Have you hugged a farmer today?

In Hawaiʻi, food is life — woven into culture and community. Yet today, experts say 90% of our food is imported.

“That’s a huge number,” said Jake Rodrigue, UH Hilo Panaewa Farm Manager. “That’s dangerous.”

“Hawaiʻi is incredibly food insecure. We only have enough food supplies to last us maybe seven days, if the shipments stop coming in, and that’s just unacceptable. And not only that, food costs too much for people here already, as it is,” said Leilani Jensen, CAFNRM student and President of the Agriculture Club.

Building a secure future means growing more of what sustains us right here at home.

“Agriculture is all about community,” said Norman Arancon, CAFNRM Director. “One farmer supports at least 150 people. This is the average in the world, more so here in Hawaiʻi.”

At UH Hilo, the College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resource Management (also known as CAFNRM) is cultivating that future.

“Farming is not easy,” explained Rodrigue. “It’s a constant. It’s a hard and thankless job for the most part, but it’s very enriching to the spirit.”

UH Hilo is home to a growing movement of young people choosing to take responsibility for Hawaiʻi’s future. Students learn to solve problems, care for natural resources, and understand how food systems shape community well-being.

Here, farming is more than a career. It’s a calling.

“Growing up, I was fortunate enough to have uncles and aunties working in that farm environment, and just the feeling of putting the time from seeding all the way to harvesting to taking care of them along the way, it means a lot when I can provide someone with a meal,” said Garrison Iha, a Tropical Agriculture student at CAFNRM.

That feeling of contributing to something larger was on display at CAFNRM’s Fall Ag Fest on campus. From poinsettias and produce, to pots of honey — even a petting zoo — the fruits of students’ labor were celebrated and showered with appreciation.

“Have you hugged a farmer yet today?” Arancon said with a laugh, after expressing his gratitude for the campus and greater community’s support.

To grow more food in Hawaiʻi… to care for our ʻāina… to nourish our communities… we need passionate, skilled, visionary farmers.

At UH Hilo, they’re already hard at work in the field.