Seventy percent of the food we eat in Hawai'i is imported, and I worry about that. Currently, there is less than 10 days of food in the pipeline; should shipping be interrupted, that should concern us all.

We must make changes so that Hawai'i produces more of its own food — making us more sustainable and less reliant on outside forces.

It is doable. There are farmers, chefs, wholesalers and retailers all over the state who are actively supporting a trend toward sustainability.

In July, a letter writer pointed out that the economic principle of comparative advantage dictates that whenever we can purchase less expensive goods outside of Hawai'i, we should. I majored in business, so I'm well aware of this principle.

But first and foremost, I am a survivor. And the law of survival teaches us to always keep your options open. To keep our options open, we need to produce more food locally, not less. The law of comparative advantage is an intellectual exercise; the law of survival is, well, "the law of survival."

About five years ago, when as Kea'au Bananas we were producing nearly 6 million pounds of bananas, we asked ourselves, "Can we develop a diversified, sustainable farm business that will provide a significant amount of food for Hawai'i's people?"

Three years after that we changed our name to Hamakua Springs Country Farms and broadened our scope. Now, in addition to bananas, we are growing nearly 2 million pounds of tomatoes a year on 15 acres, and experimenting with many other crops.

We have chosen to maximize our use of the natural resources found at our location and match them to appropriate crops. The natural resources we have here in Hilo are abundant water, mild temperatures, adequate sunlight and energetic people. Always keeping in mind that the whole is more than the sum of its parts, we focus on our workers, our community and our environment. These are not just words in a mission statement. We make every business decision based on how it affects our people, our neighborhood and our environment.

Hamakua Springs Country Farms is in the process of developing a hydroelectric plant. We will utilize water from a flume on our property and then use that free electricity to replace that of the public utility. With our excess electricity, we plan to replace diesel- and gas-driven machinery with electric-driven vehicles. We also plan to use electric conveyors and other such labor-saving devices. Decoupling ourselves from fossil fuels will finally put us on the right side of economic trends.

Then by offering inexpensive electricity and water, which we have in abundance, we are teaming up with farmers who specialize in products we do not.

We can offer technical expertise in terms of disease and pest control, as well as technical and structural help in obtaining food-safety certifications. And if these farmers meet our high standards, they can market their products with us under the Hamakua Springs brand.

In addition, we have a parcel of land on the highway where our farmer-partners will be able to sell their products alongside ours in a farmers market setting.

We are trying to strengthen the economic positions of local farmers so that, together, we can increase the amount of produce grown in Hawai'i. In the future, local farmers should be able to produce better-quality products at cheaper prices.

At Hamakua Springs, we are actively working on these aspects of our "law of survival" because we want to make our Islands more sustainable in terms of food production. The types of changes I suggest are not radical, fringe-group ideas, they are adjustments that can be made while still working within our current system of distribution.

There is currently a great deal of support for this move toward local agricultural sustainability for the Islands. Local chefs, such as Alan Wong, Peter Merriman, Roy Yamaguchi, Eddie Goto and many others, are loyal customers and strong promoters of locally grown food. Island supermarket chains like Foodland and KTA strongly promote and support local growers and producers.

The Kohala Center is working on a comprehensive study of agriculture on the Big Island, with the goal of helping to encourage more local food sustainability. Slow Food Hawai'i is in the forefront of the movement to buy locally grown food. An October Food Summit conference at the Sheraton Keauhou Bay will address many of these same issues. There are many other examples.

In Hawai'i, we need to keep our options open. We need farmers to produce food on all islands at all elevations, both on the wet side of the island and the dry side. We need farmers to work together so that the whole is stronger than the sum of the parts.

And we need legislators to help farmers so we can act upon the law of survival, rather than intellectualize about the law of comparative advantage.

Not, "no can." Can!

Richard Ha is president of Hamakua Springs Country Farms in Pepe'ekeo on the Big Island. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.