be part of the family. Foghorn Leghorn was one of my favorites as a kid, after all...
I do buy local eggs when I can. It pains me a bit, because they cost twice as much as eggs shipped across the ocean. But they do taste great and I know they're fresh and free of chemicals. The point I'm trying to make, I guess, is that this island is capable of producing enough food for everyone who lives here. It did so before Captain Cook arrived. There were some 400,000 Hawaiians living here then and they did quite nicely without edamame from China, Chicken from Arkansas or fish from wherever. They had chicken, however, along with pork, fish, vegetables and fruits. The islands were self sustaining for quite some time after Cook's arrival, even as hordes of immigrants began to swell the population. People grew and raised their food here. They didn't have ready access to Apples from Washington and didn't feel compelled to buy fish from SE Asia.
There's talk about a Super Wal-Mart being build behind the existing smaller Wal-Mart in Hilo. It would be built on Hawaiian Homelands land, so would not be subject to any state or county zoning regulations. I know I'm just a malihini haole, but aren't Hawaiian Homelands supposed to be reserved for Hawaiians? And with thousands of Hawaiians on a waiting list to receive Hawaiian Homelands land and/or homes built on said land, I'm wondering how many families will actually live in the Wal-Mart? I'm very confused. Of course, that could be because I drank a little too much cherry wine.
A hui hou. Aloha!
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