Honolulu, HAWAI’I — Breadfruit research 20 years ago barely made a ripple when Dr. Diane Ragone began her research that became the catalyst for today’s surge of interest in the fruit that sustains social, cultural and economic abundance and has been cherished and cultivated by the people of Oceania for millenniums.
Flash forward to 2012 when the University of Hawaii Pacific Business Center Program initiated the first Breadfruit Summit in American Samoa — introducing gluten free ulu to the world market.
This led to the Business Center’s Pacific Regional Breadfruit Initiative (PRBI). Launched at the 2013 Micronesian Chiefs Executives meeting in Saipan, the project picked up steam championed by the late Governor Eloy Songao Inos of CNMI and with the support of R&D grants from US Department of the Interior Office of Insular Affairs.
Now four years later, The 2016 Hawaii Pacific Global Breadfruit Summit (August 27-31) will bring together leading experts to endorse the vast human, health and environmental benefits of potentially “one of the most important crops of the 21st century.”
The summit venue is the Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie, Oahu.
PANELS
The 2016 Hawaii Pacific Global Breadfruit panels are loaded with information by experts and practitioners from ground to table, from farm to lab and from ancestral wisdom to modern reaffirmations. Learn about processing, drying, milling and product development; enjoy the opportunities for breadfruit food samples and hear the compelling scientific and medical analysis of breadfruit and the amazing implications for health and resistance to diseases caused by processed foods.
HIGH NUTRITIONAL VALUE
Additionally, Dr. Ragones’ research partner, Dr. Susan Murch of the University of British Columbia, analyzed the protein content of 49 breadfruit cultivars to identify high nutrient varieties for mass propagation. Each had the full suite of essential amino acids, and one — a Samoan cultivar called Ma’afala — surpassed even soybeans.
Breadfruit is gluten free and can significantly address health complications due to celiac disease. Breadfruit flour’s low glycemic index can replace wheat flour in cooking that can significantly reduce and even stop obesity and diabetes.
Changing behavior is long term and difficult, but it only takes a creative moment in the kitchen to change ingredients. Pizza crust made of breadfruit flour is actually more delectable and healthy. Children will not hesitate to eat it, perhaps even noticing an improvement in overall taste.
FDA RULING REGARDING BREADFRUIT
Breadfruit flour entrepreneurs in the Pacific and Caribbean working collaboratively with the US Territories will soon be able to access the US Market. A key FDA ruling last February, determined breadfruit flour safe for use, based on extensive safety tests done in Dr. Susan Murch's lab. Flour made out of breadfruit, and products containing it, could hit U.S. shelves as early as the end of this year, definitely by 2017. Dr. Ragone and Dr. Murch will be featured on panels they will be leading.
HONORING THE GIANTS
Additionally, in concert with the Breadfruit Summit theme of Honoring and Sharing, both professors, Diane Ragone and Susan Murch will be honored with Aloha Global Awards on the morning of the 27th at the Polynesian Cultural Center in Lai’e. Also being honored with global awards are elder Kupuna Kalani Souza, Agroforesty Scientist and author Craig Elevitch, Entrepreneur/ Pioneer Papalii Grant Percival of Samoa, and Professor Laura B. Roberts-Nkrumah of the University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago.
KEYNOTE
Nikolao Pula, US Department of the Interior Director of Insular Affairs will deliver the keynote address. Mr. Pula’s support was instrumental to the establishment of the Pacific Regional Breadfruit Initiative concept and its potential for sustainable economic development in the Pacific and Caribbean.
BACKGROUND
Mintel Group Ltd. a global market research firm that tracks trends, emerging markets, social and cultural trends and analysis has consistently forecasted a multi-billion dollar U.S. health market demand for gluten free low glycemic food products with a projected forecast of 15 Billion for 2016. The compelling opportunity for breadfruit is that it is relatively unknown to the mainstream US Market and global market in general outside the Pacific and Caribbean. Breadfruit products have not entered the US market except through specialized niche communities.
Today, with the surge of global hunger, rampant obesity and diabetes particularly in the Pacific Islands, food security concerns associated with climate change, at risk dependence on import based food economies and the need for greater self-reliance through locally based and sustainable economic development; Global interest in breadfruit research is at the forefront.
SUMMIT VALUES
The Hawaii Pacific Global Breadfruit Summit theme is ‘Honoring and Sharing’. The values of the summit are personified by the actions of an ancient Hawaiian god who during a time of starvation changed himself into a breadfruit tree to save his loved ones and people from imminent starvation. By stepping down from the clouds to the world of man with humility, embracing it with respect and sustaining it with aloha, he took up the values that are also the values of the Breadfruit Summit.
The Mission of the Breadfruit Summit is to weave traditional wisdom and cultural knowledge with modern knowledge, science and technology within the context the summits' values of humility, respect and aloha.
To learn more about the summer, the following website will provide registration, agenda and accommodations information:
http://globalbreadfruitsummit.com