Armstrong, Aram S.

Armstrong, Aram S.

Office Seeking: Maui Council Member (Makawao-Haikū-Paia)

Party: Mālamalama Party
Website: armstrong4maui.net

Food security is defined by the USDA as "access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life." How will your platform address food insecurity in Maui County?

The Parade of Gardens will celebrate neighbors who grow food, flowers, and medicine.

Please list any initiatives you have supported in Maui County to increase food access and food production that you are proud of:

Visual Facilitator for Hawai'i Food System Change Map for Transforming Hawaii's Food System Together and advisor to Maui 'Ohana Gardens, operator of Food Security Hawaii Instagram account, volunteer for HFUU Farm Laulimas, "Why Limes?" Advocate

Hawaiʻi imports roughly 85% of our food supply. How will your platform address increasing local food production?

Coordinating Large Scale Tree Planting + Deer Hunting efforts. 1st Wave: ethical hunters with local guides do a deer drive and harvest. 2nd Wave: skinners and meat preservation camp. 3rd Composting and tree planting. 4th Wave: Kiawe fencing.

Please indicate your position on the following policies:

1. Creating County funding mechanisms to support DA BUX Double Up Food Bucks. SUPPORT + REQUEST FOR MORE INFORMATION

2. Increasing local food procurement for Maui County schools. SUPPORT

3. Increasing Farm to School initiatives including school gardens. SUPPORT

4. Pursuing County Farm to Food Bank Funding. SUPPORT

5. Developing regional organic waste and composting services. SUPPORT

6. Restructuring the Department of Water Supply and Department of Wastewater to encourage strategies for conservation, efficient water use, storage, and growing water resources. SUPPORT

7. Increasing the budget for the Maui County Department of Agriculture. SUPPORT + REQUEST FOR MORE INFORMATION

8. Offering subsidies to local farms that have shown the ability to sustain production. SUPPORT + REQUEST FOR MORE INFORMATION

9. Supporting policies that allow for increased affordable housing for farmworkers. SUPPORT + REQUEST FOR MORE INFORMATION

10. Improving policies around hunting and utilizing invasive protein sources. SUPPORT + REQUEST FOR MORE INFORMATION

11. Funding updated shared processing facilities, including slaughterhouses and food hubs. SUPPORT + REQUEST FOR MORE INFORMATION

12. Implementing new inspection policies to reduce the spread of invasive species. SUPPORT

13. Establishing local control of water resources through a Maui County Community Water Authority, with the ability to establish regional community boards. SUPPORT

Please elaborate on any of your above positions here.

"Invasive protein" is terrible marketing for a fantastic biocultural restoration opportunity. Let's put a bounty on reckless abundance. Let's collect a tithe from nature and provide urgent assistance in balancing the ecosystem. Also, let's stop looking at food banks as dumping grounds for low nutrition food that couldn't sell in the supermarket. Let's hire those beautiful Russians from the farmer's market, who make everything into gluten-free sauerkraut, to do some workshops and trainings in preserving living foods. Let's hire Sunny Savage to create a kiawe bean feeding empire. Let's work with Dr. Manulani Aluli Meyer on getting coconuts planted and tended to properly in the county parks.

Are there other issues, County-wide or within your own residency area, about food security that concern you, and how do you plan to address these issues if elected?

Food not lawns. Coconuts where can. Breadfruit where can. Sweet potato where can. Banana where can. The Ethics and Spirituality of Hunting Seminars. Fining large scale land managers for lost soil, due to negligence, will provide funding for niu, ulu, uala, mai'a stock and labor.