Visitor Industry Commits To Support Local Farmers & Producers
The Oʻahu Good Food Show event held on February 7, 2023, hosted by the Office of Economic Revitalization, Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority, Oʻahu Visitors Bureau, Hawaiʻi Public Health Institute, and Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, brought together local Chefs and leaders in the Oʻahu hospitality and restaurant industry to sign on to the Oʻahu Good Food Pledge.
The Oʻahu Good Food Pledge is a commitment to our local agriculture industry to prioritize increasing purchasing from local Oʻahu producers. The event also invited Oʻahu small businesses and famers to showcase amazing confections that can created with local products like ʻulu (sweet potato) and kalo (taro).
We applaud the 20+ hotels and restaurants on Oʻahu that have signed on to the pledge and are committing to working with the City and County of Honolulu to provide baseline data in 2023 of their purchasing practices and needs, so that our local producers can start to work on increasing their supply for future demand from these partners.
To find out more about enrolling in the Oʻahu Good Food Initiative, please visit: https://www.revitalizeoahu.org/oahugoodfood/about
The need to protect and uplift Hawaiʻi agriculture is important to kamaʻāina, and the visitor industry offers potential paths and partnerships to do so. These partnerships grow Hawaiʻi's momentum toward a model of regenerative tourism.
HTA is a signatory to Hawaiʻi’s Aloha+ Challenge, with increasing local food production as one of its six main goals, as well as the ʻĀina Aloha Economic Futures Declaration, which speaks to a circular economy of which food and agriculture is an integral part.
Through various programs, HTA has supported GoFarm Hawaiʻi farm tours, the Hawaiʻi Farm Trails mobile app, ʻāina-based initiatives by organizations like Kākoʻo ʻŌiwi and Kaʻala Farms, and developed a guidebook on agritourism with GoFarm Hawaiʻi, the Oʻahu Resource Conservation & Development Council, and the Hawaiʻi Agritourism Association.