Dinner Geography: We need to eat local pasture or wild meat & dairy NOT GRAIN FED

Annjulie Vai

Dinner Geography

October 13, 2011

My dinner(s) consists of mostly foods that I grow, gather, hunt/fish or trade from the ‘aina of Maui. I have been raised in a way to be conscious of my food choices and to hold “organic” food choices as the most healthy as well as most beneficial to our body; At the same time my mom always stressed the importance of eating off of the land from our local area and that growing our own foods as much as possible is not only the best for our overall health but for the health of Mother Earth. Having the least impact in the case of agriculture production, distribution (where it comes from), how it is processed is one of the best ways that we can make a difference in our food choices to help sustain the vitality of our Earth and all the natural resources within it. When we grow our own foods and care for them then we know exactly how they were grown we know what kind of nutrients, soil, and compost that we feed them and we can then have the control over the conscious decisions that we make that matter and ultimately benefit Earth and ourselves and everyone around us in doing so. If you do not have the ability or resource to grow your own food you can substitute shopping at the farmers market and build a relationship with them thereby knowing where and how your purchased food is grown and at the same time be a contributor to the local economy and supporting local people and families within your own community. You can also get your meat and fish from hunting/fishing or by making your purchases or trades with other local people, community based functions and stores, homemade, or certified organic outlets such as Whole Foods to ensure fresh, quality, organic, wild, and nutritious products. Thinking and doing with this type of mindset makes a huge impact in our local economy, health, Earth and every ecosystem around us, everything is connected.

My dinner is as follows: Pahole salad, wild ferns gathered from my ahupua’a in Kipahulu at Hahalawe stream, kula onions from my garden, tomatoes from Kula Dave purchased at Pukalani Supertte (family owned mom and pop store), cucumbers from the Pulehu Nui Farmers Market, soy sauce, cuttle fish, olive oil, vinegar, sugar (all not local). Some items especially flavors and condiments are not available accept from the big stores because they come from all over the world and are not produced in the islands. Next was wild fish that I caught fishing out at Nu’u Bay in Kaupo; I fried it in vegetable oil (not local), with white Diamond G rice. Included in this dinner was tartar sauce made from Best Foods mayonnaise, and Del Monte pickle relish as well as melted butter from the Best Yet brand.

For this assignment, I chose to focus on my condiments and what I call extras that are consistently part of my household’s daily food intake. I pride myself in my commitment to local produce and products but when it comes to condiments and extra flavors it is near impossible to find a local source. For the rest of this paper I will focus on butter because I use a lot of it and I want to research it and find out what is the best choice when it comes to shopping for butter. I know in my na’au that the best choice would be to have a dairy cow and make fresh butter as we did when I was growing up, but since that is not really feasible I want to find out what the next best option would be….I am guessing raw unprocessed local butter; but that is not available either so I am going to look into the health benefit and differences between Best Yet brand that is the cheapest and say an organic pasture fed butter like Organic Valley.

I think that the majority of us can agree that the nutritional content of animal meat will vary widely depending on the diet and living conditions of the animal. In doing my research I found that it is also true of butter. We all love butter, it goes with just about everything weather it is sweet, sour, meat, fruit, veggies, pasta…you name it butter makes it better. So I figured I eat enough butter it is worth knowing the general facts about our purchase choices for butter.

The majority of us can probably agree that the nutritional content of animal meat/flesh varies depending on the diet and living conditions of the animal. In doing my research I found that it is also true of butter. We all love butter and have been taught to avoid it and that it is bad for our arteries and that eating too much butter causes lots of bad affects in our body. I agree that this is true of commercial grain fed butter but opposite if it is real pasture fed butter. What I found out was appalling to say the least….basically IF YOUR MEAT AND DAIRY  SOURCE IS NOT RAISED IN A PASTURE EATING LIVING GREEN GRASSES IT IS POISON… Seriously shocking that even organic does not make such a huge difference as the nutrition that follows the animal straight to us from pasture raised or wild versus (even organic) GRAIN FED OR SWITCHED TO GRAIN FOR FATTENING DOES. Any meat or dairy from a pasture fed animal is beneficial and nutritious to our body including reducing body and belly core fat, reducing chances of cancers by up to 50% AND  providing us with healthy omega 3s that are absent in grain raised animals. The grain raised meat and dairy make us fat, sick, have huge increases for clogged arteries and cancers….every article I researched told of the health in pasture raised animals…Mother Nature knows best…all the vitamins, nutrients and omega 3s are converted by the cow from the grass and then passed to us in the meat and dairy. In fact the butter from a pasture or wild animal is nearly orange-to-yellow…NOT WHITE because that is the vitamin A, E and beta carotene from the grass….It does not exist in GM Corn fed animals.

