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Strawberries, sunflowers and oysters.
These are just a few of the items grown or farmed in California that are expected to be in short supply following a series of storms earlier this month that damaged farms or caused delays in shipments of produce to Hawaii.
According to sources analyzing the state’s food security issues, an estimated 85% to 90% of Hawaii’s food is imported from ships. A good portion of Hawaii’s food sources, be they strawberries, milk, lettuce, tomatoes, pistachios, or walnuts, come from California.
For now, limited options appear to be the only impact from the California storms. But the storms make it clear that Hawaii remains vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather events, regardless of where they occur, due to the state’s isolation and its reliance on shipping goods from abroad.
California strawberries will be harder to come by due to extensive flooding in the area, which has damaged crops, according to Kimo Muraki, buyer for D. Otani Produce. “The area is quite flooded,” he said. “A lot of strawberries, the sensitive items, are sourced from elsewhere, mostly Mexico.”
Sunflower orders from California are also on hold for the time being, according to Monty Pereira, general manager of Watanabe Floral Inc.
“It’s one of the most well-known flowers we’re struggling with right now,” Pereira said. “We have just removed all sunflower arrangements from our website. We will not introduce these in the next few weeks.”
Pereira estimates that about 20% of the flowers Watanabe Floral brings in come from California, while others come from Florida and South America.
While locally grown sunflowers used to be plentiful, California is now the main source for them, he said, and ideal because it’s closer geographically, so fresh-cut flowers get to customers sooner.
Other California bouquets that will be harder to find include gladioli, snapdragons, certain royal lilies, gerbera daisies, and miniature cala lilies, which are popular for weddings and funerals.
But there are substitutes, he said, or ways to get them from other areas.
Roses, originating from South America, should still be plentiful for the approaching Valentine’s Day.
“Some of the farms have suffered significant losses,” he said. “Whole fields were destroyed. In such situations, it takes 18 to 24 months to start again.”
On the other hand, some of the flowers, which were grown in greenhouses and protected from strong winds and rain, could not be taken from the farm to the airport due to evacuations.
A Safeway spokesman said recent storms in California have disrupted supply routes and impacted the availability of certain fruits and vegetables — like berries and corn — in every state, including Hawaii.
“We are working with our growers to address the situation and hope to restore regular supply schedules as soon as possible,” Safeway said in a statement.
Three of Matson’s ships delivering goods to Hawaii had to change routes and schedules to avoid inclement weather during California storms, but two were behind schedule by 24 hours or less and the third was due to close a day, according to a spokesman arrive late.
The Los Angeles Times recently reported that California oyster supplies will run out as runoff and potential bacteria from storms forced harvesters to shut down. Harvesters have to wait before testing bacteria levels.
Regardless, there is a nationwide shortage of eggs due in part to an outbreak of bird flu.
Rice, a Hawaiian staple, should not be affected because the growing season begins in late spring, according to a spokeswoman for the California Rice Commission.
Indeed, rice farmers in California have been struggling with the ongoing drought, which has impacted the workforce, farming communities and wildlife that depend on paddy fields in the Sacramento Valley for survival.
A series of large storms — in the form of atmospheric flows that carry water vapor through the sky — raged across California for several weeks after New Year’s Eve, causing at least $1 billion in damage.
The storms caused extensive flooding; broke the Santa Cruz pier in two; damaged houses, bridges and roads; and led to more than 700 landslides.
This will have an impact on agriculture, as the Golden State produces more than a third of the state’s vegetables and three-quarters of the state’s fruits and nuts, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
The storms destroyed thousands of acres of crops from farmland in Salinas and Ventura counties, where strawberries are grown, to walnut orchards in Sacramento counties, according to AgAlert, a publication of the California Farm Bureau Federation.
Many crops exposed to sewage flooding will have to be destroyed and cleaning up and replanting will take time, according to the bureau, while planting of some vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower and lettuce will have to be postponed, resulting in later harvests .
While Hawaii has spent decades setting goals to improve food security — or reliable access to nutritious food — the reality is that it still largely relies on what’s grown overseas.
Former Gov. David Ige first promised in his 2014 campaign to double local food production in Hawaii by 2020. When the World Congress of the International Union for Conservation of Nature took place in Waikiki in 2016, Ige set 2030 as the new target date.
According to Hawaii’s Aloha+Challenge dashboard, there is room for improvement in local food production, as well as the labor force and land resources devoted to agriculture.
Climate change is expected to present Hawaii with more extreme weather and challenges in the coming years, be it related to food security or sea level rise.
“We need to prepare for increasing isolation as the southwestern states become increasingly difficult to feed us,” Chip Fletcher said in a recent conversation about climate change on Spotlight Hawaii, the Honolulu Star’s livestream program -Advertisers. “We must prepare for declining rainfall in Hawaii and a spreading drought. We need to become more self-sufficient in terms of our fuels and continue on the very strong path of self-sufficient energy production.”