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

6 talks on “pigs”

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

Jeff Melrose ·USA (Hawaiʻi) ·74 min

Hawaiʻi Cropland Shrank From 350,000 to 153,000 Acres

Jeff Melrose, a land-use planner, previews the 2015 statewide map of Hawaiʻi's farms, made with UH Hilo's SDAV lab for the state Department of Agriculture. He stands in for HDOA chair Scott Enright, who was ill. He compares the 1937 and 1980 maps with 2015: about 153,000 acres in crops and 763,000 in pasture, down from 350,000 and 1.1 million in 1980. Then he goes island by island, adds pig and bee maps, and takes questions. HFUU president Vincent Mina introduces him and closes with a pitch for HFUU chapters and membership.

Found 2015: about 153,000 acres in crops and 765,000 acres in pasture

bees coffee economics pigs policy research

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

Chris Trump, John Caverly, David Wong ·USA (Hawaiʻi) ·90 min

Mac Nuts, Kalo and 500 Pigs: Natural Farming at Scale

Three Hawaiʻi Island farmers tell how they run natural farming at scale: Chris Trump on his family's 750 acres of macadamia nuts in Kohala, John Caverly ("Ginger John") on 18 acres of kalo, sugar cane and vegetables, and David Wong on 10 acres of Asian vegetables and about 500 pigs. They give their application rates, how they make Microbes (IMO) by the ton with farm machinery, what weeds and mowing cost, and the permits a no-smell piggery needed. Moderated by Kyle, president of the HFUU East Hawaii chapter.

Found About 750 acres of mac nuts; about 300 in natural farming

economics macadamia microbes pigs scale soil

Adam Reed, Sally Bredeweg, Kori Hasashima ·USA (Hawaiʻi) ·39 min

How NRCS Sizes a Natural Farming Piggery

Three NRCS staff, introduced by HFUU's Vincent Mina. Agronomist Adam Reed gives four soil health principles and shows a slake test of tilled against no-till soil. Engineer Sally Bredeweg works through sizing a deep-litter (IDLS) piggery for 1 boar, 3 sows and 20 growers, from square feet per pig to an 18-inch covered ridge opening. Kori Hasashima then covers NRCS practices, EQIP and the other cost-share programs, and who was eligible in 2015.

Found NRCS spent its first 75 years focused on soil erosion; soil biology is 'our new mission'

economics microbes no-till pigs policy soil

Paul Tower, Vincent Mina, Dave Sansone, David Fuertes, Bob Shaffer ·USA (Hawaiʻi) ·90 min

Food Waste to Pig Feed, Taro by Hand, Soil from a Gulch

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.

Found Steiner imported 10,000 oil palm seeds of three strains from Costa Rica, about six or seven years earlier

culture economics microbes pigs policy scale