I could go on and on about this it is horrifying what we ourselves are pretty much force fed through the American system of food production and manufacturing. Then IT TOOK ME HOURS AT COSTCO TO FIND OUT IF IT IS GRAIN OR PASTURE FED!! IT is hard to find any pasture fed dairy products at all on this Island. For meat you can raise your own, hunt or go to Pukalani Superette…(only meat that is entirely raised in a pasture on Maui for its lifetime) for the butter and dairy Organic Valley states right on the label “pasture fed” and some other brands found at Whole Foods….expensive but if you take the time to do the research worth every penny and it tastes 100% better, and sweeter, our bodies need it and our children are worth it.

This eat wild website is awesome and is backed up by many journals and articles that are from reputable sources:

http://www.eatwild.com/healthbenefits.htm

http://www.mauicattlecompany.com/about/index.shtml

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/grass-fed-butter/ 

http://blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/2010/05/grass-fed-beef-2/

It is TIME to....Ho'okele Wa'a and turn to a sustainable future!

Annjulie Vai

Ho’okele Wa’a

What an awesome video. I would like to own this video. First of all I felt super proud because I could name nearly everyone on the video and am friends with many of them. Also I felt that the video had so much pono information that I could relate too and implement into my own life. (And I do a lot already) The other thing I liked was the knowledge being shared and given to the community of Maui by members of the community of Maui….not just people talking about what “WE” should do. I hate when outsiders who know nothing about Hawaii and Maui try to preach and tell us what to do when they do not know shit about the culture and stuff.

It is okay when outsiders come and teach us pono stuff but when it is garbage it is not a help for Hawaii.

I loved the knowledge presented in the video. Also it made me feel good to see the video because I have gone and volunteered at Auwahi and I have learned from Ka’ai and Luke and Art Medeiros. Also I love what all of the organizations presented stand for in Maui. They were all talking about the same message that Kumu Kaleikoa talks about in his classes and that is that Maui can be the piko or the center for the SUSTAINABILITY REVOLUTION THAT IS TAKING PLACE ACROSS THE WORLD. From watching this video it has cemented the knowledge that I have been learning. It gives me hope for Maui and the future of the next generation. This video lets me know that others feel the same way that I do and that people are doing things that really make a huge difference for the health of Hawaii, Maui, the environment, the economy, the people and my child and for all of us. It really matters and the video was truly awesome.

Mahalo to all of you for being such great teachers…..I really mean this from my heart, I am not just saying this. I wish that more people felt like all of you and ME and all the people in the film and the organizations… It HELPS. It helps me to remain strong and steadfast just like the A’ali’I bush and the people of Ka’u….to survive and thrive, even in times of hardship, pain, and sustained strong winds, severe heat and droughts and to survive among the a’a lava fields just as a strong Ali’i. It helps me to remember that change is not easy but inevitable and I must do my best to be part of the PONO changes that need to occur for survival of our species….just like the A’ali’I bush we must ADAPT to our environment…but as humans we can help the environment and live in harmony with our resources instead of destroying them for our benefit.

Click on the first link below and then click on the pdf: A strategic community development plan for people of Ka’u….I really liked it

http://www.google.com/search?q=famed+saying+about+the+a%27ali%27i+plant+of+ka%27u&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

http://www.auwahi.org/

http://mauisustainabilitylearningcenter.org/

http://turningthecanoe.org/

Concept of Conservation Change Over the Years

Annjulie Vai

 Question: Concept of Conservation Change

This is a broad question. I will relate this to Hawaii and America and what I have learned in college and my life. It depends on who you are talking about, where they are from and what time period in history to define this question of “how has the concept of conservation changed over the years?”

In the beginning most all native and indigenous cultures have practiced some form of relationship and harmony with nature and earth; thus being consciously aware of the environment and the importance for healthy survival of both man and nature.  With Hawaiians it is evident throughout the Kumulipo: A Creation Chant that everything in the Universe is connected and shares an interdependent relationship in some level or another. The Hawaiian people were true stewards of the land and lived life in a cyclical harmonious relationship with nature, air, water, earth and environment. They always practiced strict conservation when harvesting and growing food, collecting material for shelter and in their daily practices. Their entire life was dominated by reverence and respect to mother earth. Kama’aina literally means child born to the land or native born on the land; and maka’ainana(a class that cared for the land) means eyes that watch over the land; and ‘ai means to eat, found in the word “’aina” (land). You can see the interconnectedness and consciousness in every aspect of the culture and language.

