Microbes Digest, You Absorb: Keep Microbes and Feed Local
Master Cho Han-kyu, interpreted by Kim Chang, Founder of Korean Natural Farming (Janong)
Spoken in Korean. Translated to English and checked line by line.
Seated now, Cho says a crop is a living being made of the same sun, air, water and soil as us, so farming starts with humility: 'natural farming is love'. He writes three chi and three heats on a fresh flip-chart page and says body heat is fermentation heat, because microbes digest our food and we absorb what they make. From there: collect microbes near you, and feed livestock what is made here, not shipped in.
What they found
Why does Cho want microbes, and livestock feed, to come from close to home?
Thursday morning, about an hour in. Cho sits beside the flip chart and starts a new page: 自然 = ?, then 三氣 (熱氣, 空氣, 水氣) and 三熱 (天熱, 地熱, 醱酵熱). He questions the room and tells a Korean story about a daughter-in-law at a feast. He says the slides for this are coming in the evening session, which was not recorded.
- Microbes for the crop — Mix Protectors (LAB, lactic acid bacteria) with microbes from the nearby mountain valley and give them to the crop. Cho's Korean; the interpreter said 'feed the food from your area' instead of 'the microbes of that area'. No amounts given.
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A crop is a living being like you, made of the same sun, air, water and soil.
Banana, papaya, mango and me: 'what we're made of is the same.'
▶ 58:06 As spoken
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Put yourself in the crop's place and a conversation with the crop happens.
'If I were in its place, what would it be like?'
▶ 59:34 As spoken
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Natural farming starts with humility: fit your mind to the crop, not the crop to your mind.
In love you change to fit the other. 'So natural farming is love.'
▶ 1:01:04 As spoken
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Vague thinking about nature makes vague farming.
The room answered 'everything', 'God', 'us', 'energy'. Cho: know it clearly enough to use it freely.
▶ 1:03:02 As spoken
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If this doesn't land, redo levels 1, 2 and 3.
If it does, the third-level course was worth it.
▶ 1:04:06 As spoken
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Three chi: heat chi, air chi, water chi (三氣: 熱氣, 空氣, 水氣).
Written on the flip chart under 自然 = ?
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Three heats: sky heat (the sun), earth heat (volcano), and fermentation heat (三熱: 天熱, 地熱, 醱酵熱).
Hawaiʻi is an island made by earth heat rising up.
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Body heat is fermentation heat: microbes digest the food we eat, and we absorb what they digest.
'If you eat thinking I digest this food, that's wrong.'
▶ 1:07:23 As spoken
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Gut microbes are used to the food that usually comes in; something new gives them a shock.
Cho tells it with a Korean story about a daughter-in-law at a feast (in the transcript), then applies it to livestock feed below.
▶ 1:08:55 As spoken
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Collect microbes near you (indigenous), not from far away.
'That's exactly the microbes near your own body.' Slides promised for the evening.
▶ 1:11:31 As spoken
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Pigs, chickens and cattle fed feed brought in from outside will, without fail, get sick: their gut microbes are shocked.
Cho asks whether Hawaiʻi Island feed comes from Hawaiʻi or the mainland; the room: from all over the world.
▶ 1:12:20 As spoken
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Protectors (LAB) are good, but the microbes of that area are better; mix the two for the crop.
LAB plus mountain-valley microbes, given to the crop.
▶ 1:13:43 As spoken
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Making feed here, instead of shipping it from the mainland, is the safest way.
How to make feed is to be taught later (interpreter: 'maybe tomorrow').
▶ 1:15:25 As spoken
- Cho also says that people who eat food grown within ten li (about 4 km) of home with local microbes don't get sick, and tells the diarrhea story about gut microbes; these were not tested and we don't repeat them as advice.
- Cho points to slides for the evening session (Thursday evening was not recorded).
- No rates or recipes for local microbes or feed are given on this page.
- Collect Microbes (IMO) from near your own farm; they already fit your place.
- Protectors (LAB) work best alongside your local microbes, not instead of them.
- Feed made on the island assists your animals' gut microbes more than feed shipped in; change feed slowly.
- Fermentation heat is the one of the three heats you can make and use on the farm.
Next to Master Cho's teaching
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Agrees
Three heats: sky, earth, fermentation Same three heats he taught at Papaikou earlier in 2017, where too fermentation heat is the one people miss.
2017/Cho - Papaikou/IMG_9591 @ 0:21:20 (translated)
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Agrees
Collect microbes in your own farming region His recipe book says each microbe has its own habitat, so you must collect microorganisms in the farming region.
Cho, Natural Farming Agricultural Materials (Recipe), p. 9
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Agrees
Feed livestock from what is at hand, not shipped feed His livestock book has a section on self-sufficient feed from local resources such as leaf-litter humus combined with Natural Farming solutions.
