Be the Solution

Are you an undergraduate student at UHM, interested in improving sustainable agriculture and food security for Hawaiʻi through research or innovative programing?

Then consider joining CTAHR’s Food Systems Working Group. Students will work with UH faculty and high school students to explore and identify a potential project on food security and sustainability in Hawaiʻi, as well as apply for funding from the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). The deadline to apply is October 10.

“Our working group seeks to help address food security in Hawaiʻi,” says Sothy Eng of the Dept. of Family and Consumer Sciences. “We are looking for students who want to be part of the solution! The proposed food systems projects should contribute to one of three major global challenges: population health, economic development, or environmental sustainability.”

The Food Systems Working Group notes that “A food systems approach to food and health encompasses many intricately related factors in getting food from farm to consumer. This includes the inputs, mechanisms, and structures for food production, processing, distribution, acquisition, preparation, and consumption, as well as the farmers, ranchers, fishers, workers, governments, institutional purchasers, communities, and consumers who participate in that system — and their contributions to overall health.

This approach recognizes that complex systems have many inputs and outputs. Health and other outcomes must emerge from the system as a whole, not by focusing on any single component. Interacting parts work synergistically, each as a complement to the other and each supporting the system as a whole.”

Learn more CTAHR’s Food Systems Working Group. For questions, contact Sothy.