Kevin's Farm and the Green club

I talked to Kevin Vaccarello after he spoke to our class, because I thought the Green club at HPU would love to help out or take a tour of his farm. I am also very excited to take the tour with the class, but I wanted to share it with the Green club and give them the opportunity as well.
I have been an active member of Green club since last semester and I am a co-head of the Recycling committee for the Hawaii loa campus. My friend Danielle and I started it last year because we noticed the Green club was working really hard to get paper recycling for the downtown campus, but there was no one in the club who knew much about the HLC, and no one on the HLC had created an effective and lasting paper recycling service. Apparently some students had tried years ago, but with the student turnover it fell flat. When we came into the picture, the campus had no paper recycling whatsoever, which is ridiculous for a school in Hawaii that claims to be employing sustainable ideas.
We decided to change that, and last year I discovered how much work it really takes to get something like this off the ground. This year we have much more support and hope for the program. The Green club is also taking on the garden project and hoping to create a closed-loop system- food from the garden supplying the dining commons, and the food waste being composted back into the garden. Dr. Primavera is also expanding his aquaponics facility and we have been hoping to be involved in that or learn about it.
The club is also hoping to do more community-oriented  projects this year. That said, I knew as soon as Kevin started talking that the Green club would take a huge interest in his farm. I told our president about it at the meeting a couple of days later, and it turns out he knew exactly who Kevin was and a little about what he is doing. He thought it was great that I talked to him and asked me to email him about helping with his farm. I'll let you know how it plays out.

Day 1

I have been excited for ANTH 3115 all summer because it sounded really interesting, and because I was glad to have Dr. Cruz as a teacher again. (Also because my other classes this semester are more general and not very exciting!) Of my required classes, this is one that I was actually looking forward to. I want to know more about how cultural issues affect environmental issues and vice versa. I am also looking forward to studying nutrition and the food industry, because I want to know more about it from an academic standpoint as well as to personally eat better.
I like that Dr. Cruz always offers a lot of field trips. Going out and seeing the things you are learning about in the real world is one of the best ways to learn, and it is also great to see some parts of the island I might not normally get a chance to visit. I have been to some of the places before, in ANTH 1000, such as Mokauea Island and the Likeke trail. I may decide to go a second time, or I may try to focus more on the trips I have not been on. Since there are so many, I may end up going on more than 2 trips- I want to take advantage of the opportunity to go to some of these places. I especially want to see Makua valley. I also want to go to one of the heiaus, and help with at least one of the restoration projects. After all, as an Environmental Science major and an active member of the GREEN club at HPU, conservation/ restoration is something I will be doing a lot during my college career and beyond.