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workshops, horticulture, cooking classes, mass
media, posters, print materials, on postal stamps,
youth clubs, school activities, farmers’ fairs, com-
petitions, email (Englbergeret al.,2010b), slogans:
“Go Yellow” and “Let’s Go Local”, and the use of
local food policies.
The second phase also included the evaluation
(Kaufer et al.,2010).
The project showed these successes of promotion
of local food:- Increase in the frequency of consumption of
banana and giant swamp taro. - Increase in the number of banana varieties planted.
- Increase in dietary diversity, in particular,
vegetables. - A positive change in attitude towards local foods
in the community.
3.5 Other documentations of island foods
Two chapters, one on banana and one on taro, were
written for the book titled “Ethnobotany of Pohnpei:
Plants, People and Island Culture” (Balick et al.,
2009), highlighting the rich content of the many va-
rieties of banana and taro. The book also high-
lighted our involvement in the CINE-led case study
and the “go local” campaign.3.6 Local food policies
Local food policies were defined broadly and in-
cluded community policies to use only local foods at
meetings and workshops held by the Island Food
Community of Pohnpei and by the community in
Mand. Later this further developed into a policy that
Mand Community adopted to ban soft drinks in their
community meetings. Other Pohnpei communities
also adopted bans on soft drinks in their events, in-
cluding the Pingelapese Peoples’ Organization, Inc.
and the Kosrae Kolonia Congregational Church. A
national policy was established with the FSM Pres-
ident signing a food security proclamation that all
FSM national events use local food at their events.
In order to help promote rare yellow- and orange-
fleshed banana varieties, a general policy was alsoadopted by IFCP to buy just those varieties for their
meetings and events, in place of the white-fleshed
banana variety that is most commonly consumed in
Pohnpei as a ripe eating banana.4. Lessons learned
Our lessons learned were many. Some of these were:- Community- and interagency-based approach
was important. - Walk the Talk: To promote local foods, it was
essential to use local foods. - Repetition: Messages needed to be repeated
many times. - Mass media (radio, newspaper, email, videos,
television) helped a lot. - Face-to-face encounters were also important.
- Multiple methods: It is important to use a variety
of methods. - Slogans (Go Local and Go Yellow): These are
important for branding and unity. - Scientific approach: Community people wanted
a scientific approach. - Food analysis was critical to establishing the
value of their local food. - Assessment and evaluation of the work was
important to show progress. - Acknowledgement of everyone’s involvement
increased motivation and interest. - Local food policies: These were important and are
still being further developed.
Many people were not aware of how their diet and
physical activity affected their health, and innova-
tive methods were needed to help them gain this
understanding. On the other hand, many people
were more interested in the other values of local
foods. Protecting cultural identity through the
preservation of the traditional food system was very
important for many people.
The economic, environmental and food security
benefits were important as well to help put forth the
broad benefits that locally grown food provide. The
use of the CHEEF acronym was very helpful for ex-