It has been more than 10 years since the closure of the major plantations in Hawai'i. Since then a lot has been written about the need to diversify our agriculture. The interest in growing more of our food in the Islands is not only about economics, but also about self-sufficiency, food security, and about protecting our natural resources.

It has also been more than 30 years since the Hawai'i Constitutional Convention called for the Legislature to further food self-sufficiency, promote diversified agriculture and protect agricultural lands from urbanization. Despite these goals, a policy analyst indicated, at a Food Security Conference held in Maui last year, that in concrete terms little has been accomplished to meet the mandates called for back in 1978.

Issues of food security have taken a new sense of urgency in the Islands given the recent global economic crisis, and given the renewed awareness about the potential effects of climate change. Over the past couple of years I have been invited around the state to talk about these issues, by farmer and community groups, concerned about the future of agriculture in Hawai'i.

A key point I make is that little community discussion has occurred about the type of agriculture we should have in the state and around our rural communities. Because we live in a democracy, and because natural resources such as land, water, and air are a public trust, the public should have a say about the type of agriculture that we should have in our open green landscapes.

In my view, to our policy leaders the future of agriculture in Hawai'i consists of the status quo, or a continuation of the agricultural plantation model. The sustainability of the plantation model, also called industrial or conventional agriculture, has come under increased scrutiny because it is very dependent on taxpayer subsidies, high energy and chemical inputs. The industrial agriculture model is considered unsustainable, not only because we are running out of fossil energy, but because of the many negative environmental and human health effects that have been associated with the intensive use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers.

Despite these concerns our policy and university leaders continue to endorse the industrial model of agriculture, because it caters to the entrenched powers that have benefited from it in the past. The power players that promote the status quo include the large landowners in the state, food distributors, politicians, university researchers, powerful farm-lobbying groups, and particularly the major corporations that supply the inputs, "grease the wheels" at the university and government, and that profit handsomely from ownership and control of increased sectors of the food supply.

A major impetus over the past decade has been to promote the production of biofuel and genetically modified crops in Hawai'i. The production of these crops is based on the same model of industrial agriculture, with a new twist: Corporations are now seeking patents, or outright ownership of the very same food, or crops, that we grow and consume. These trends would further increase our dependency on out-of-state suppliers and commodity speculators.

As a counter-current to this semi-colonial, corporate-based system of agriculture, a global assessment of agriculture conducted by scientists from 60 countries (Google 'IAASTD assessment'), sponsored by the World Bank and the United Nations, has made a call for a different model of agriculture. The IAASTD report makes a call for agricultural models that require less external inputs, and that rely more on locally available resources and on local traditional seeds.

Grass-roots movements throughout the world are also calling for different models of farming, often referred to as sustainable, ecological, or organic agriculture. The immense popularity of organic produce in our grocery stores is another indication that the public in general is also in support of different models of agriculture.

As a state, we need to remove the long-entrenched blinders of the plantation model of agriculture, and think about establishing more equitable, culturally sensitive, and environmentally sound systems of farming.

Hector Valenzuela is a professor and crop specialist at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.