Photo: CFS team in November 2019 in Portland, OR.

Working for a fairly small organization, it's easy for those of us who wear so many hats to get lost in the weeds of the daily "non-profit grind." One day, we're busy building a legal strategy; the next, we're sitting down with our supporters to get to know more about the issues you're facing in your c…

From left to right: Autumn Rae Ness, Senator Maile Shimabukuro, Lauryn Rego

Hawaiian Sovereignty has a lot to do with food security in Hawai'i. For 125 years, history and politics in Hawai’i have been intertwined with the inequitable distribution of land and water, and have led to an agricultural economy dominated by chemical companies such as Monsanto, Pionee…

Big Island Dairy’s website features a picture of barns beneath a clear blue sky, surrounded by lush, green pasture, with words like “local” and “fresh” describing the milk it produces. The pictures on the Dairy’s Facebook page similarly show dairy cows out in rolling hills of green pasture…

Five years ago today, I closed out my first legislative session as a grassroots lobbyist. At that time, I was an active member of the all-volunteer Hawaii Food Policy Council, a project I helped co-create in the context of my doctoral research on food activism in the United States…

I’m writing you this from the front lines of the state legislature here in Hawai‘i: another committee, another hearing, another conversation about the toxicity of pesticides and the role the state can/should/is/is not playing to protect our communities, especially our keiki, workers, and kupuna from industrial pesticide use.

Although there are many, many bills on the topic being hear…

Over the past week, two important food justice bills were granted hearings in the Hawai‘i State House. One requires companies like Monsanto and Dow Chemical to disclose their pesticide use on the islands, while the other creates a buffer-zone pilot program aimed at minimizing pesticide spraying near schools…