Monday January 24, 2011, 3:19 am
Farmer Samson Delos Reyes reached into his bluejeans pocket to grab a phone call from a buyer and ended up smiling but shaking his head.

The caller wanted to triple her order of his pungent Thai basil, to 60 from 20 cases a week, but S&J Farms of Waianae is already booked solid. Since trying "natural farming" last year under the guidance of a folksy South Korean master farmer known as Han Kyu Cho, Delos Reyes said production on his 10-acre plot has doubled — and demand is growing even faster.

"This is my first time having earthworms on my farm," he said, scooping up a handful of earth and nutrient-rich worm castings in his fingers. "They're cultivating the soil for me."

Unlike conventional or even organic farming, "natural farming" is a self-sufficient system to raise crops and livestock with resources available on the farm. Rather than applying chemical fertilizers, farmers boost the beneficial microbes that occur naturally in the soil by collecting and culturing them with everyday ingredients such as steamed rice and brown sugar. They also feed their crops with solutions containing minerals and amino acids made from castoff items such as eggshells and fish bones.

"What others consider rubbish, we use," Cho told gardeners and farmers at a workshop in Honolulu last month. "Natural farming uses local resources, but you have to give what the plants need, when they need it and in the right amounts."

On land once classified as unsuitable for farming, Delos Reyes' sturdy stalks of Vietnamese kalo now stand taller than he does, and his basil bushes are thick with leaves. He no longer has to buy fertilizer, herbicides or pesticides, and he has cut water use by 30 percent. The indigenous microorganisms in the dirt — bacteria, fungi and protozoa — help nourish his crops. The plants grow hardier because their roots have to reach further to find water, according to Cho.

"You use less water, you use less inputs and you end up with a healthier plant which produces more nutritious food, of a higher quality," said landowner David Wong, who ran Oahu's last dairy on this Waianae property and is working with Delos Reyes in the first commercial operation using Cho's methods on Oahu. "Here's a system that is not freight-dependent, and it changes the economics of how agriculture could be done in Hawaii."


Cho, founder of the Janong Natural Farming Institute in Chungbuk, South Korea, held his first workshop in Hilo last February. Dr. Hoon Park, a retired physician in Hilo, heads Cho Global Natural Farming-USA, a nonprofit that promotes Cho's approach. Its workshop last month was sponsored by the Hawaii FFA Foundation, the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Kamehameha Schools, among others.

Across the state, an unusual piggery in Kurtistown on the Big Island is another showcase for Cho's system of "natural farming." The pig farm's claim to fame: It does not smell or attract flies or even require cleaning. And its pigs are thriving.

"It is the first piggery of this kind in the United States," said Michael DuPonte, a livestock extension agent with the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and a technical adviser on the demonstration project. "It's been in production for 20 months, and I haven't cleaned the piggery yet. It looks the same as the day I opened it. No smell, no flies. It's a combination of the dry litter soaking up all the liquids and the microbes working together to break down the manure."

DuPonte said the idea of not cleaning a pigsty did not sit well with him at first blush. "When Master Cho came to see me, I was a skeptic," DuPonte said. "I asked him, 'What about disease?' You don't clean a piggery in Hawaii, guarantee your pigs are going to get sick. He said, 'Don't worry about disease. The microbes will take care of that.' I didn't believe him."

But after a trip to Korea to see a piggery in action, DuPonte became a convert. The Kang Farms "Inoculated Dry Litter System" piggery building, opened in August 2009 in Kurtistown, measures 30 by 60 feet and handles up to 125 pigs. It uses natural ventilation and is oriented for sunlight. The pens are filled with a deep bed of dry sawdust and wood chips, spiked with microorganisms cultivated from local soil that help break down the manure. The pigs are fed rations made from agricultural waste, including sweet potatoes, macadamia nuts and bananas.

DuPonte says the pigs seem "stress-free and contented," and they are good neighbors because the piggery produces no waste, runoff or telltale smell. That is important for Hawaii's swine farmers, who have been pushed from one location after another by urbanization and complaints from neighbors. The piggery project was supported by the University of Hawaii, Farm Pilot Project Coordination, Hawaii County and Agribusiness Development Corp., among others.

"Pig farmers are very, very interested in the system," DuPonte said. "I've had 50 people come in and ask me if I would build these piggeries in their place. It's going to take off, mainly because of lack of odor. Pig farmers have been kicked out of Kam IV Road and then Hawaii Kai, and now they're getting challenges in Waianae and they don't know where they are going to go next."

Versions of natural farming have been practiced for generations in Asia. But scientific proof of its efficacy is hard to come by because it is a complex system that adapts to local conditions, said Ted Radovich, assistant specialist in the Sustainable and Organic Farming Systems Laboratory at the UH College of Tropical Agriculture.

