Market Development for a Heritage Agroforestry Crop – Breadfruit in Hawaiʻi

Take a listen to this phenomenal interview with Dana Shapiro, CEO of the Hawai‘i Ulu Cooperative. Ulu is the Hawaiian word for Breadfruit, which is a tree crop starch that traveled across the Pacific Ocean in canoes, and can still grow straight out of lava rock. And the conversation got. good. and I think we did a solid job of profiling this case study in rebuilding a food system with agroforestry. Hawai‘i imports 90% of its food, while half its farmland is fallow. Meanwhile, Dana and her team are harvesting over 200,000 pounds of breadfruit every year, building a farmer-owned supply chain across four islands. They are proving that this ancient crop can once again feed communities.And this isn’t just a feel-good story. We talk about the real life economics of getting ulu into the market and onto dinner plates in Hawaiʻi. There’s rum made from sugarcane windbreaks, chickens boosting tree yields, and farmers learning to transition from field crops to multistory agroforestry. If you’ve ever wondered what it really takes to bring heritage staple crop back online — not just agriculturally, but economically, socially, and culturally — this episode is for you.