Sustainability in Food, Energy and Water

In this time of a global terrorism threat in the wake of 9/11 and seeing the urgent need, on September 15, 2001 Earth Foundation ("EF") began an ongoing, “Sustainability in Agriculture, Energy and Water” education project. The purpose is to help the State of Hawaii and Maui be more aware of the dangers of not producing enough of their own food and alternative energy, and the need to protect their aquifers.
Starting in January 2002 Earth Foundation began receiving consulting and counsel from the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources and its agriculture and energy experts, and from the Energy Division of the State of Hawaii’s Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism (DBEDT).

In April 2003 after meeting with the President of the University of Hawaii ("UH"), EF began securing consulting and counsel from the University of Hawaii’s Oceanography Department. Because Hawaii is dependent on the ocean, EF feels there is much that can be achieved to help the state by EF seeking counsel and guidance from UH Oceanography. EF is in discussions with UH about teaming up on three projects.

Why is "Sustainability" important? Using MAUI as an example of each of the Hawaiian Islands: If ships and airplanes stopped delivering food and fuel to Maui, the island could have difficulties. In these fragile times, EF was advised in late 2001 that combined in Maui’s grocery stores & warehouses “Maui has a 3 to 5 day supply of meats, perishables, and vegetables.” But we were advised that Maui would also have access to another large supply of food available on Oahu. Our informed source said he believed there is probably in the range of 2 weeks to 30 days supply of all foods, dry goods, and other items available to or on Maui including especially a large supply of potentially available canned, frozen foods, and dry goods that are primarily located in Oahu and could be transported to Maui. The other smaller Hawaiian Islands also have a short food & energy supply. The Hawaiian Islands are just little green dots all alone far away from everything in the middle of the big blue Pacific.
EF significantly helps with Water Preservation for Maui. EF continues to safeguard and preserve Maui’s water resources. In 2003 Earth Foundation and another party provided the long missing, definitive water study on Maui water that is rare and hard to find and was not at that time in libraries or in the county government. The “1942 Maui Water Geological Study” was provided in CD-Rom and hard copy to the Maui County government and libraries, Mayor Arakawa, the Maui County Council, and to The Maui News.

To help better protect the Sustainability and Hazardous Mitigation, Safety, and Security in Agriculture, Energy, and Water for the State of Hawaii and Maui, EF has conducted an education project since 2002 that demonstrates to the Maui public and the Maui County Council the value of specialized, 3D Visioning motion computer software. This 3D Visioning motion software shows Maui how to better use Maui’s natural resources and better handle and plan for future growth. It helps Maui’s government leaders to better visualize and envision the options, results and future of their planning for Maui. EF’s President on behalf of Earth Foundation directed an education program that secured passage in 2003 of a $150,000 bill by the Maui County Council and the Mayor. The bill allocated $75,000 in 2003 and $75,000 in 2004 to the Maui County Planning Department for this project. This advanced 3D visioning technology based on G.I.S. (“Global Information System”) provides critical scientific data to prevent over-development and misuse of Maui’s natural resources. This software helps Maui’s government leaders to better visualize and envision the options, results, and future of their planning for Maui.

This 3D Visioning motion software enables Maui community planners in virtual reality to fly over the entire land and water surface of Maui and closely observe and inspect the island and its natural resources. It allows the statistics for all different land development, population growth, and planning scenarios to be entered into the software. Then the 3D Visioning motion computer software takes numbers and statistics and converts them into actual moving images of what any planning scenario would actually look like and projects them on to a screen in a room so that government leaders and planners can clearly and realistically envision how things would look and evolve for Maui County.

Benefits of this 3D visioning system also include:

The obvious benefit is economic and accrues to the people of Hawaii
Less obvious, but an extremely important benefit is increasing the security of Hawaii to threats, be they natural disasters or events of human origin, which could disrupt the brittle supply lines to the Islands for food and fuel.
EF encourages 3D visioning computer software consultants to begin building for Maui County two additional elements that can be added to the Digital Comprehensive Plan (“DCP”) for Maui. This could later be adapted for other Hawaiian Islands.

A water resources vs. growth model
A Sustainability Indicator model vs. land use change
The Sustainability Indicator can quantify progress toward Agriculture/Energy diversification.