Twenty-six years ago, as the closure of the plantations was underway in Hawaii, I made a call on these pages for a shift in the state toward sustainable agriculture (“Hawaii can break new ground in agriculture” Star-Bulletin, May 21, 1992).

In a follow-up commentary I highlighted the socioeconomic benefits of having the small family farm as a centerpiece on the path toward food self-sufficiency (“We all have a stake in Hawaii’s family farms,” Star-Bulletin, May 28, 1993).

Earlier on, the community in Hawaii made a call for self-sufficiency and sustainability as part of the 1978 Constitutional Convention. In the meantime, consumer demand for locally grown and pesticide-free produce grew by leaps and bounds. Similarly, because of the specter of climate change, communities around the world are taking steps to adopt ecological farming methods and resiliency in their food systems.

As part of my early calls for sustainability, I proposed that to complement its allure as a tourist destination, Hawaii also become a model for showcasing tropical sustainable agriculture.

The governor’s office finally responded to this global trend and imminent environmental threats by declaring that Hawaii would double its volume of local food production by 2020. However, a year and a half later, it is still unclear how or when these efforts will be implemented. It is also unclear the role that the University of Hawaii’s College of Tropical Agriculture and sister state agencies will play in this effort.

On the pathway to food self-sufficiency, it would be fair to say that state agencies and UH have some catching up to do. During the 1990s, while calls were being made for sustainability, policy leaders and UH instead pushed for Hawaii to become a leader in crop biotechnology and laid a red carpet for large agrochemical companies, which controlled about 70 percent of the global pesticide market, to conduct their pesticide and biotech research in Hawaii.

In the legislative and public arena, year after year, state agencies and UH defended the chemical companies to prevent regulations aimed at protecting the land, schools and communities from nearby pollution by dust particles, pesticides and novel genetic GMO constructs.

However, 15 years after pollution concerns were raised, a jury in federal court in 2015 found that biotech operations on the islands had failed to meet even the minimum standards of proper farm stewardship, needed to protect nearby communities from dust pollution. While the jury was not allowed to look at pesticides data or health implications, my own analysis leads me to believe that the jury would have come to the same conclusion, i.e. a failure by biotech operations to meet even minimum pesticide application safety standards — all while both UH administrators and state agencies defended the chemical companies as models for farming in the state.

A recent report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food makes pertinent points to consider as the state and UH chart a new path in agriculture. According to the UN report, “Agricultural policies, trade systems and corporate influence over public policy must all be challenged if we are to move away from pesticide-reliant industrial food systems.”

The report encourages the adoption of agroecology, which consists of “the integrative study of the ecology of the entire food system, encompassing ecological, economic and social dimensions.” While positive steps have been taken over the past few years, a broad new policy and academic agenda are needed to make meaningful advances toward self-sufficiency and protection of indigenous, cultural and natural resources in the state.

Hector Valenzuela is a professor and crop specialist at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own.