Place-Based Equity for Hawaiʻi's Local Producers
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2024-05-08
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To rectify the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) extensive history of discrimination against small and minority farmers nationwide, the USDA Equity Commission and Farm Bill policies were established to improve the equitable distribution of federal resources (i.e., grants, incentives, and loans). Although USDA equity policies acknowledge national injustices, they fail to address the context of values, challenges, and histories unique to Hawaiʻi’s producers. This research leveraged the community’s knowledge by conducting 20 talk-story interviews with producer-supporting organizations and collecting 72 survey responses from producers to explore the locally existing barriers to accessing financial resources and identify the communities of producers who are most impacted by barriers. Thematic analysis of community input suggests the most underinvested producers in Hawaiʻi include Native Hawaiian, immigrant, subsistence, and small-land leaseholder farmers and ranchers. Systemic barriers, program desirability and eligibility, and institutional distrust affect these producers’ access to financial resources. These findings were used to develop policy recommendations within a place-based, five-dimensional equity framework. The primary recommendation is to improve outreach within Native Hawaiian, immigrant, subsistence, and small-land leaseholder producer communities by applying place-based research ethics. Equitable outreach would increase local awareness of opportunities and create a foundation for bidirectional communication between local communities and institutions that can expand the capacity to make future well-informed equity decisions. Implications of this research are especially relevant for policymakers in the Hawaiʻi State Legislators, federally-funded agriculture projects, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service Pacific Island Area to holistically drive Hawaiʻi’s socio-ecological resilience outcomes.
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Presentation slideshow and written report
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Underserved Farmers, Indigenous and Local Knowledge, Agriculture Policy, USDA, Payments for Ecosystem Services
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42
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Creative Commons
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Apilado, Destiny M.
Local Contexts
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