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Cho at 82: Natural Farming Is Love, Not a Technique

Cho Han-kyu, Founder, Janong Natural Farming Institute (Cho Global Natural Farming) · South Korea

Spoken in Korean. Translated to English and checked line by line.

Master Cho, 82, speaks without slides near the end of the first day. Despite the uploader's title, this is not a history lecture. His point is that natural farming is a movement of love, not a technique, and he makes it with stories: turning Kona lava into 3 cm of soil in six months with corn and microbes, Hawaiʻi's vanished egg farms, a 1,200-hectare project in China, and a spring made with bananas in Africa. He also corrects the students on Microbes (IMO4): mix in soil from the field the IMO4 will go to.

What they found

The question

Main claim: natural farming is not a technique but love, a movement still in progress, which uses what is already on the land and lets microbes build soil, and which can spread from a few hubs to the whole world.

How they tested it

Spoken address in Korean, about 22 minutes, no slides (the screen is blank throughout). Konkuk University, Seoul, October 5, 2016, late in the day after the students' trial reports. Live English interpretation went to headsets and is not on the recording. No trial design, plot sizes or statistics: the evidence is his own field stories from Hawaiʻi, China, Afghanistan, an unnamed African country and Taiwan.

Results
  1. He has farmed since age 14 and is now 82

    Said as part of thanking Prof. Kim Doo-hwan and Konkuk for holding the symposium; 82 is probably his age counted the Korean way (his books put him at 14 when the Korean War began in 1950).

    ▶ 2:52 As spoken

  2. Natural farming is 'not a technique, it is love'

    A mother does not raise a baby by technique; she knows by feeling when to change a diaper. Farming should work from the same love.

    ▶ 3:42 As spoken

  3. Hawaiʻi once had more than ten large egg farms; now none

    Cheap eggs and feed are shipped from the U.S. mainland, so local egg farms ran at a loss and closed. Farm size heard as 'over ten thousand birds' but unclear.

    ▶ 5:42 As spoken

  4. On Kona lava, corn and microbes made 3 cm of soil in six months

    Loren Cunningham, president of the University of the Nations in Kona, gave him a patch of rock (about 20 pyeong, about 66 m², as heard). Corn from University of Hawaiʻi seed grew on its seed reserve, stalled, then grew 1.2 m in a week after a natural farming input. The stalks were cut and laid down and corn planted again on top.

    ▶ 7:06 As spoken

  5. Six months did the work of 600 years

    His arithmetic: 1 cm of topsoil takes about 200 years to form, so 3 cm is about 600 years of weathering, done in six months by microbes.

    ▶ 8:51 As spoken

  6. Ask how to use what is on hand, not what to buy

    'What to give' is the past tense; 'how to use what is already there' is the future tense. Example: he told Native Hawaiian lessees to sow rapeseed for flowers, tourists and oil.

    ▶ 9:47 As spoken

  7. Natural farming 'is not a finished edition; it is still in progress'

    Each region should develop what fits it and hand it down. He says the students showed him things he had not thought of.

    ▶ 10:28 As spoken

  8. A 1,200-hectare natural farming project in China, about 10 billion won invested

    Earlier he gives the area as 4 million pyeong (about 1,320 ha). He plans a demonstration farm and a natural farming village there.

    ▶ 10:55 As spoken

  9. Target: a household income of $3,000 (3 million won) a month

    However enjoyable farming is, people won't farm without income; no place has taken up his village plan yet, so he will build it in China.

    ▶ 12:19 As spoken

  10. Seawater and eggshell lift the flavor of bland, chemically grown greens

    Prompted by greens at the previous night's dinner that smelled raw and had no fragrance.

    ▶ 13:57 As spoken

  11. IMO4 must be made with soil from the field it will be used on

    IMO3 (the culture multiplied on rice bran) plus an equal amount of soil makes IMO4. Microbes are the most jealous of living things and kill rivals; cultured with that field's soil, the incoming microbes meet 'cousins and uncles' and settle in. He says the presenters did not say which soil they used.

