Komohana Research and Extension Center, Hilo, Hawaiʻi · October 1–3, 2015
A day of talks and hands-on skill shares in Hilo, a day of panels, then farm tours and a film. 25 recordings: nine talks including Drake Weinert's keynote, six demonstrations on the lawn, eight panels, a short ceremony and hallway interviews. Every one is checked line by line and boiled down to what was made, what was measured and what was only told.
Also on the record: Konkuk 2016
6 talks on “culture”
The day's host thanks Derek (the KTA talk) and Vincent, says why Korean Natural Farming matters, and calls Dr. Hoon Park up to be thanked for bringing it to Hawaiʻi. The room applauds and Dr. Park lifts up a gift that looks like a wooden bowl.
Found Dr. Hoon Park was thanked for bringing Korean Natural Farming to Hawaiʻi
Donna Mitts of the Kohala Center's Hawaiʻi Island School Garden Network introduces staff from four schools: Kalanianaʻole (Drake Weinert), Waiākea High (Robert Kobayashi), Kamehameha Schools (ʻIwalani Haia, Keliʻi Akina) and Laupāhoehoe Community Public Charter School (Jenny, Mark Fontaine, Lou). They show their gardens, pig pens and animals, and talk about money, administrators and cafeteria rules. Natural farming comes up as Microbes (IMO), Protectors (LAB), bone-based calcium and natural-farming pig pens. Nobody gives a rate or a measured result.
Five Kanaka farmers and cultural practitioners from Hawaiʻi Island, Oʻahu, Maui and Molokaʻi talk about how natural farming fits old Hawaiian practice, ʻāina, health and sovereignty. Alika Atay gives the most practice: the Hawaiian moon calendar, calcium phosphate at flowering, moving the Microbes (IMO) pile, mountain and ocean water, and keeping Protectors (LAB) off fruit. Dana Keawe describes IMO made at 9,000 feet on Mauna Kea for a native-plant nursery and IMO-infused biochar in a native forest restoration.
Found Hugelkultur beds sprayed with natural farming solutions broke down faster
Bill Steiner, former UH Hilo dean of agriculture, opens with innovation in old Hawaiian farming (the Kohala field system) and his own oil palm trial, then hands off to five project leaders. Paul Tower pitches a planned Oʻahu plant turning food waste into pig feed, renewable natural gas, compost and hydroponic lettuce; Vincent Mina tells how a 2,000 sq ft greens farm on Maui led him to the Farmers Union; Dave Sansone shows low-effort agroforestry; David Fuertes shows a Kohala ʻohana taro, sweet potato and natural-farming livestock project that makes Microbes (IMO) a ton at a time; Bob Shaffer describes digging up a million cubic yards of buried bagasse and soil at the old Haina sugar mill for potting soil.
Short phone-camera interviews with people at the symposium, opening with joking between Drake Weinert, an Australian visitor and a man in an HFUU shirt. Musician Gene Tamashiro speaks on natural law and protecting Hawaiʻi from GMO laws; visitors from Australia, Maui and another island say what they came for; a young farmer explains why small farms need retail prices; Keahi Tajon talks about growing food to feed people.
On the last evening, just before the film, HFUU president Vincent Mina brings up two of the union's nine chapter presidents. Kyle Studer of the East Hawaiʻi chapter says farmers have to be in politics or get run over, and Alika Atay talks about regenerating poisoned land, organizing people against organized money, and asking the senator to protect Hawaiian canoe plants from genetic modification.
Found HFUU has nine chapters and has grown exponentially in five years
