Nature is diverse. If you walk into a wild forest, you will never find just one plant species. Large scale agriculture has disconnected us from our innate understanding of this basic principle. In the name of convenience, profits, and control, monocropping has become the norm in commercial farming.

Because planting just one type of food in one area makes crops susceptible to disease and depletes the soil, pesticides and fertilizers need to be used. Only weeds are strong enough to survive, so they use herbicides to kill the weeds; the weeds become superweeds to adapt, so they use even more. Heavy chemical use and the susceptibility to disease necessitate genetic engineering of the crop so they are more resistant to these companies’ own chemicals that they profit from. This is what’s being done to our wheat, corn, soy, and other crops, which end up on our dinner tables, sometimes even through “organic” crops that are contaminated by nearby GMO’s, through grain-fed animal meat and byproducts, and the “vegetable oil” that are used in restaurants.

The Hawaiian islands have been an experimentation ground for the agrochemical giants that own or lease thousands of acres for their GMO operations because of our year-round weather. When we first started our farm, our one-acre organic operation seemed like a futile effort against these agrogiants.

But we didn’t stay defeated for long. We started getting to know other farmers… and there are hundreds of small-scale farmers who are using regenerative farming practices to revitalize the soil and work with nature, instead of against it.

We saw that a one-acre permaculture farm in Australia was able to produce enough vegetables, fruits, and eggs to feed 50 families all year. Big agro’s argument that without GMO’s and mass-scale monoculture thousands of people would starve is simply a marketing lie. We have 1 million acres of farmland in Hawaii, so theoretically, we’d be able to produce food for 50 million families. Our population is 1 million (only 160,000 on Hawaʻi island), so it makes zero sense that we import 90% of our food!

We often feel powerless in the face of what looks like undefeatable larger forces and situations. I know we have all experienced this to some degree in some aspect of our lives (especially recently). But there’s always, always something we can do, and we can start from wherever we are with whatever resources we have at the moment. And when enough of us decide to take back control of our own lives, we’re able to create a brand new reality that’s not forced upon by those fueled by greed and negative agendas.

The vision for our Polynesian farm-to-body operation was created from a desire to inspire others that true sustainability is possible. One pot, one field, one jar, one cup of tea at a time, we can work with nature to create true empowerment and sustainability… and create a real “Paradise” within - and in harmony with - the world.