"It looks like there is value there," Radovich said. "There is increasing interest in doing research. While I think there is potential, we're quite a way from understanding how it works."

He said the appeal of Cho's approach in Hawaii lies in its "localness." "Any system that makes some inroads into decreasing our reliance on external inputs and improving the profitability of our local farms is important to consider," he said. "We're not at the point where we can make recommendations yet."

DuPonte estimates that 150 people are practicing "natural farming" techniques in the Hilo area, mainly backyard farmers and gardeners.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service is offering small grants to a few farmers in each Hawaii county who want to try converting part of their fields to natural farming, though not livestock. DuPonte said the ideal candidate is a farmer with about two acres, who would use the money to cover the cost of switching to "natural farming" on a quarter of an acre and keep track of costs and yields.

Cho will return for another workshop in July in Kohala, and he urged folks to give "natural farming" a whirl. "Don't doubt," he said through an interpreter. "Just jump in and try and practice and see how it works out." /article

And so, m'green-minded friends, the article above, IMHO, proves the dealers of franken-foods & toxic chemicals have spread their lies across our fair planet to line their pocket$ while making world farmers dependent upon their deadly products. That age old techniques such as using available resources already located upon the farm to produce healthy, thriving crops/ livestock are not only sustainable, but also produces more nutritious food, of a higher quality!

Monday January 24, 2011, 4:19 am
Great!This kind of articles are nice to read.They really show the power of the organic farming.And these news are very important because the food is basics to anything else

Monday January 24, 2011, 5:23 am
thanx for taking the time to comment, Henri; it is up to us, the citzens to pass along the info we don't need chemicals to produce our food. Given exposure to this concept, the world's food producers could move away from industrial farming practises, which in turn would create jobs for the people.
Can you imagine the small farms reappearing throughout the world as more folks decide natural farming is far more profitable/healthy/enjoyable than the industrial farming which has ruled since the 1940/50s?
Another benefit is, by returning to natural farming, we, as one of Earth's species, return to our natural roots too; becoming more in harmony with the Natural World; as we should be.

Thanx as well to those who have noted, with your help perhaps this good news will reach the front page so others will feast their eyes on the good news!
Peace m'friends!

Tuesday January 25, 2011, 9:40 pm
Love it. Death to Monsanto!

Wednesday January 26, 2011, 1:33 am
heh.. the ariticle above is indeed a reality check to the lies big ag spread 'round the world. Including of course the evil Monsanto & other bio-tech corp$.
The truth is there, to grow more healthy, nutritious food of a higher quality; it's essential to rethink how our food is grown.
Thanx to all who have noted & commented, you've helped to bring this to the 'front page' & hopefully to folks around our planet to enlighten & educate.
Let the food revolution begin!

Wednesday January 26, 2011, 5:01 am
Thanks for the info.

Wednesday January 26, 2011, 2:29 pm
Good news for a change?? Don't quite know how to take it!!! LOL!!!!

Wednesday January 26, 2011, 2:52 pm
to encourage people to take control of their food chains is no small thing.
To convince them of the desirability of a restructured (and possibly reduced) lifestyle is even more important.
This article gives hope that such transitions can be desireable

Wednesday January 26, 2011, 3:24 pm
Good start, now let's do this in other places.

Wednesday January 26, 2011, 5:42 pm
Thanks so much for posting this, to my opinion this is the way of the future. We must start to implement our knowledge to work with nature instead of against it! We're practising this on our own little slice of paradise here in Queensland and have to say that the results are astonishing to say the least.
A nice effect of this is that people of surrounding properties are wondering how we are managing to achieve such abundance, they're even more surprised to hear that we don't administer any chemical compounds nor artificial tricks to achieve this. It is only small scale but I do have faith in the educational ripple effect this creates.
If you think about it, it's actually quite logical. The earth is our mother, she sustains us, only idiots (in this case; people with no respect for life in general) would harm their nurturing mum!
Thanks again and I do hope this'll make front page news and awaken a lot of people to the excitement and fulfilment/satisfaction of a simpler lifestyle! Happy Gardening!!

Wednesday January 26, 2011, 11:33 pm
Interesting and excellent article! Imagine, they didn't need to do anything toxic, dangerous or even unethical to increase their yields, just do what our earth has been doing all by herself since long before we showed up and screwed up her system!

Thursday January 27, 2011, 12:32 am
Wonderful article. It puts the lie to the view of many conventional thinkers that we can't feed enough people with methods like this.

Thursday January 27, 2011, 4:47 am
Thanks for the article.

Thursday January 27, 2011, 6:32 am
Interesting. Thanks!

Thursday January 27, 2011, 9:08 am
Great! True independence.

Sunday January 30, 2011, 4:31 am
A benefactor to humanity!! We applaud your work.

Sunday January 30, 2011, 8:49 am
Great. Would be good if this could be done worldwide, especially in the poorer countries.