JMorgyn

I have a sustainability background in

I gave up my home, job, career path and belongings and spent four years living in the remote location of the Big Island of Hawaii. While most people think of tourist resorts and wealth when they think of Hawaii, that is actually only a marketing representation of a small number of isolated areas on three of the islands. Outside of Honolulu, Hawaii is extremely remote and very poor. Many of its inhabitants have never left the side of the island they are living on, let alone the island chain itself. Most have never travelled to the larger world, and have very little idea what is going on outside of their culture. Hawaii has a small alternative population of foreigners and ex-patriates that have moved to the remote rainforest locations in order to explore sustainable living and building practices. Back in the 70's, 80's and even 90's, land was quite cheap, and the land being sold off was native forest. Unfortunately, some of that land has been cleared as tourism and California-style track-home development spreads; but also, there are many alternative communities to be found with a little seeking.

I spent a few months on Maui adjusting to the culture of Hawaii before heading into the rainforest of Big Island in earnest. I had the benefit of living in Volcano Village for two years, where I met a number of alternative builders creating gorgeous (small and simple) private and uniquely designed off-grid homes. I had the benefit of staying in many of these homes and learning about water cachement and filtration systems, remote living, and the necessity of community.

I spent a number of weeks at an experimental farm learning about the Natural Farming philosophy of Masonobu Fukuoka. At that particular farm, the sustainability model was a blend of Hawaiian fishing and taro-raising. The diet was mainly raw or smoked ahi, along with other asian foods. The emphasis was on organic foods, traditional foods, and communal labor practices.

From there I moved to a 30-acre organic fruit tree orchard, where I had the grand experiment of living for 9 months in simplistic makeshift shelters. Here I learned about raw vegan foods, particularly the lifestyle of gathering native foods from the landscape without cultivating them or monocropping in any way. We also grew organic produce in a small greenhouse and provided some food from the farm to a local organic health food store for resale.

The fourth major location I visited was an extremely remote island in the Northwestern Hawaiian Chain that is closed to the public. To go there, I volunteered for three months and was flown in as an assistant to a team of wildlife biologists who were in residence out there in order to study migratory nesting birds, seals and turtles indigenous to Hawaii. The island was approximately a mile long by 1/2 mile wide, and is an abandoned military site that was used in WWII. Activities there now consist of wildlife habitat restoration, animal and bird species breeding program studies, and invasive plant species removal.

Not all of my explorations are currently up on the site, but some of this is documented on my blog site, www.learningsustainability.blogspot.com.