Mahalo for supporting Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Enjoy this free story!

A study to be published in the journal Nature Sustainability found what we in Hawaii nei have long known: Hawaii needs to look to traditional Native Hawaiian agriculture and culture to help cope with the uncertain future posed by climate change, and the fact that we are 85 percent dependent in importing our food needs (“Key to coping with climate change lies in Hawaii’s past, study finds,” Star-Advertiser, Feb. 27) . Read more

A study to be published in the journal Nature Sustainability found what we in Hawaii nei have long known: Hawaii needs to look to traditional Native Hawaiian agriculture and culture to help cope with the uncertain future posed by climate change, and the fact that we are 85 percent dependent in importing our food needs (“Key to coping with climate change lies in Hawaii’s past, study finds,” Star-Advertiser, Feb. 27).

The pre-contact kanaka were able to sustain large (comparable to today’s) populations by ecologically sustainable farming without harm to the aina.

Today, we need to do the same.

The kanaka of Hawaii will, hopefully, lead us in the direction of self-sustainability — as the kanaka demonstrated with the success of the Hokulea global sailings, blending the ancient with the modern — before the islands and planet become unsustainable.

Tom DiGrazia

Kailua

Click here to read more Letters to the Editor.