Konkuk University, Seoul · October 5–7, 2016
A day of talks in Seoul, then two days on the farms. 23 talks, three languages. Master Cho's students from ten countries showed what natural farming did on their fields, from Afghan potatoes to Hawaiian macadamias. Every talk is translated, checked line by line, and boiled down to what was tested and what happened.
Also on the record: Hilo 2015
5 talks on “scale”
Chris Trump, who farms 800 acres of macadamia nuts in Hawaiʻi with his family, reports six years of feeding the whole orchard with natural farming only. He says the full program, labor included, costs $21 per acre per year, and that 98% of diseased trees recovered. He also explains why he moved from huge solid Microbes (IMO4) piles to a sprayed liquid Microbes (liquid IMO) program after a storm hit a 50-ton pile.
A short Q&A after the ten morning talks. Chris Trump explained how he moved from 50-ton piles of Microbes (IMO) to small IMO3 batches brewed into liquid IMO; a Hawaiʻi taro grower described IMO4 in flooded fields; the Konkuk students explained their trial designs, how liquid IMO was made for the peanut trial, where the tomato trial's phosphorus came from, and why the potato trial used water-soluble calcium six to nine times stronger than the usual 1:1000. Several questions went unanswered for lack of time or because the presenter had left.
Found Chris Trump has made about 70–75 tons of IMO over three years, not every year
A county extension officer from Gokseong tells how his office moved from organic farming that failed to natural farming under Master Cho, starting in 2009. Natural farming rice in the county grew from 23 ha in 2009 to 200 ha in 2015–2016, with 250 ha expected next. The rest is a photo tour of crops and livestock with field stories, spoken figures and few controlled comparisons.
Found Natural farming rice grew from 23 ha in 2009 to 200 ha in 2015 and 2016
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.
The closing of the symposium. Prof. Kim Doo-hwan sums up the day's 23 talks: foreign graduate students who first met natural farming in March 2016 studied it at Konkuk, practiced it on the Paju farm, ran trials and presented them. He calls on everyone to spread it worldwide and hopes for a second and third symposium. Master Cho promises to back the movement with the years he has left: 'This is the beginning. The seed has been planted.' A Taiwanese Atayal couple sings, and the day ends with a slogan for love shouted in many languages.