자연농업 양계·양돈·축산 (Natural Farming poultry, swine, livestock) (English translation), p. 132–135
“Don't try to fit the crop's mind to yours. Fit your mind to the crop's, and that's success.”
▶ 1:01:16
“So natural farming is love.”
▶ 1:02:04
“The microbes digest the food I eat, and what the microbes digest, I absorb.”
▶ 1:07:23
In this talk
Transcript
English translation, checked against the Korean as spoken.
58:12 Looked at as a living being, my life and its life are the same. So, if you look at the crop's life, I mean living crop and then human living, Living being, living being. That is the same, it's really same. Crop and you are same. Why? Because with the same sunlight, air, water and soil, we were made as their joint work, so we're all the same. The reason is we use same sunshine, same soil, air,
그 생명체를 놓고 봤을 때 나의 생명체나 그의 생명체나 같은 거예요. 생명체, 생명체. 왜 그러냐면 같은 햇볕에 공기와 물과 흙과 […]의 합작품으로 만들어진 것이기 때문에 다 똑같은 거예요.
59:00 and we are all live in it, so we are all same, no difference. So, reckoned that way, banana, papaya, mango, and me: what we're made of is the same. All those plant life stuff and us, we are same structure. So if you ask yourself, 'If I were in its place, what would that be like?', a conversation with the crop happens. That's why. So you think that crop or livestock, think as yourself,
자, 그러면 그걸로 따져 볼 때는 바나나나, 파파야나, 망고나, 나나, 이 구성원이 같다는 말이에요. 그래서 내가 저 형편이라면 어떤 건가, 어떤 건가 생각해 보면 작물과 대화가 이루어지는 거예요.
59:50 And then you start doing better. Yeah. Can you talk and chat with them like friends and companions, or not? Do you think you can speak to plants and livestock? Yes. Yeah, that's really great and important to understand that. Then do you know, or not, that the Creator's mind is inside your mind? So do you know the creator is in within you? Do you know that or not? Pretending not to know it is just not knowing because you're stubborn.
친구하고 동무라고 대화하고 얘기할 수가 있어요, 없어요? 그러면 창조주의 마음이 내 마음에 들어가 있는 걸 알아요, 몰라요? 그걸 갖다가 모르는 척 하는 건 자기의 고집이 세기 때문에 모르는 것뿐이야.
1:00:36 Some people they ignore it because they are too stubborn. Being a fool and saying I'm smart: that's me being cocky, arrogant. Actually you are a fool and then that person thinks I am so smart, that means you are very arrogant. Okay? Okay. Yes, I understand. So when we do this natural farming, the very first thing: I have to become humble. And my mind... don't try to fit the crop's mind to mine. If you go and fit your mind to the crop's, that's success. So try to understand the crops' nature, not trying to fit it in my thoughts, my knowledge.
내가 바보면서 나는 똑똑하다고, 내가 건방진 거야, 오만한 거지. 그래서 우리가 이 자연농업을 할 때는 제일 먼저 내가 겸손해져야 돼요. 그러면서 내 마음을… 작물의 마음을 내 마음에 맞추려고 그러지 말고 내 마음을 작물에게 맞추러 가면은 성공이에요.
1:01:40 You have to think of When you love [someone], that self as yourself. does the other person fit themselves to you? Or do you go and fit yourself to them? You change. So natural farming is love. Got it? Got it. Now then,
여러분들 사랑하고 [있는 사람 있으면] 상대방이 나한테 맞추는 거예요? 내가 상대방을 맞춰 가는 거예요? 그래서 자연농업은 사랑이야. 알았습니까? 알았습니다. 자 그러면
1:02:26 [If I ask] what nature is, [what would you say]? Then, what is nature? Love... love. Everything. They say everything is nature. So if you think everything is nature, what is that, then? So, if you think everything is nature, what is it then? They say God. God. Because you think about it this vaguely, your farming can only turn out vague.
자연이 [뭐냐고 하면 뭐라고 하겠어요]? 사랑… 사랑. 모든 것이 자연이래요. 그럼 모든 것이 자연이라고 생각하면 뭐예요, 그게? 하나님이래요. 이렇게 막연하게 생각하니까 농사를 막연하게 하는 게 될 수밖에 없는 거예요.
1:03:14 You just not clear in yourself. That's why how you farm is not clear. Your answer is not clear The answer is us, or we. They say nature is us, and nature is me. You could answer that way. But we have to know it that clearly before we can use it freely. So that's kind of okay answer But we need to make more clear It's energy, right? Energy.
자연은 우리고, 또 자연이 나래요. 그렇게 대답할 수 있겠는데, 그 정도 분명하게 우리가 알아야 자유롭게 [활용]할 수가 있지.
