Inside the Jefferson Fellowship: Food Security Across the Asia Pacific

You’d be forgiven for looking at my Instagram and assuming I was on holiday. Three weeks in Hawai‘i, Indonesia, and Thailand lent themselves to beautiful beaches and incredible food. I made sure to include photos of our little group weaving through rice paddies, meeting with the UN, and standing in rooftop gardens under blazing sun to reassure my friends and whānau that some work was being done.

Food security was the focus of this year’s Jefferson Fellowship, and Honolulu was an obvious — and very welcome — starting point. The East-West Center, which runs the programme, is based on the island of O‘ahu, on the most beautiful university campus I’ve ever seen (forgive me, Vic, it’s true). The place might have looked straight out of a holiday brochure, but our packed schedule kept us on the straight and narrow.

Our long days were meticulously planned to fit in field trips, panel discussions, and the occasional formal dinner. (In picture - Group lunch in Chiang Rai at Krua Baan Nue - or Northern House Kitchen)

It was with a jolt, sometime during that first day touring the island, that I realised how similar the Indigenous cultures of Hawai‘i and New Zealand are — from the names of the halls on campus (“hale”, think “whare”) and the places (“Wai‘anae”, think “Waikanae”), to the way people see the world.

Our visit to the He‘eia Fishpond and the neighbouring conservation non-profit Kāko‘o ‘Ōiwi showed us how humans can work as part of the natural system, rather than against it. The lo‘i kalo (taro patch) is home to native birds — a habitat that simultaneously produces food and gives people a chance for cultural connection with the land. The fishpond is in disrepair, a work in progress, but there’s hope: as long as the natural flow of water from the mountains down through the land and out to sea can be relied upon, rather than diverted to golf courses along the way.

The visit to Heʻeia Fishpond on O'ahu, Hawaii. Image supplied/AMC

Hawai‘i has two weeks of food on hand at any given time. It’s a precarious balance, with so much brought in and very little of the daily staples grown locally. Prices on supermarket shelves are high. Data from the Hawai‘i Foodbank shows nearly a third of families in the state are food insecure — which apparently translates into USD $800 million per year in added health-care costs.

Of course, some food is grown locally — mainly sugarcane, nuts, and pineapples. But according to the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity, only 1.1 percent of farms (74 farms) occupy 78 percent of the land (more than 2000 acres). This food isn’t for the locals — it’s exported.

Cheap, accessible food with low nutritional value has resulted in both malnutrition and obesity. This pattern repeated across Indonesia and Thailand.

The Wai‘anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center (left), surrounded by lush gardens with a backdrop of golden sand and bright blue sea, is doing its best to combat both issues through food. We toured their gardens and heard about programmes underway to improve the resilience of the community, which is vulnerable to wildfires and hurricanes, as well as being one of the lower socio-economic areas of the island.

The health centre also runs cooking classes for locals, using fresh, locally grown ingredients many families haven’t seen for decades. Staff say that as people line up to collect their food parcels, they chat about rediscovering recipes and experimenting with native ingredients like kalo (taro) and breadfruit. Their goal is to make their community healthier, more self-sufficient, and therefore more resilient.

Me, and a view, at the Wai'anae Health Centre. How does anyone concentrate in meetings with that outside the window. Image Supplied/AMC

That theme continued through Indonesia and Thailand. In Jakarta, we learned about the importance of rice — and the double-edged sword that is instant noodles. In some small communities, fresh fruit and vegetables grown locally are traded at markets for instant noodles, a significant downgrade in nutritional value.

In Thailand, the Rural Lives’ Development Foundation estimates that among the country’s 5.7 million school students, 1.2 million are affected by malnutrition — manifesting as obesity, stunting, or being underweight. That’s 20 percent. Some schools, through the Thai School Lunch Project, are taking matters into their own hands by making chicken-raising and food-growing part of the curriculum. A field trip to Ban Nang Lae Nai School in Chiang Rai saw us standing in a hen house, recording interviews with a chorus of squawks in the background.

Chickens raised by students at Ban Nang Lae Nai School in Chiang Rai. Image Supplied/AMC

More than opening my mind to new issues, this trip gave me an invaluable chance to network with other journalists. Hearing how my counterparts in other countries work — the issues they face and the tactics they use to get the job done — was as interesting as the programme content. Journalists around the world travel, attend conferences, and navigate industry challenges together — and it sounds naive, but that wasn’t a door I thought was open to me. Now I see that it can be. Working together can help all of us, whether we’re facing declining trust, dwindling funding for public media, or the increasing non-transparency of those we report on.

(More photos below)

A group cooking class at Javara in Jakarta, joined by founder Helianti Hilman (second from right), who also serves as the Asia New Zealand Foundation’s Asia Honorary Adviser. Image: Supplied/AMC.

Newsgathering in the rice fields, on a visit to the Indonesian Center for Agricultural Development and Moderization of Rice. Image Supplied/AMC

A visit to CNN in Jakarta, Indonesia gives us a glimpse into how other broadcasters work. Image supplied/AMC

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