Why Eat Local?

Sustainable living. Carbon footprints. Food miles. These phrases crop up more and more in talk about what to eat. What they all boil down to: eat local.

Amidst the compelling explanations for why we should eat local, it’s sometimes easy to forget the best reason: it tastes good. All the other virtues—a healthier life, healthier community, healthier planet—would still be hard to stomach if local offerings were tough and bland. But lucky we live Hawaii:

• Deep-sea fleets bring more than a dozen varieties of freshly caught fish to Hawaii’s auctions, including ahi, mahimahi, opah and onaga.
• Freshly harvested fruits and vegetables from Hanalei to Waimanalo to Kula to Hamakua rival anything shipped in on a freighter—and in some cases like mangoes and lychee, the standard is set here in Hawaii.
• Local beef makes terrific hamburgers, and even wild boar when slow cooked is rendered into a tasty kalua pig.
• Specialty items made in Hawaii like honey, goat cheese and coffee win national awards for taste.

As many people know, local ingredients don’t come cheap. Hawaii’s farmers and ranchers must import much of what they need to run their operations, on top of paying the higher costs of doing business on relatively small parcels of island real estate.



It’s counterintuitive that even when shipping costs are factored in, food from overseas in some cases is cheaper than food grown in Hawaii. But rising fuel prices are making locally grown products more competitive. And mass-produced food is artificially cheap, especially when you consider the health cost of eating factory-produced food.

In Hawaii, the average farm has less than five acres. We know who grows our food, where it comes from, and when it was harvested. Supporting local ag by buying this food will help ensure a strong, steady supply of it.

The case seems a win-win for both producer and consumer. Maybe the question isn't so much why eat local, but why not eat local?