In America the idea of conservation and environmentalism was scarcely even mentioned before 1962 when Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring: Sound of the Alarm. There were a select few that were aware of the issues relating to finite natural resources, scarcity, over population, food sources, and even pollution. One is John Muir, an American naturalist, conservationist, explorer, and founder of the Sierra Club who was from the era of the conservation movement (1890-1920). Muir was in favor of protection to our countries natural resources from human consumption. He spent a lot of time hiking and wandering nature, in turn his experiences led him to a life dedicated to preserving nature. He had the same view as the Hawaiian and Native American Indians.

 Nature existed foremost for its creator and that humankind must not value itself above the rest of creation. The basis of his respect for nature was his recognition that all creatures, including humans, were part of a single, interdependent community. This interconnectedness of nature prompted him to remark, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” Although Muir thought that all things had an inherent right to exist, he also believed in the preservation of natural beauty for the benefit of future human generations, making him a champion of the establishment of national parks and of saving the vanishing wilderness.

Once a friend of Muir was Gifford Pinchot, his view was that the sole purpose of natural resources was to serve the needs of humans but that they also had an obligation to conserve those resources for future generations. He believed in maximizing production of those resources for human interests without regard to the huge ecological consequences of that productive effort. This view led to debate with that of John Muir and would give way to the two basic philosophies or competing worldviews of environmentalism. Aldo Leopold who graduated from Yale School of Forestry in 1909 also was a leader in the environmental movement of twentieth century. He wrote “Quit thinking about decent land-use as solely an economic problem. Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and esthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient. A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” This land ethic is the view that “there is inherent worth in the integrity of natural ecosystems apart from any value they may possess for humans.” This concept and view was the ideal harmonious relationship between humans, land and environment that Leopold help propel into modern environmental thought beginning primarily with Rachel Carson and the Silent Spring revolution of thinking.

The founding philosophers of environmental thought had a wide range of opinions and views concerning the problems and solutions to the world’s environmental issues. Thus environmental scholars have come up with two prevailing views on environmental philosophy. One view is ecocentrism and the other is anthropocentrism. Ecocentrism focuses on the ecological, Earth-centered worldview. This view is shaped mainly by Thoreau, Muir, and Leopold. This view maintains that the world was in a natural state of balance like Pono until humans intruded. This view also holds that the world will ultimately end in destruction due to how we live and impact the environment. The Kumulipo also states this view that all was good in the time of Po; and then man came and so did most of the big problems in nature and environment. However the Hawaiians still believed in the utmost care of the land and nature. “He ali’i ka ‘aina, he kauwa ke kanaka” translated, land is chief, people are its humble servants. The Hawaiians understood this invaluable interdependent relationship with environment completely.  Ecocentrism preaches reverence and care for the Earth and the humility of humanity in the face of natural laws. George Helm knew and practiced ecocentrism and awakened the Hawaiian consciousness of this revolution here in Hawaii with Kaho’olawe. (I will talk about George Helm in the second question.)

The opposing philosophy to ecocentrism, Anthropocentrism says that all human actions are by definition anthropocentric (human centered). This view admires humanity, development, cities, progress, technology, and the development of political and economic systems. The environment is regarded as a benefit and here for humans’ needs and consumption without morality or reverence for nature and environment; just like Ronald Reagan when he took down the solar panels in the White House in 1979 and changed and destroyed the newly formed energy policy from the Carter administration, thus setting back the environmental movement 30 years and doing most likely immeasurable damage that we have yet to face in the future.

These two philosophies are the foundation of how most Americans view the environment and issues related to conservation of today. You have the huge awakening and awareness towards the environment in the mid 20^th century by the “free, loving, hippy and or college drop-out generation of the 60’s and also the opposing view from the industry, government and large corporations that were more concerned with progress and  economic gain than health of the Earth. Before this time no one really questioned the government and the linear economic system that was implemented to stimulate the U.S. economy after the war in the early 50’s. This system is still in play and how the government makes profit according to Annie Leonard “The Story of Stuff”.  According to the video Earth Days many people and even corporations and industry are slowly implementing more earth friendly practices; but really most scientists will agree that changes and policy need to step up and become more energy efficient, aware and conscious of environment and conservation because global climate change is of huge concern to the future of this planet and all of humanity. There is not much time. Time is running out! The scientific community agrees that the populations of the world need to live a more simple life, practice sustainability and like Stuart Udall said “get our sustenance from the earth”. We need to live more like the Native Hawaiians and Indigenous peoples of the world that malama the aina and have a reciprocal relationship that benefits both entities. According to David Gulko, marine/coral biologist his synopsis clearly relates the importance and awareness that we are all connected; He said “you can’t replace a thousand year old reef in less than a thousand years” and also that we need to understand the relationship with what are known as “key stone” species. These species are critical in understanding the “big picture” and how interconnected everything and we all are. He related them to a computer and said that” you cannot just take out a piece of the computer and expect it to run or function properly with a missing component” we are interdependent on each other.

