“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”
- John Donne
Hordes of flies. Manure stinks. Feces and urine can possibly reach the ocean. The methane from the cows will increase the rate of climate change. We don't need an imported wasp. Costco already sells cheap organic milk. The cows will be fed GMO feed. The milk will be shipped to O’ahu for pasteurization.
Ag land should be used for Ag. The Hyatt produces way more feces. Maha’ulepu has always been ag. Kaua’i needs a dairy. Tourists are a bigger environmental problem. Support local farmers. Intense rotational grazing has been proven to increase soil fertility and carbon sequestration. Food security...
What happened to our dialogue?
Our island is the perfect size. Because everyone, through one or two degrees of separation knows everyone else, word travels quick. Rumors are rampant and dialogue is vibrant. The smallness of our community means that we all really have the potential to shape policy through our discourse. Yet NIMBYism takes on a whole new meaning when the whole island is our "backyard." That’s part of what makes it really exciting to live here. And the reason that I get motivated to spend a Friday afternoon every few weeks writing this blog.
Whether you’re a farmer, a developer, a lawyer, or a hippy, and no matter what your political affiliation, I think that we can all agree on some fundamental issues.
- We all want clean oceans.
- We all want locally grown food.
- We all want to preserve open space.
- We all want to keep Kaua’i beautiful.
- We all want to control our rampant growth.
- We all want to reduce traffic.
- We all want affordable housing.
- We all want good jobs.
- We all want energy independence.
Not a single person on Kaua’i could disagree with any of that. So why can’t we ever agree on any practical solutions to address those issues?
I think it's because we rarely encounter "perfect" solutions. There is always a trade-off. And we use those trade-offs to form the basis of our argument. To use the dairy as an example: yes, it's far from perfect. Every red con listed above is true. But so are the blue pros. Too often (and I am very guilty of this) we draw our line in the sand and launch a barrage of rhetoric at the other side. While at the same time they're launching their own barrage at us. And neither side pays any attention to what the other is saying. That's not dialogue. That's war. And it's polarizing and ineffective.
We're in this together. We need a true dialogue. We need a solutions based conversation. We need a vision for the future and we need to pave a path forward. The status-quo isn't working and the quality of life on Kaua'i is steadily declining.
Let's start with the dairy.
I think we can all agree that as long as we’re consuming milk, we need a dairy. We can externalize the environmental and ethical costs of milk production to distant lands, or we can do it at home and mitigate those real costs. Despite the labels of happy cows on grassy pastures, any milk (even organic) on Kaua’i comes from dairy cows that spend their entire productive live on a feedlot. They eat corn, their manure goes into toxic holding pools, and there’s not a blade of grass in sight. That status-quo is the alternative to any dairy proposition on Kaua’i. We on Kaua’i have zero say over mainland based dairies. If we’re drinking milk, then we’re contributing to a massive ethical and environmental problem. And it's best dealt with here at home.
In the words of Wendell Berry: “An economy genuinely local and neighborly offers to localities a measure of security that they cannot derive from a national or a global economy controlled by people who, by principle, have no local commitment.”
While we can’t control where our Lucerne, Horizon, or Organic Valley milk comes from or the environmental ramifications of that milk, we do have power over a local dairy. Local entrepreneurs have the potential opportunity to make a cost effective pasteurization process on Kaua’i. As consumers, we have the opportunity to ensure that the cows are treated well. And as neighbors, we can ensure that the dairy is following the proper procedures to ensure that manure won’t reach the ocean.
All of the pros and cons listed in the opening paragraph are true. The most threatening one being the chance that manure could possibly reach the ocean. But to find a solution we need to continue to dig deeper. As a community we need to weigh the potential environmental concerns against the alternative. We can either continue to perpetuate the unsustainable cycle of importing milk from feedlots in refrigerated containers, or we can have grass fed cows that will defecate in an area that may one day run into the ocean. That is our choice and the path forward is grey. But, to get to an answer we need to have a real dialogue.
You can mention the bio-mass plant, smart meters, GMO, or the dairy to anyone on Kaua'i and they undoubtedly have a strongly held opinion on it. That level of activity is inspiring and necessary. Now we need to use those strong convictions and the vibrancy of our dialogue to come together for a common vision of a sustainable Kaua'i.
We all agree on the end goal: a healthy, beautiful Kaua’i. So let’s work to eliminate polarization and push for a solutions oriented discourse. It's the only way that we'll be able to achieve a truly sustainable island.
Please watch this TED Talk on how intensive rotational grazing has the potential to "green the deserts and reverse climate change."
While not very related, I thought I'd share my favorite video of all time which explains the meaning behind the 'olelo no'eau I used for the title (a canoe is an island, an island is a canoe). It's of a canoe built and raced completely by employees of Kamanu Composites. For me, it's an example of what is possible with a shared vision. We won the race.