
Living Hawaii: Henk Rogers and His Quest for Energy Independence - nkurz
http://www.civilbeat.com/2015/10/living-hawaii-henk-rogers-and-his-quest-for-energy-independence/
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Gravityloss
A place like Hawaii has potential for very low energy consumption per capita:
it's such an ideal environment for humans that they need little technological
assistance. Little air conditioning or heating, small homes as you can spend
most of the time outside, fresh food year round means little need for
refrigeration etc. I think they live like that on some Greek islands and are
happy and live long.

~~~
Twirrim
> fresh food year round

Fresh food is one of the things significantly lacking in Hawaii. The state has
very little sustaining agriculture, and it has to import large quantities of
its food from the mainland.

Areas like Kaneohe on the windward side of Oahu used to be the breadbasket for
the islands, rich, fertile, and arable land. The tore all that up and replaced
it with a city (they paved paradise, and put up a parking lot..) They've done
the same all over the place, and where they haven't, farmers are preferring
the more commercially valuable crops, such as coffee beans.

There is a small but growing farmers market scene, and while the food there is
clearly of better quality than store bought (richer flavours, fresher), the
local farmers don't produce anywhere near enough food to serve even a fraction
of the market.

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Mz
Yeah, this fits with what I have heard. When I was considering applying for a
job in Hawaii, I asked around and was told things like "I hope you like eating
spam." and "Good lucking getting fresh milk regularly." For me, this was a
dealbreaker, so I did not apply for the job.

~~~
Twirrim
I lived in Hawaii for 4 years (wife is born and raised there). It's a truly
beautiful place and I miss it dearly, I miss the family, friends and culture
that I came to know and love there. There's all the normal food, milk, bread
etc just as you'd expect anywhere on the mainland. Spam is a bit of an ongoing
joke, although they eat a lot in Hawaii and you'll see many specials based
around it, it's really not _that_ hard to avoid. Guam eats way more (averaging
16 cans a year per person vs Hawaii's 5 cans) Though they do hold an annual
spam jam... [http://spamjamhawaii.com/](http://spamjamhawaii.com/) :D

There are a few reasons we moved, but largely it comes down to cost of living,
poor schools and small job market.

My career options on island were pretty limited, and I'd have to be earning
crazy money to afford a home & pay for decent schooling for my kids.

Places we could afford to do both would mean putting up with some of the worst
traffic jams in the nation for my commute. I took a small pay cut moving to
Seattle, which is hardly the cheapest part of the nation, and the money still
goes a lot further!

