100 Pigs, No Bought Feed: Oʻahu's Natural Farming Network

0:00 Aloha. Aloha. At Master Cho's last training in Hawaii, in Kohala, where he trained the next generation to go out and share natural farming. In Kohala, we were taught this oli, or you could say prayer, or an opening. So if you don't mind, our natural farming group will do this opening now.

1:53 [The Hawaiʻi group chants the oli "E Hō Mai".] E hō mai, e hō mai, e hō mai e. That is a traditional oli, or greeting, or opening that we use in Hawaii. A rough, simple translation speaks about asking for the wisdom, asking for the guidance to

2:43 come down from above. In Hawaiian thought, we have a concept called makawalu. Makawalu can be roughly translated as to see things from multiple perspectives. In Western thought, it is often only two sides, black or white, good or evil. In Hawaiian thought, we see with more. So if we can see things and have the perspective of eight or more things, we are able to have a greater understanding and a greater appreciation of life.

3:34 In that chant we did, we spoke about nā mea huna noʻeau, the things that are sacred, the things that are important. And if we take a look at that, we find that IMO, or indigenous microorganisms, are those important things that have been given to us. Those are the secret things to life. Hawaii is a small group of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. There are eight major islands. We are about 4,500 miles away from Korea. Korea is three and a half times larger than Hawaii.

4:25 On our largest island where we come from, where most of us come from, we have about a million people. For myself, in doing natural farming, this is my reason: to make sure that my children have a clean, happy, safe place to live, with the best food and the best nourishment for them. Unfortunately, in Hawaii many of our people are sick. Our land is sick and we have been disconnected from each other and from our homelands and

5:12 our traditional foods. This is kalo, or taro, that has been grown with natural farming technology. There was a time in Hawaii's not so distant past that poi, which is made from the kalo, was done by machine. And many of the machines in the mills drove down the price of taro, of kalo, to make it unaffordable for farmers to grow kalo. In addition, the mills wanted a kalo, or a taro, that was overripe, where the starches

6:02 changed from starch to sugar so it could easily pass through the mill. More recently, we have become to adopt our traditional method of preparing poi and preparing kalo, where we take a wooden board and a stone and we brush or we mash our kalo. In order to do this, we must have a very, very high grade product, a very high grade kalo. Much of the kalo that has been grown for the mills was overripe and you could not do this. With natural farming, we are able to produce a very high quality product where we can once

6:50 again make our traditional foods. Less than 100 years ago, this is what Waikīkī, or a major part of the island of Oʻahu, looked like. If you can see the shoreline and the ocean is intact, water flowed continuously from the mountain to the sea. And in between that, there are flooded terraces of kalo and of rice in production. In the past hundred years, this has changed tremendously. We have been removed from this and today this is what our landscape looks like.

7:42 Many of our people have been displaced from their homes, have been displaced from their lands and we are unable to grow the food that we need to keep us healthy and strong. I credit Dr. Hoon Park. It was five years ago that I went to one of his trainings and I thought it was the most amazing thing ever. We have an answer for our people to be able to heal our lands and to be able to heal ourselves. The past five years have been sort of a whirlwind experience where less than a few months later I was able to meet and learn from Master Cho directly.

8:29 And it's actually five years ago to the day that we were in Korea doing farm tours of best management practices. And I'm very humbled to stand before you today to share with you some of the things that we have been doing over the past five years. After learning about natural farming in Hawaii, we were so happy, so excited about it. But one of the challenges we had was that Master Cho was in Korea, and we don't speak Korean and he doesn't speak Hawaiian just yet. One day he will. So we began to seek out other people in Hawaii who have learned from Master Cho, so we

9:18 could share amongst each other. This is Mr. Michael DuPonte, who is a livestock agent with the University of Hawaii, and this is Miss Kim Chang. We began to work together to share natural farming with other people, sharing the joy of making IMO, sharing our practices and doing it together. We have a saying in Hawaii called laulima, which simply means many hands can make light work when we all work together. So we have traveled to almost every major island throughout Hawaii

10:11 sharing the technology of natural farming together. This is Pablo. He is on the island of Hawaii. He learned about making odorless pig pens. He built a pig pen in less than two weeks after learning about the technology and then went back to the Philippines where he's originally from to share the technology with his family and friends in the Philippines. We were also able to start to do instruction at the different community colleges and specifically on farms with different farmers throughout the islands. For ourselves we understood that it was not only important to share the

10:58 information but to do it. Another saying we have is Ma ka hana ka ʻike. In the doing, there is knowledge. Which also means in the knowledge there is doing. So if you receive the knowledge, it is your responsibility. It is your privilege to do it. Our guests have a few cookies in the back there that is made of ʻulu. ʻUlu is also known as breadfruit. That is my son. He is carrying ʻulu right there. and our group has some refreshments for you. So they're going to be passing around some ʻulu cookies, so please enjoy. It's made from the ʻulu that we grew on the farm.

11:46 We were fortunate to be able to apply natural farming to all aspects. Pigs, produce, both fruits and vegetables, as well as root crops. So we have the proof that it works above the ground, below the ground, with livestock. Five years ago we had no land and no animals. Today we are blessed to have a small family farm. My wife now is taking care of our animals. We have about 100 pigs, about two dozen chickens, and a half dozen goats. We do not buy any commercial feed. Zero.

12:34 We have been fortunate to where there have been a lot of breweries to have opened on the island of Oahu. So we take the spent grain that comes from the brewing of the beer, and we use the natural farming inputs to reintroduce the mineral content, the amino acids, the nutrients that are needed to make a high quality feed. So all of our animals are raised on feed that we produce ourselves on farm. We've also begun to share our technology with others. This is Dr. Koon-Hui Wang, a professor of soil science at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa.

