University of Hawaiʻi at West Oʻahu Sustainable Community Food Systems Program
Bachelor of Science in Sustainable Community Food Systems

Students at the University of Hawaiʻi at West Oʻahu will soon be at the forefront of what some are calling the green collar economy. But first, they will need to break a sweat and get dirty. "The UH West Oʻahu garden is designed as a living laboratory," explains Assistant Professor of Sustainable Community Food Systems Albie Miles. "We teach the theoretical elements of ecological  sustainability and agriculture and we use the garden as a site for hands-on learning where we're integrating the theory with the practice."

UH West Oʻahu's Bachelor of Applied Science with a concentration in Sustainable Community Food Systems (BAS-SCFS) prepares students for jobs in the sustainable food and agriculture sector in Hawai'i and beyond. The BAS-SCFS is a multi-disciplinary, experiential and applied education program about key ecological and social issues in food and agricultural systems. It incorporates problem-based and hands-on learning to develop food system professionals capable of solving real-world problems and transitioning Hawai'i agriculture toward greater ecological sustainability and social equity. BAS-SCFS courses are offered in person at the UHWO campus.The program is developed in close partnership with Kamehameha Schools Ma'o Organic Farms.

"We're getting to meet community leaders and people who are affecting change in the food system and getting to understand the work that they do," says early program enrollee Silvan Shawe of meeting people like Kamuela Enos, director of social enterprise at MAʻO Organic Farms. "This becomes a space where Professor Albie Miles talks about 'a meeting of wisdom,' where the practices of ancestry are repurposed for a contemporary context," says Enos. "We're attempting to train a new generation of people to think critically and systemically about the food system," adds Miles. "How it functions-ecologically, socially, economically-and how and what ways might that food system be changed to increase it's ecological sustainability and social equity."

Importing an estimated 90 percent of food, fertilizer, energy and seed, the Hawaiian Islands are uniquely vulnerable to statewide food insecurity in the face of rapid global climate change or economic disturbances.

"Our aim is to train a new generation of food system professionals," the professor explains. "To think across traditional disciplinary boundaries and to actively solve current problems through work in agriculture, policy-making, planning, business, research and education."

Learn more about the program at the program's website.

(Mahalo to the University of Hawai'i e-news of June 22 for this information)

* It's time to change the tune. For decades, Coca Cola and other big soda companies have spent billions of dollars trying to convince Americans and citizens around the world that soda equals happiness.  Perhaps no other advertisement in history exemplifies that more than the iconic  "Hilltop" ad, where singers on a hillside expressed their wish to "buy the world a Coke." Well, we thought it would be interesting to see a fresh take on the ad-where real people, suffering from real soda-related health problems-could tell their stories. 

http://www.cspinet.org/changethetune/

 

 

* In our last newsletter we reported on Slow Food USA's Small Business Initiative.     

 

Mahalo to Ma'o Organic Farms for being our first Small Business Supporter for Slow Food on  O'ahu.