I’LL ADMIT I HAVE TROUBLE SLEEPING SOME NIGHTS. Don’t get me wrong I never drink coffee in the afternoon and I try not to eat a big, heavy dinner late at night. I wake up because I’m worried about the world I’m leaving to the next generation. I ask myself, am I doing enough to leave the planet a better place for my children or grandchildren?

Often times, when our team is ready to start planning the theme for the next issue, one small experience provides the inspiration. For this issue, I read an article shared by the United Nations about climate change and its relationship to food waste, food production and growing food. The article set our heads spinning in a direction that we still have not recovered from. Read more in our TALK STORY department on page 50.

You see, when I began working with edible Hawaiian Islands in 2007 it was all about farm-to-table, eating local, and growing your own food. We’re still talking about these things, but now the conversations around food have taken on stronger, political meaning. My passion for growing, cooking and sharing food has long shaped my life and that of my family, but now it’s evolved into a greater awareness that everything I do in relation to food has a consequence – some positive and some negative.

As you read this issue, please ask yourself what you can do to make more of a positive impact on our planet. It can be something as small as buying sustainably farmed meat and produce, or bringing your own re-usable bags to the grocery store. Whatever you can do, DO IT NOW, and when it becomes second-nature, challenge yourself to step up your game. It’s not much of an exaggeration to say the Earth is watching and registering our every move.

Dania Novack Katz
editor