Awareness of local food is on the rise.

It shouldn't surprise us that more and more people are beginning to wake up about our food situation. Living in these islands, so far away from any other landmass, we are dependent on much of our food being imported and at the mercy of many whims of nature and man.

Farmers Markets & CSAs

Farmers Market Co-ops

We know that not all of us can farm or grow enough to maintain a booth of our own at any of the farmers markets, or have the time to do so, but here is a concept that started a bit over a year ago and now others are picking up in other areas.

There are several very enterprising people who are forming co-ops to sell whatever amount of produce/fruit/veggies you might have growing in your yards or farms w/o having to make a weekly commitment to rent or man your own booth at a market.

A plate of healthy, locally grown food.

Remember the Food Pyramid? Well...that was recently flattened into a plate! The new "food pyramid" is now called "Choose My Plate" which is designed to help people more closely approximate—on a plate—the daily, healthy amounts of food to eat in each food group.

Here in Hawai‘i we are going one step further: we call it the "My Eat Local Hawai‘i Plate"--which is designed to help people choose healthy, locally grown foods. 

Abundant Life in-store ready-made foods.

—an interview with owner Malu Shizue

The original Abundant Life Natural Foods store was located in the Old Hilo Drugs Building on the corner of Kamehameha and Waianuenue Avenues, and moved to its present location at 292 Kamehameha Avenue in 1990. 

The store was founded in 1977 by Malu Shizue, when she was barely out of her teens. She says it was a response to an inner-call for “Right Livelihood,” and to wanting to be a positive influence in our ‘aina and the environment. Malu, a petite dynamo of a woman, is the sole owner and driving force behind the operation, although she credits long-time loyal employees for the store’s success.

Sandor Katz (on right) led a vibrant 2-day live-cuture foods workshop in Holualoa, North Kona on Jan. 21-22, 2012

By eating a variety of live-cultured or “fermented” foods, you promote diversity among microbial cultures in your body. Biodiversity, increasingly recognized as critical to the survival of larger-scale ecosystems, is just as important at the micro level. Call it microbiodiversity. By fermenting foods and drinks with wild microorganisms present in your home environment, you become more interconnected with the life forces of the world around you.