    ▶ 14:47 As spoken

  12. Microbes are about 80% water, so living soil can carry crops without rain

    Crops grow where soil moisture is over 70%; he tells the Afghan students that indigenous microbes are their only way on cold, dry sand and gravel.

    ▶ 18:22 As spoken

  13. Bananas planted along a desert valley in Africa gave a spring

    He says the bananas draw moisture from the air and drip it, the water collected into a spring, and a village now drinks from it, after Korean aid groups (including KOICA) said nothing would work. Country name unclear.

    ▶ 18:56 As spoken

  14. Plan: gatherings in Hawaiʻi, then Taiwan, China and Japan; hubs for whole regions

    Taiwan for Southeast Asia, China for Asia, Hawaiʻi for the Pacific Rim. In Taiwan a village built around a church is becoming a natural farming base and eco-tourism site where 'the frogs are the masters'.

    ▶ 21:03 As spoken

Hold it loosely
  • A spoken address with no slides and no data; every result is his own account, not a trial.
  • The Kona soil figure (3 cm in six months) comes with no measuring method; the 600-year comparison assumes his 200-years-per-cm rule.
  • The Africa spring story gives no country (name unclear), dates or measurements, and the 'bananas draw water from the air' explanation is his own.
  • Numbers heard once, by one transcript, are uncertain: 20 pyeong of rock, 50 cm of growth on the seed reserve, the size and count of Hawaiʻi egg farms, 2,000–3,000 won rent.
  • The old, fast, dialect-heavy Korean defeated both machine transcripts in places; about a fifth of the lines carry [unclear] gaps.
  • The uploader's title promises a world history of natural farming. He does not cover the Japanese roots or name earlier teachers here, and none of that has been added.
For your farm
  • Make Microbes (IMO4) with soil from the field you will spread it on, so the cultured microbes settle in as relatives rather than fight as rivals.
  • Living soil holds water: by his count microbes are about 80% water, so building soil life may help crops through dry spells.
  • On rock or bare ground, grow a fast crop like corn, cut it, lay it down and plant again; repeated, this assists soil formation.
  • To assist flavor and fragrance, his first tools are Minerals (seawater) and eggshell calcium, the base of Reproduction (WCA).
  • Start from what is already on the farm before buying anything.
  • A farm has to pay: he sets a family income near $3,000 a month as the goal.

Next to Master Cho's teaching

  • Agrees

    Farming since 14 His book says he was born on a farm and joined the 4H club in Suwon when the Korean War broke out, at 14.

    Cho, Janong Natural Farming (2010 draft), p. 7

  • Agrees

    No young people left in the countryside In 2017 he says the same of Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan and Hawaiʻi: no young people in rural areas, so no future for the country.

    2017/Advanced Cho/advanced fruit/IMG_3213 @ 0:20:15 (translated)

  • Agrees

    Universities teach chemical farming In 2018 he says universities and extension centers teach that scientific farming means chemicals, which serves the pesticide companies.

    2018/Cho - advanced hawaii/master cho 2018 1-1 @ 0:52:43 (translated)

  • Agrees

    Love, and the mother who knows when to change the diaper He uses the same image in 2018: the baby cries, the mother knows without being told and changes the diaper; farm with the heart's eyes.

    2018/Cho - advanced hawaii/cho advanced 2018 3-1 @ 1:13:02 (translated)

  • Agrees

    Hawaiʻi's egg farms closed In 2018 he says Hawaiʻi had quite a few egg farms, but rising feed prices and cheap mainland eggs shut them all down. This talk adds the count 'more than ten'.

