Moving Forward...

If you consider the beginning of my PhD journey to be August 2009, I have spent almost 3.5 years fumbling around, figuring out my life and finishing up research that indirectly contributed to my research. In this time, I have finished classes, had a child and published one report about Hawaii's seafood consumption and submitted one journal article to the Journal of Food and Agribusiness regarding Hawaii chefs' seafood preferences with a focus on local versus imported and aquaculture versus wild.

After submitting that journal article I have since refocused my sites, formed a committee, have an outline for a proposal which is motivated by a USDA-NIFA Fellowship application due on March 7th, provided they accept my letter of intent which is due January 3, 2013.

I have wiped out all research previously collected and have decided with a blank slate where I am familiar with all the literature and where it stands contextually in regards to my dissertation question:

WHAT IS HAWAII'S AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION POSSIBILITIES FRONTIER? CAN IT FEED HAWAII'S POPULATION?
(Finding regional agricultural production possibilities: The case of the Hawaiian Islands)

These questions will be addressed in the following three chapters:

Chapter 1- Literature Review Regarding Hawaii's Food and Agricultural Production
This will be a documented and systematic literature conducted using the following six search terms:
- Hawaii Food Production
- Hawaii Food
- Hawaii Agricultural Production
- Hawaii Agriculture
- Food Production
- Agricultural Production

A wide breath of sources will be searched:

- UH Voyager
- Amazon.com
- Dissertations & Theses
- Print Indexes (Historical)
- Web Searching
- CAB Abstracts, Agricola, Agril
- Biological/PubMed
- Google Scholar/Scirus/Electronic Index
- Science Citation Index & Web of Science
- Google Reader Account

The list will be categorized based on how it contributes to defining Hawaii's agricultural production possibilities frontier and how Hawaii's population can feed itself. Categories will be organically decided and regrouped as necessary. This literature review will define how the agricultural production possibility frontier is created in order to calculate it for Hawaii.

Chapter 2- Defining Hawaii's Agricultural Production Possibilities Frontier
The approach for this chapter is to basically define the parameters for the frontier as justified by the literature review. This chapter will also discuss testing of the model and required adjustments to the assumptions as the methodology is created. In the end a grid of monthly agricultural yields for a growing lists of agricultural products will be created based on soil, water and climate conditions at the plot level. Hopefully this can turn into an extension tool for UH to collectively catalog information about agricultural crops and growing methods.

Chapter 3- Caloric Requirements of Hawaii's Population
This chapter will explore Hawaii's Population, what it's caloric requirements would be and what the various ways nutritional requirements could be defined. Based on the final model for defining yield, the production possibilities frontier database will be aligned with nutritional requirements.

This is where I stand for the moment. My next step is to create my reading list, submit my letter of intent for the NIFA Fellowship, and sign on my committee members. My committee will consist of:

Adviser: Kim Burnett, UHERO
Ted Radovich, TPSS
Chris Lepcyzk, NREM
Jinan Banna, FHNS
Tomo Miura, NREM?