13:20 What she was able to do is take soil samples before and after the application of IMO. When she first got a sample of IMO4, looked at it under the microscope, she couldn't believe what she saw. Never did she see such a balanced compost of beneficial bacteria and beneficial fungi in harmony. We have also taken our inputs that we have created and the university has tested them in a food safety lab.

14:07 The United States of America has a series of laws that they will be implementing called the Food Safety Modernization Act. And part of that is taking a look to make sure that our practices are safe. So the university took all of our inputs and tested them, and they were safe. Part of growing natural farming is the ability to share. So three years ago we had our first Hawaii natural farming symposium where others in Hawaii including Chris Trump, Drake Weinert, and Mr. David Wong, shared their best practices

14:54 with other people in Hawaii. All of this has come with tremendous excitement, tremendous joy, but we have also faced challenges along the way. Some of the challenges were economic feasibility of doing instruction. The cost for the materials, the cost to rent a facility to hold instruction, the cost to pay instructors and staff oftentimes was not covered by the fee that we charged to do the instruction. So many of us volunteered or continue to volunteer to make sure instruction is able to happen and we can continue to grow. We have yet been able to create a critical

15:46 mass enough farmers creating enough product to take it to market. So we are looking to grow more farmers so we can begin to introduce natural farming produce and livestock into the marketplace. And the biggest challenge of all is doing it. There have been over 500 people now, I believe, on the Big Island alone who have gone through trainings of natural farming and many of them have not continued. So we're looking at ways to how do we get people to farm and actually do it. These are some of the breakthroughs that we have experienced. The sharing of best practices. We openly

16:30 share the things that we do and experiment to make sure that others can also advance the technology for themselves. Rather than focusing on products, we farm farmers. By the people you see who have traveled from Hawaii today, these are the people that we are growing. And above all, we try to look at the technology that Master Cho has shared with us and try to make sure that it's both place-appropriate and culturally relevant. In looking at the principles of natural farming, we have been able to look at our own history and our own culture and unlock many of the secrets that have existed

17:21 for a very long time that have been hidden. Our instruction now has turned into hands-on learning, where we together in the class make our inputs. Rather than sitting in seats and listening to someone talk, everyone has an opportunity to get their hands dirty. Here we are making FPJ with ong choy. We are making IMO3. Together, all of our hands can feel the warmth, feel the heat, feel the life of IMO. We've also begun to apply the natural farming inputs, not only doing it, but using it.

18:07 This is a native plant garden on the island of Oahu. Most of our landscape has been devastated and invasive non-native plants have been introduced. This is Hui Kū Maoli Ola. They specifically grow indigenous and endemic native plants and they are using the technology to get more native plants back into our lands. Our instruction has changed to be able to accept and have the entire family participate in the process. From young children, mothers, fathers, aunties, uncles, grandmas and grandpas, everyone is welcome to attend.

18:53 Above all, the importance of community, connection, and support. If we have challenges, we can turn to each other for suggestions, for questions, for answers. And we openly share it amongst ourselves. We've also begun to slowly introduce natural farming product to the chefs. They're really excited about it. But for so long, our chefs have never received whole animals. So many chefs in Hawaii aren't sure what to do with an entire carcass. And they really don't know what a true, healthy, natural farming pig really tastes like.

19:43 So we've begun to do tastings where we partner with chefs. so they can have the opportunity to experience for themselves how beautiful and how wonderful our food will be. This is an example of kālua. Two very special people are here that I would like to acknowledge. Auntie Chris Kobayashi, who is on this side of the room. Auntie Chris. Four years ago she had shared with us the huli, or the cuttings, to plant. We took that huli to our farm and we planted it.

20:31 The next generations of cuttings we were able to share with Mr. Steven Boloson, who is on this side of the room. So that huli is what Steven has been growing in his loʻi, and here is an example of a kalo. How beautiful, how dense the kalo is. Through and through there's no rot, solid throughout. Steven has been doing natural farming for going on three, four years now, and he has begun to share his experiences in his area. Even though we live on the same island, all parts of our island are very different. So from his perspective, his area, he is the

21:17 master of that area. So while we're able to share the technology and the principles, the little details of being place specific are unique to each farmer in their own regions. Another way we have begun to empower people to take control of their food is to do home processing where we have fathers and sons working together to prepare their own meats. Brothers, uncles, young and old. The connection to their food is something powerful that words cannot describe.

22:03 In addition to the men and the boys that we have shared this with, we really believe the next generation or the next people we want to reach out to are the women. Women farmers. This is my wahine, this is my wife. She is at home right now taking care of our farm. I will not be here today if not for her. On this side, this is Leah. She comes from an island called Lānaʻi, on Oahu. They are the only livestock producing farm on that island, and they have begun to implement natural farming technology on the small island of Lānaʻi.

22:45 She was brought to tears when she had this experience of processing pigs. Although they've been farming for up to five years now, it has been only a man thing to do. And she never had the experience of preparing her own pigs. So when she finally had the opportunity to do so, she was so overcome with joy. It was a very moving experience for her. So growing natural farming is about community, is about our people. We share in the joy, we share in the making of inputs.

23:37 We also share in our progress, we share in our challenges so we can grow together. The secret of natural farming is love. We have a saying, me ke aloha pau ʻole, the love that is never ending. The reason we do this is not only for ourselves and for our land, but for our next generations. Thank you, Master Cho. We will ensure that our children will be able to continue to live and grow and eat the food that we were meant to eat. You can connect with us on any of these social media channels.

24:25 YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest. My name is Joe McGinn and I thank you for your time and look forward to growing natural farming around the world.