    2018/Cho - advanced hawaii/master cho 2018 1-1 @ 0:16:20 (translated)

  • Agrees

    Corn on Kona lava, University of Hawaiʻi seed, 1 m+ in a week The 2018 retelling has the same steps: just provide water, seed from the University of Hawaiʻi, growth on the seed's 'milk' then a stall (there about 30 cm), then about 1 m in a week after the type 2 input. A 2017 Hilo session names Loren Cunningham of the University of the Nations as the one who gave him the rock land.

    2018/Cho - advanced hawaii/cho advanced 2018 2-1 @ 0:15:49 (translated)

  • Agrees

    3 cm of soil = 600 years In 2017 he gives the same arithmetic: 1 cm takes about 200 years, so 3 cm laid down with corn is 600 years' work. There he says one year; here six months.

    2017/Advanced Cho/poultry/day 7/IMG_0463 @ 0:00:00 (translated)

  • Agrees

    Use what is on hand, not what to buy In 2017 he says the question is not what to feed pigs or chickens but how to use the resources around you.

    2017/Advanced Cho/poultry/day 2/IMG_9920 @ 0:05:24 (translated)

  • Agrees

    China project: 4 million pyeong, 10 billion won In 2017 he describes the same project: 4 million pyeong (about 1,100 ha by his conversion), a Korean company's 10 billion won and Chinese government money.

    2017/Advanced Cho/poultry/day 4/IMG_5020 @ 0:00:00 (translated)

  • Agrees

    IMO4 with the field's own soil: relatives, not rivals In 2018 he explains IMO4 the same way: field microbes find their 'uncles and sisters' have arrived and become friends. The 'most jealous of living things' image is new here.

    2018/Cho - advanced hawaii/cho advanced 2018 2-3 @ 1:00:58 (translated)

  • Agrees

    Microbes are 80% water, so farming without rain In 2018 he says rice grows wherever soil moisture is over 70%, because microbes are about 80% water, and that he grew rice this way in the Tanzanian desert.

    2018/Cho - advanced hawaii/master cho 2018 1-1 @ 0:22:19 (translated)

  • Agrees

    Seawater and eggshell for flavor His recipe book says WCA (eggshell calcium) improves taste and fragrance when used with seawater and other inputs.

    Cho, Natural Farming Agricultural Materials (Recipe), p. 62

  • Goes further

    A spring made with bananas in Africa No other telling found in the corpus. His books record lectures and work in Tanzania and Congo, and he tells other Tanzania desert stories.

    Cho, Janong Natural Farming (2003), p. 209–212

  • Agrees

    Nature is God's creation; restore the Earth In 2017 he says we live on the Earth God created and destroying it with synthetic chemicals is a grave sin.

    2017/Advanced Cho/poultry/day 4/IMG_4980 @ 0:08:05 (translated)

“Natural farming is not a technique. It is love.”

▶ 3:42

“In six months, 600 years of weathering and assimilation, done by microbes. That is natural farming.”

▶ 8:51

“Natural farming is not a finished edition; it is still in progress.”

▶ 10:28

“Natural farming is a movement. A movement of love.”

▶ 21:25

In this talk

  1. 0:00Empty villages, no young farmers
  2. 2:10Universities teach chemicals
  3. 2:26Thanks to Konkuk; farming since 14
  4. 3:05Just back from China
  5. 3:34Love, not technique
  6. 4:41Hawaiʻi: costs, egg farms, tourists
  7. 6:35Turning Kona lava into soil
  8. 9:01Rapeseed for Native Hawaiian land
  9. 9:47Use what you already have
  10. 10:20Still in progress
  11. 10:44China: 1,200 hectares at 82
  12. 11:35Next gatherings, global village
  13. 13:29Seawater and eggshell for flavor
  14. 14:23IMO4: use your own field's soil
  15. 17:14The foreign students' results
  16. 17:48Afghanistan: microbes hold water
  17. 18:46Africa: bananas and a spring
  18. 20:00Taiwan, China, Hawaiʻi as hubs
  19. 21:25A movement of love

Transcript

English translation, checked against the Korean as spoken. Click any time to play from there.