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

7 talks on “taro”

Vincent Mina ·USA (Hawaiʻi) ·36 min

A Sewer-Pipe Worm Trough That Eats 100 lb of Pulp a Week

Vincent Mina, state president of Hawaii Farmers Union United, opened the symposium hall talks with the story of his 2,000-square-foot greens farm and the union's policy work, then walked through slides of his backyard worm system: half-pipe troughs cut from 2-foot sewer pipe and fed health-food-store juice pulp, mineral powder, biochar and Microbes (IMO-3). He also showed how he makes IMO-3 by the ton on wheat mill run and biochar, his compost screener, a hau-flower Food (FPJ), and a taro planting on old cane land mulched with sun hemp.

Found His farm makes a living on 2,000 sq ft, producing about 400 lb of greens a week

biochar food microbes policy soil taro

John Caverly ("Ginger John") ·USA (Hawaiʻi) ·6 min

How Microbes Brought the Worms Back to Old Cane Land

A Hilo-side farmer opens the Microbes (IMO) skill share on the lawn with his own story. His old cane land at Onomea had no earthworms and nothing would grow; after he began making Microbes with Dr. Park, seedlings given Microbes outgrew his organic mix, and 500 lb of IMO-4 laid under a diseased kalo field was followed two weeks later by worms everywhere. He says he has bought no organic fertilizer in seven years and that it takes about 40 days to go from rice to bagged IMO-4.

Found Seedlings given Microbes were plainly bigger in two weeks

bananas earthworms microbes mulch soil taro

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

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

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

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

Vincent Mina, Kyle Studer, Alika Atay ·USA (Hawaiʻi) ·8 min

Not at the Table? You're on the Menu

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

canoe plants culture farmers union policy politics soil