1:03:59 Energy. He's going to explain to you now. If you take this in this time, the third-level course was worth it; If you don't understand this meaning, this level 3 is not getting there anywhere. if not, you have to do the first, second and third levels all over again. You gotta go back to level 1 and level 2. Heat body, air body, water body. There are three.
여러분들이 이번에 이런 [표명]을 납득이 되면 3차 교육의 가치가 있는 거고, 그렇지 않으면 다시 1차, 2차, 3차 다시 해야 돼요.
1:04:45 Heat chi, air chi, water chi. So what are the three chi? So, there is three chi. That's the on top is 3 Chi Heat chi, air chi, water chi. So there are three heat. [The three heats:] heat of the sky, heat of the earth, [fermentation heat].
열기, 공기, 수기. 그래서 삼기는 뭐가 있냐면 [삼열:] 천열, 지열 [발효열]
1:05:34 Heat from the sky, heat from the earth, heat from the fermentation. So then, you know what the heat of the sky is, right? Do you know what is a heat from the sky heat? Sun. Yeah, that's right. Sun. Do you have a heat from the ground? Volcano. Yeah. Living here in Hawaii, you'd better know this: Lava. So Hawaii is a good example of heat from the earth, and it created it. isn't Hawaii an island made by volcanic eruption? An island made by that earth heat rising up?
자 그러면 천열이 뭔지 아시겠죠? 여기서 하와이 살면서 그걸 모르면 안 되지만 하와이가 화산 폭발로 만들어진 섬 아니요? 그 지열이 올라와서 만들어진 섬 아니죠?
1:06:27 And then fermentation heat. So fermentation heat. You all have heat in your bodies, a body temperature. So you know you have a body temperature. Then what makes the body's temperature? Digestion... metabolism. Here's the thing: you think it's the person who digests the food we eat. So when we consume the food, we are the ones who break it down. Break down... [no], it's the microbes that did it.
그러고 나서 발효열. 여러분들은 자기 몸에 체열이 있지, 몸에 온도. 그럼 몸의 온도가 뭐에 의해서 생긴 거야? 그게 뭐냐면 우리가 먹은 음식을 사람이 소화시킨다고 생각해요. 브레이크 다운… [아니에요], 미생물이 한 거예요.
1:07:14 So the right answer is that microbe is digesting your food and you are absorbing that food If you eat thinking 'I digest this food', that's wrong. The microbes digest the food I eat, and what the microbes digest, I absorb. Think of it that way; that's the truth of it. to your body. So microbe is kind of fermenting inside and you are eating that fermented food. In a household that lives hard, when there's a big event, a feast, the daughter-in-law keeps going somewhere. Where?
이 음식을 먹을 때 내가 소화시킨다고 알고 먹으면 잘못이야. 내가 먹은 음식은 미생물이 소화시키는데, 미생물이 소화시킨 것을 내가 흡수합니다. 그렇게 생각해야 진상이에요. 그 어렵게 사는 집 며느리가, 큰일을 치르나 큰일을 치는 [날이면] 자주 가는 곳이 있어. 어디예요?
1:08:07 The daughter-in-law is from a poor household. There is a daughter-in-law in a kind of poor family. After they have a big party, she goes somewhere really often. Where is she going? How did you know? How did you know? [...] If you ask why: that daughter-in-law of a hard-up house I have seen her. usually eats the leftover scraps after her father-in-law and mother-in-law have eaten,
며느리가 가난한 집에서 왔어요. 어떻게 알았어요? […] 왜 그러냐고 하면은, 그 어려운 [집 며느리가] 보통 때는 시아버지, 시어머니 다 드시고 난 다음에 남은 찌꺼기를 먹고
1:08:55 but even eating scraps she's healthy, because the microbes in her gut can digest them. So this daughter-in-law usually after serve father-in-law and mother-in-law first and But suddenly, [on the feast day], white rice and [rich meat soup] come in. The microbes in her gut get a shock, because something they've never eaten is coming in. So she's in a hurry and runs to the toilet, with diarrhea. leftover food she ate. So in her stomach microbes knows how to ferment those food. But after party there's so much meat and so much rich food goes in there and then the microbes doesn't
그런데 찌꺼기를 먹고도 그걸 소화시킬 수 있는 미생물이 배 속에 있기 때문에 건강했어요. 그런데 갑자기 [잔칫날] 흰쌀밥에 [곰국]이 들어왔잖아요. 그 배 속에 있는 미생물이 깜짝 놀랐거든요. 지금까지 먹지 않던 게 오니까. 그러니까 급하니까 화장실 뛰는 거지, 설사하려고.
