Twitter profile picture of Sam Knowlton
Tweet by Sam Knowlton @samdknowlton

Native Hawaiians Developed a Self-Sufficient Agricultural System

🧵 The TL;DR

Native Hawaiians developed an agricultural system called the ahupua'a system which was capable of producing 1 million metric tons of food from just 6 percent of Hawaii's land. This was enough to feed 86% of the current population.

    🔑 Key Points

  • Ahupua'a is a geographic unit used to delineate a specific land management and food production area
  • Upper forests were untouched and agroforestry was planted below it, mixing endemic plants with the canoe plants brought by the first Polynesians
  • Taro was grown in terraced and irrigated pools and fish ponds in the tidal pools allowed for fish to be captured with sluice gates

View Tweet Thread