Rising gas prices. Reduced visitor traffic. Increased food costs. Recent economic statistics and trends are doing their best to instill anxiety within the minds of island residents. Yet, one unconfirmed statistic was recently at the forefront for me: Hawai'i has a 10-day supply of food, should shipping come to a halt.

For confirmation or debunking of this 10-day supply theory, I turned to state Sen. Russell Kokubun, chairman of the Hawai'i 2050 Sustainability Task Force.

Russell is a friend from my early days in Hawai'i, more than 20 years ago. At that time, Russell farmed zucchini, summer squash and flowers in Volcano on Hawai'i Island, while my wife and I grew Hawaii Regional Cuisine, an agricultural and culinary partnership between local farmers, the chefs of Hawai'i and, ultimately, you.

"It's absolutely true," Russell told me. "If shipping stops, we have a 10-day supply of food. We've become a cargo cult. Every day, we rely on this drop of food because we don't know where our food really comes from. It should come from Hawai'i."

Russell's right. Each day, direct to your local dock, Hawai'i imports produce and food products from Chilé, Mexico and other distant lands. These imported foods are picked early, arrive bland to the taste and require a tremendous amount of energy — and pollution — to arrive at your doorstep. (It takes about 10 calories of petroleum, electric and other energy for every one calorie of food value, according to the Maui County Farm Bureau.)

Yet all the while, as ships come and go, our local farmers have the ability to reduce our dependency on the cargo cult; to feed our island communities with fresh, local foods; and to lessen the carbon imprint on the planet and the resulting global warming.

The time has come for Hawai'i to support its farmers, growers and ranchers as never before.

Our local farmers can feed our families as well as boost the sustainability of our island economy: According to the Maui County Farm Bureau, Hawai'i imports 80 to 90 percent of its food, yet 1.9 million acres (about 47 percent of Hawai'i's total land area) is agricultural. One acre of agricultural land — that's approximately the size of a football field — can produce 42,800 pounds of strawberries, 35,000 pounds of lettuce or 11,600 pound of sweet corn. Plus, many island farmers are growing within a 20 to 40 mile radius of your home, lessening the use of gasoline and electricity and its accompanying emissions.

Farming and the open, natural landscapes that farms provide, feed our soul, the collective spirit and nurture our sense of belonging and community. This is why we enjoy island living — and it's also a big reason tourists come to Hawai'i.

We step forward as a united island community to support our island economy and our island families. We can support a healthy agricultural economy through these actions: