people in developed countries often take
it for granted
that they can eat whatever delicacy they
want from anywhere in the world
but there are some who fear that this
globalization of food is putting all of
us at risk
and they are now going back to living
off the land here's correspondent
jj kelly in hawaii
when i go spear fishing i become
an actual part of the ocean
i become a part of my roots
of hawaii
i become a hunter
and more than anything if the boats were
to stop coming
i know how to survive
hawaii is one of the most remote places
on earth
to get here it was two flights 12 hours
total
but it feels like you're out there
like coastal populations around the
world all right you talk about irma
you're talking about puerto rico
hawaiians face threats unique to their
geography
and when disaster strikes they get
pushed to the brink
fast here's some 90
of the food that's consumed is imported
that means that hawaii has about a 10
day supply of food
that didn't always used to be the case
up until the islands were largely carved
up
by u.s backed pineapple and sugar
plantations in the early 20th century
hawaiians fed themselves now
a growing number of their descendants is
working to do so again
so it's 6 a.m right now we're gonna go
get a meal we're not going to the
grocery store
we're going to the ocean
[Music]
this is makua beach on the island of
oahu i'm going diving on this overcast
day with hawaiian native
kimmy werner it fits
oh good weight belt all right if you
need more we can give you more
kimmy is a champion spearfisher and free
diver
but she's not here for sport
[Music]
our goal today is to get dance how do
you teach yourself how to do something
like that
well i mean i learned from my dad
he was a free diver and spear fisherman
and he just used this to put food on the
table
that is what gave me my ability i think
to relax in the water
kimmy's weapon of choice is a
trigger-fired spear gun
this is for you all right move one for
me
she says mine is for emergency use only
just in case a really big aggressive
fish like a shark comes in
you just have something to put in
between you and it
was reassuring all right i'm in good
hands
should we do this i think so let's do
this
we kick out to the site of a sunken ship
called the mahi
there kimmy takes a deep breath of air
and disappears down into the abyss
just drops drops drops
and i can't even i can't even see her
anymore
like she's 90 feet under water with no
scuba
laying on the ground and waiting
when i go spearfishing
i become a predator
i become a lioness looking
for food in my natural environment
[Music]
i got a fish well done
i fought this is a beautiful fish it is
kimmy's caught a poalu a breed of
surgeon fish
hawaiians have been dining on for
centuries
obviously you know this isn't easy work
like the whole to 100 feet to get
a fish like this there's obviously
easier ways
to get food but when you put that work
in yourself
it makes you appreciate it that much
more
i know that i'm sourcing it responsibly
and it's evidence that i can take care
of myself
in a place so removed from the rest of
the world knowing how to catch a fish is
a handy skill to have
yet we didn't see many other people out
fishing and that
has kenny worried
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if anything were to ever happen where
the boats were to stop coming then
people wouldn't know how to survive
because
we aren't designed right now to take
care of ourselves
that didn't always used to be the case
here though no
up until the mid-1800s hawaiians had a
system of divvying up
land into mountain-to-shore slices what
you harvested
depend on what part of the slice you
lived on
it was called ahupua and the way it
worked is that
if people from the mountains needed some
fish they would come down and they would
trade
whether it was fruits or vegetables or
taro
and people were able to take care of
themselves in this system
that was 100 sustainable
in the era of blue apron and amazon go
many would consider such a system
primitive not kimmy
if you were to look at any other species
of animal it's like the first thing on
their list when they're born
they're going to be taught how to get
water how to get food
and i just don't get how having that
knowledge and having those skills makes
us primitive
and not having any of them makes us
civilized
[Music]
she has a point especially when
civilization is so fragile
this is the port of honolulu we're on an
island right now
i live on an island manhattan i remember
when hurricane sandy hit
and my wife and i lost power we lost
heat
we didn't know where we were going to
get our food and it was scary
and that's on an island with bridges and
tunnels
here this is the bridge and tunnel this
