KC3 Essay Final Draft

             Oahu is known as a "paradise" and where everything is calm and relaxed. To tourists, Hawaii is the ideal place for them to have a vacation, and would possibly want to live here. It's okay for Hawaii being a tourist destination, but living here is a different story. Hawaii is a place where you can see a lot of people, taking vacations and all that, people having fun and surfing the waves. But it isn't all fun and games. Living here is actually pretty much almost the same as living in other places in the U.S, just a little more expensive.

            For people in the Mainland, their food is much cheaper than what you get here in Hawaii. For average people in the U.S, you would only have to pay $34.36 for 5 lbs white rice, broccoli and apples, 1 lb ground beef and cheese, 1 dozen eggs, and a gallon of milk. But for different places in Hawaii, people would have to pay $47.61 in Kapahulu at Safeway, $48.41 in Honolulu at Target, and the worst of them all, $62.35 in Hilo at Walmart. The reason for this is because of how far we are from all the places we're getting our imports. Since most of Hawaii's goods are imported, they barely have anything from their agriculture, which makes it impossible for Hawaii to be sustainable. Freight costs don't have a uniform effect on products, but they do  have a particularly notable effect on certain groceries.

            Goods that are imported from different parts of the U.S and other places can bring down what's left of Hawaii's agriculture. If this continues to happen, all  of the agriculture in Hawaii will be gone in 2040. The reason for this is because 85-90% of our food and other goods are imported. It's also because "Hawaii's a giant consumer of the goods that arrive inside the large metal containers on mammoth ships from the west coast." (Living Hawaii: How Much Does Shipping Increase the Cost of Living?,  par. 3) If we have too much food imported from other places, then the food prices go up and it's a higher percentage of the imports coming to us instead of the exports increasing. Our overall prices in the island are even higher than the national average, 17% higher to be exact. Sending the same container of goods that go back to Long Beach would've been much cheaper, which would be at $1,874. The biggest challenge is the fact that we are in the middle of an  ocean and air freight is very expensive.

            More than 70% of Hawaii's electricity is generated by oil while the Mainland only uses 1%. 46.3 million barrels of petroleum were imported for Hawaii's total energy for the past year and $5.09 billion left the state last year to pay for imported petroleum, and it was $4,000 for every person living in Hawaii. With that petroleum, we burned 11.3 million barrels of petroleum last year just for electricity. We can't compete with the Mainland's manufactured things when it has electricity costs embedded in it. This is probably one of the most expensive things to spend on for your time living here in Hawaii. Also imagine all of the other people using electricity. We're such a big consumer of goods that arrive inside large metal containers on the largest industrial ships on the west coast. "Hawaii's reliance on shipped-in goods is often cited as a major component of the "Price of Paradise."("Living Hawaii: How Much Does Shipping Increase the Cost of Living?,  par. 8) It's also no doubt that for more than 200 years, sending goods across the sea can get difficult, and it already is. But on the bright side, many of the other companies that transport goods today upgraded their processes and techniques for the 21st century. Although they solved that problem, freight prices still change a lot for various reasons. Even if freight costs don't have a uniform effect on products, they do have a notable effect on certain groceries.

          If we keep relying on resources from other countries, we won't be able to live on our own. Since all of our food, clothing, daily needs, and others are too pricey, people that live here will have a hard time, and soon enough people will start leaving. It's much less expensive in the Mainland, because almost everything come from the Mainland. The meat, fruits, vegetables, poultry, all of that is mostly grown and raised there, so they have their advantages. Most of our agriculture is already gone, so we can't really do much about it. Hawaii's too westernized, which is why most of what Hawaii's known for isn't there anymore. With all of this happening, it's impossible that Hawaii will be sustainable. What's important is our Ohana, and how they feel about them having to pay a little more for groceries, because we're making this very hard for ourselves.

KC3 Essay

           Oahu is known as a "paradise" and where everything is calm and relaxed. To tourists, Hawaii is the ideal place for them to have a vacation, and would possibly want to live here. It's okay for Hawaii being a tourist destination, but living here is a different story. Hawaii is a place where you can see a lot of people, taking vacations and whatnot, people having fun and surfing the waves. But it isn't all fun and games. Living here is actually pretty much almost the same as living in other places in the U.S, just a little more expensive. For people in the Mainland, their food is much cheaper than what you get here in Hawaii. For average people in the U.S, you would only have to pay $34.36 for 5 lbs white rice, broccoli and apples, 1 lb ground beef and cheese, 1 dozen eggs, and a gallon of milk. But for different places in Hawaii, people would have to pay $43.85 in Keeaumoku at Walmart, $47.61 in Kapahulu at Safeway, $48.41 in Honolulu at Target, and the worst of them all, $62.35 in Hilo at Walmart. Another problem is how much it costs for the goods to get here. It costs less for California because most containers leave Hawaii empty. Usually, less demand translates into lower prices. Since most of Hawaii's goods are imported, they barely have anything from their agriculture, which makes it impossible for Hawaii to be sustainable. Freight costs don't have a uniform effect on products, but they do  have a particularly notable effect on certain groceries.

            Goods that are imported from different parts of the U.S and other places can bring down what's left of Hawaii's agriculture. If this continues to happen, all  of the agriculture in Hawaii will be gone in 2040. The reason for this is because 85-90% of our food and other goods are imported. It's also because "Hawaii's a giant consumer of the goods that arrive inside the large metal containers on mammoth ships from the west coast." (Living Hawaii: How Much Does Shipping Increase the Cost of Living?,  par. 3) If we have too much food imported from other places, then the food prices go up and it's a higher percentage of the imports coming to us instead of the exports increasing. Our overall prices in the island are even higher than the national average, 17% higher to be exact. Sending the same container of goods that go back to Long Beach would've been much cheaper, which would be at $1,874. The biggest challenge is the fact that we are in the middle of an  ocean and air freight is very expensive. 

       
            More than 70% of Hawaii's electricity is generated by oil while the Mainland only uses 1%. 46.3 million barrels of petroleum were imported for Hawaii's total energy for the past year and $5.09 billion left the state last year to pay for imported petroleum, and it was $4,000 for every person living in Hawaii. With that petroleum, we burned 11.3 million barrels of petroleum last year just for electricity. We can't compete with the Mainland's manufactured things when it has electricity costs embedded in it. Since we have so much demand, our goods are much more expensive. Less demand usually turns into lower prices. It's much less expensive in the Mainland, because almost everything come from the Mainland. The meat, fruits, vegetables, poultry, all of that is mostly grown and raised there, so they  have their advantages. Living in the Mainland is a little bit easier than living here in Hawaii.

           We're such a big consumer of goods that arrive inside large metal containers on the largest industrial ships on the west coast. "Hawaii's reliance on shipped-in goods is often cited as a major component of the "Price of Paradise.""Living Hawaii: How Much Does Shipping Increase the Cost of Living?,  par. 8) It's also no doubt that for more than 200 years, sending goods across the sea can get difficult, and it already is. But on the bright side, many of the other companies that transport goods today upgraded their processes and techniques for the 21st century. Although they solved that problem, freight prices still change a lot for various reasons. Even if freight costs don't have a uniform effect on products, they do have a notable effect on certain groceries. 

          If we keep relying on resources from other countries, we won't be able to live on our own. Since all of our food, clothing, daily needs, and others are too pricey, people that live here will have a hard time, and people will start leaving. Most of our agriculture is already gone, so we can't really do much about it. Hawaii's too westernized, which is why most of what Hawaii's known for isn't there anymore. With all of this happening, it's impossible that Hawaii will be sustainable. What's important is that people in our community are happy, but we're making this very hard for ourselves.