Komohana Research and Extension Center, Hilo, Hawaiʻi · October 1–3, 2015

Natural Farming Symposium 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.

Read what it all adds up to →

Also on the record: Konkuk 2016

Topics microbes soil economics policy health taro culture food pigs scale protectors research biochar fermentation minerals school gardens Clear

8 talks on “health”

Derek Kurisu ·USA (Hawaiʻi) ·18 min

How a Hilo Grocer Put Local Food and IMO on the Shelf

A KTA Super Stores executive explains how the store's Mountain Apple Brand grew to about 45 local partners and 210 products, and how KTA raised local leafy produce to 90–97% and local beef from about 5% to 45% of sales. He then tells how Dr. Hoon Park won him over to Korean Natural Farming, which led KTA to sell a bagged Microbes (IMO) product, IMOlizer, and to hope for natural-farming food on its shelves.

Found Mountain Apple Brand: about 45 business partners and about 210 products

beef economics health local food microbes retail

Dr. Hoon Park, John Caverly ·USA (Hawaiʻi) ·50 min

Microbes (IMO) by Hand: Squeeze Test, Keep It Under 120°F

Dr. Hoon Park and farmer John (very likely 'Ginger John' Caverly) teach the Microbes (IMO) method on the lawn: rice in a box, then rice plus brown sugar, then a pile of wheat mill run wetted with IMO-2 and Food (FPJ) water and checked with a squeeze test. A woman helper who is never named shows an IMO-1 box and talks about mill run supply. A second group gets the IMO-3 temperature rule and Master Cho's four jobs of IMO, Dr. Park tells how he drinks Protectors (LAB) for his stomach, and John says roots and microbes work together.

Found IMO-1 takes about three days here

economics food health microbes protectors soil

Richard Perea ·USA (Hawaiʻi) ·38 min

Fermenting the Weeds Bugs Won't Eat

Richard Perea, a farmer from Ocean View, Kaʻū, runs an outdoor skill share on fermenting plants from his land that bugs won't eat. He shows a Christmas berry ferment of rehydrated leaves, brown sugar and water that he drinks and sprays (the 'Biome Rejuvenation Juice' of the YouTube title; it is neither Cleanser (BRV) nor Cho's Food (FPJ)), plus a hydrosol and a vodka bark extract. Then he builds a 'wild grass fertilizer' from guinea grass, forest mulch, Protectors (LAB) and water, used at a cup and a half per 55 gallons.

Found Guinea grass stopped at the line where he sprayed guinea grass fertilizer

christmas berry food guinea grass health microbes pests

Dr. Hoon Park ·USA (Hawaiʻi) ·23 min

Protectors (LAB): 1 Part Rice Wash, 10 Parts Milk

Dr. Hoon Park shows a crowd on the lawn how to make Protectors (LAB) at a glass-jar table: sour rice-wash serum goes into milk at 1 part to 10, sits covered in the shade for five days, and the yellowish liquid under the curd is strained off and stored. He gives the 1:1000 spray rate, warns against spraying just before a fruit harvest, and tells how he drinks it himself, then answers questions on other milks, animals and the leftover curd. The last two minutes cut to another station, where an unnamed presenter recaps the recipe.

Found 250 ml of rice-wash serum into 2.5 litres of milk: a 10% (1:10) addition

fruit health livestock milk pigs protectors

Ashley Lukens ·USA (Hawaiʻi) ·60 min

Hawaiʻi Hosted 1,141 GE Field Tests to California's 172

At the Thursday lunch, Dr. Ashley Lukens, director of the Hawaiʻi Center for Food Safety, walked through her group's report "Pesticides in Paradise" on the seed companies' genetic-engineering field tests and restricted-use pesticide spraying in Hawaiʻi. She drew on industry figures, USDA field-test permits, Kauaʻi spray records and about 150 medical studies, then argued for mandatory disclosure and buffer zones around schools. Short Q&A at the end.

Found Seed crop acreage grew 10x since 1982

economics health pesticides policy research scale

Donna Mitts, Drake Weinert, Robert Kobayashi, ʻIwalani Haia, Keliʻi Akina, Jenny, Mark Fontaine, Lou ·USA (Hawaiʻi) ·89 min

From a 6×6 Bed to 8 Acres: Natural Farming in School Gardens

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.

Found More than 60 school garden programs on Hawaiʻi Island

culture economics health microbes pigs policy

Dana Keawe, Ala Jellings, Gene Tamashiro, Alika Atay, Chris Chang ·USA (Hawaiʻi) ·81 min

Kanaka Farmers: Our Tūtū Already Farmed This Way

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

culture health microbes minerals policy protectors

Russell Ruderman ·USA (Hawaiʻi) ·11 min

Move 10% to Local Food, Keep $300 Million in Hawaiʻi

State Senator Russell Ruderman, introduced by HFUU president Vincent Mina, speaks to the symposium on the last evening. He argues that local food pays off in money, health and soil, that farm-made solutions cut Hawaiʻi's high cost of imported fertilizer, and that farmers need to get into politics to crack open markets like school food.

Found Shifting the local-vs-imported food meter 10% is worth about $300 million to the state

economics health local food policy politics school gardens