is the connection to the outside world
where their food comes in and if
something goes wrong
the steaks are just a lot higher
[Music]
when we come back for plenty of
hawaiians self-sufficiency isn't a
fringe fad
there's a pig right there it's a
dangerous
heart-pumping reality
i'm jj kelly in hawaii a place so
reliant on imported groceries
it's estimated the islands have only a
10-day supply of food
for some locals the solution is
self-reliance
and i'm here to meet a few of those on
the front lines
like bowhunter justin lee do you
remember a moment in your life where you
decided
this is how you want to find your food
my dad passed it down onto me and you
know he was my hero
being the man that brought home dinner
via hunting or gathering was the kind of
man that i wanted to be
so what are we hunting for today we're
going to be hunting for a wild boar
we got some wild goats and some wild
sheep out here
none of these species are native to
hawaii they were introduced to the
islands by the west
but with no natural predators to keep
their populations in check
their numbers ballooned today feral
herds threaten hawaii's delicate
ecosystem
over grazing and trampling endangered
species they're a problem
they they are especially the pigs
they root up everything and they destroy
the land
they're nature's bulldozer basically
they're so destructive the hawaiian
government encourages their eradication
which is why justin and i are out here
this morning
is there any limit on the amount that
you can shoot if you're hunting on
public land
you're allowed two pigs per day a day
yeah so there's plenty of food out here
you could feed your village
for sure
[Applause]
there's a pig right there pig yeah
wow you got a good eye
we'll get us this way and then we'll
come up on it
as if we needed more proof of hawaii's
ample protein supply
a flock of feral sheep appears on the
horizon you see them
yeah briefly oh no there they go
they're gone yeah they're gone they've
been all right here let's try and focus
on this board okay
those are pigs
startled bores will charge their
aggressors and slice them
with tusks as sharp as razor blades
it's a dangerous game but a well-placed
shot could potentially feed a family of
four
for nearly a week
[Music]
wow got him wow
this is a good eating boy right here so
how much does he weigh
this guy's probably 80 pounds he's not
that big
but the younger the better they are
bubbles emerge from the wound
a sign that the arrow hit the lung that
means
that it was a quick kill
so what do you do first we have to pay
our respect
to this bore you know we're not just
killing for fun
for us to survive something has to die
thank you very much
since he'll be carrying the meat out
with him justin selective
about what he harvests we're gonna take
off his front shoulder his hindquarters
and then his back strap
that's the tenderloin and hold this up
like this yeah
and this is me that'll feed your family
it'll feed my family a few times yeah
my neighbor's family as well you know
it's a community
vibe
[Music]
it might be surprising to think that
self-sufficiency would foster a sense of
community
yet kimmy says that's exactly how strong
resilient systems are born
sometimes i'd have a fish that was so
big
i'd have to share it the beautiful
surprise that came from that is that
then
a week later i'd have avocados at my
doorstep
you know i'd have fruit from people's
trees eggs from their chickens
[Music]
kimmy calls it her own modern-day ahu
pawaha
but in a state that lies 2 000 miles
away from the mainland
it's also common sense
and this push for self-sufficiency is
gaining ground
[Music]
the hawaiian government has launched
plans to double the amount of food grown
on the island by 2020.
can i join the party i suppose if
tonight's potluck
is any indication that goal is within
reach
what's on the table here but starting
here we have the
pualu that we shot i recognize him did
he stuff with local citrus and fruit
we have a wild pig that one of my hunter
friends dropped off
it's just a feast that comes together
it looks amazing and it strikes me
you're one person going out and doing
this but it
creates a community all right thank you
everybody for being here
and it changes a culture
if doomsday happens you're going to have
the upper hand
right these folks know that strength
and independence aren't a reward for
fighting against nature
but for learning to roll with whatever
it throws your way
man likes to try to conquer nature
but we don't get to dictate sometimes
nature is like uh-uh
not today and so when you live in this
type of
lifestyle and you're actually living off
of the land and the ocean
you are living by what nature gives you
connecting over conquering absolutely
[Music]
you