After the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” came out, this would become the most pivotal time in recent history post Silent Spring, to the masses of American people on the state of our environment in relationship to our planet. Now people are aware of the effects of our country being addicted to oil and the serious problems there of as stated by George W. Bush. Now we have scholars, scientists, schools, nations, and people from all over the globe addressing these issues and problems relating to environment and conservation of the environment for the future and health or should I say survival of humanity.

The concluding message is that we are running out of time, we must act quickly, we must change our lifestyle, and we must educate ourselves and others to the problems. We must face the reality of what our actions in the past have created for the future; we must listen to Native Intelligence above all because they live in harmony with Earth not in conflict or degradation. We are facing a terrible future for all species and humanity if we do not act now….start a revolution like George Helm and Rachel Carson….we must our survival depends on it.

Works Cited

American Experience: Earth Days. Dir. Robert Stone. Perf. Denis Hayes, Rachel Carson, Stuart Udall, Paul Uhrlich & (more). PBS dvd release date April 20, 2010.

An Inconvenient Truth: the planetary emergency of global warming and what we can do about it. Al Gore. Prod. Melcher Media. Publisher Emmaus, Pa. : Rodale Press, c2006.

Beckwith, Martha. The Kumulipo: A Hawaiian Creation Chant. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1972,[c1951] Print.

Kaleikoa Ka’eo. “Hawaiian Conciencism 290v” University of Hawaii Maui College. Wailuku, Maui. Fall semester class 2010. 23 Aug. – 16 Dec. 2010 Lectures.

Kaleikoa Ka’eo. “Hawaiian Literature in Translation 290v” University of Hawaii Maui College. Wailuku, Maui. Fall semester class 2009. 24 Aug. – 16 Dec. 2009 Lectures.

Annie Leonard: The Story About Stuff.  Lecture in Sociology class spring 2010. (you-tube).

Oasis of the Pacific: Time is running out. Dir. Adam Bromley. Publisher: Maui, Hawaii: zeroimpact productions, c2005. DVD.

De Steiguer, J.E. The Origins of Modern Environmental Thought. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, c2006. Print.

In my opinion we need to address food supply of Maui and become more sustainable

Annjulie Vai

In my opinion:

I think that there is so much that our local government and county agencies could do to help improve Maui and the state of our economy.

First of all we should all have tax incentives in some form to get motivated to plant food crops in our yards, and on our properties….even just your small ¼ acre lot you can have huge amounts of food crops that do not take much effort to grow. What if a natural disaster occurs and the runway and the harbor are damaged? We have about 2-7 days of food supply here. We are an island and we need to get more dependent on ourselves and on our neighbors for food especially. If we had a tax break not only would this give us incentive but also provide food sources in the event of a disaster….this is a no brainer and people need to wake up!!!

Also to me like parking lots and roadsides should all be planted with food trees like avocado, mangoes, papaya, banana, ulu,…..and so forth. Oh the mess to clean up??? Are you fricken kidding me??? This is another county job for people to go and care for the trees, harvest the trees and then either sell it or distribute it to the jail, food bank, homeless etcetera…I mean get a brain is what I want to say to people like all the politicians and the donkeys running the show here.

By doing these kinds of small steps we could become more sustainable and solid ourselves instead of importing 95% of our food sources from elsewhere. The motto should be “Shade = food” and start planting.

Another thing to stimulate the economy here and help clean up the island would be to have programs subsidized by the government to help go clean-up invasive species and problem areas like the dead wattle trees upcountry. Have the prisoners be able to go out and work in these zones and in turn they can feel good about themselves as well as be part of the bigger solution instead of the problem. Give them some pride and it is healing to go touch nature and earth and make amends with community and planet.

Anyway I have many ideas….maybe I should become a politician??? Try to create these kinds of concepts within the government sector???? It makes perfect sense to me!!!!

 Mahalo,

Annjulie 

http://mauinow.com/2011/05/24/get-healthy-challenge-eat-local/

http://earthfirst.com/urban-gardening-you-can-grow-food-no-matter-where-you-live/

http://pacommunityforests.org/?q=node/11