1:09:42 know what to do. So that's how she goes to, yeah, cannot digest, go to bathroom a lot. Looks like you're not getting it. You don't understand what I am saying? No? All right then, No, I do. If you don't want to get sick, you have to keep eating the food you've been eating. Other food... So do you think we should eat the same food all the time and then all of us will be changing different food? How would you do it?
감이 안 잡히는 모양인데. 안 돼요? 자 그러면 여러분들이 병이 안 생기려고 하면 기왕에 먹던 음식을 계속 먹어야 돼. 딴 음식을 다…
1:10:29 So when you go to travel, lots of time you have a stomach ache. What should you do? That's why when you go traveling, you can get an upset stomach. Why you do that? Why you have lots of stomach problems when you travel? Because the food is different. Different food means something unlike what has always come in reaches the microbes in your gut. It doesn't suit them, so you get an upset stomach. So, the microbes in your stomach is not used to new food, that's why.
어떻게 해야 돼요? 그래서 여러분들이 여행을 갔다가 나가면은 배탈 나는 수가 있지. 음식이 틀려서. 음식이 틀렸다는 얘기는, 지금까지 배 속에 있던 미생물에게 지금까지 들어오던 것과 다르게 들어왔잖아. 그게 맞지 않으니까 배탈이 난 거지.
1:11:17 do you acknowledge it? do you understand? Got it? Got it. So you all [...] always in the field, in the field, when you use microbe material, should you bring it from far away? Or use what's in that area? so when you collect microorganisms where are you going to collect? From far away, or from near your area? From near yourself. Right. That's exactly the microbes near your own body. That's correct. You need to collect microorganisms near your field. Indigenous. So you take that and Indigenous ones.
알았습니까? 알았습니다. 그래서 여러분들 […] 꼭 밭에다가, 밭에다가 미생물 자재를 쓴다고 했을 때, 먼 데서 갖다 써야 돼? 그 지역에 있는 걸 써야 돼? 자기 근처에서. 그래요. 그게 바로 제 몸 근처에 있는 미생물이지. 인디지너스. 그래서 그걸 갖다가
1:12:04 I'll show you all of it on the slides this evening. So this evening he is going to show you on a slide So not only [crop growers]: people who raise pigs or chickens or cattle, if you bring in feed from outside and feed it, without fail they get [sick]. So like, especially livestock, who has swine or chicken, When you bring food from the outside, Lots of time your livestock gets sick. The feed eaten by the pigs, chickens and cattle raised on this island now: is it feed from Hawaii, or feed brought from [the mainland]?
저녁에 슬라이드에서 다 보여 드릴 테니까 그래서 [작물 기르는] 사람들만이 아니라, 돼지나 닭이나 소 기르는 사람들은 절대로 외부에서 사료를 갖다 먹이게 되면 [병이] 나는 거요. 지금 하와이 섬에서 기르는 돼지나 닭이나 소가 먹는 사료가 하와이에서 나오는 사료여, [본토]에서 가져온 사료여?
1:12:47 So right now the food that your livestock eating, is that food from Hawaii or from outside? All over the world. So these animals [eating outside feed], the microbes in their gut have had a shock, haven't they? So you bring all these feed from outside, their microorganism in their stomach is kind of shocked, in shock. So when they get sick, how will you fix it? So let's say they are getting sick, how are you going to fix it? Yeah, lactic acid bacteria is good too, but then you need to feed the food from your area. Lactic acid bacteria [...]
이제 다 [외부 사료를 먹은] 이 짐승은 배 속에 있는 미생물이 깜짝 놀란 거 아니야? 그래서 그것들이 병나면 어떻게 고칠까요? 유산균 […]
1:13:42 Lactic acid bacteria are good too, but it's good to feed the microbes of that area. Lactic acid bacteria, and the microbes from that mountain valley over there: mix them all together and give them to the crop, and the crop grows on them. People eat the crop that grew on that, so they don't get sick.
유산균도 좋지만 그 지역에 있는 미생물을 먹이면 좋습니다. 유산균이랑 그 저 산 계곡에 있던 미생물, 그걸 다 같이 섞어서 작물한테 주게 되면 작물이 그걸 먹고 자랐잖아요. 그걸 먹고 자란 작물을 사람이 먹으니까 병이 안 생기는 거죠.
1:14:28 So include lactic acid bacteria and other stuff in your indigenous area, you grow those crops and then you eat those food. That's why you are not getting sick. So medicine isn't far away. It's near your own house. So medicine is not from far away, it's always near you. near your home, within ten li (about 4 km) Four kilometers? So, if you eat the food about five kilometers around that area, then you don't get sick.
그러니까 약은 멀리 있는 것이 아니라 자기 집 근처에 있는 거예요. 자기 집 근처에, 십 리 안쪽에 있는
1:15:18 It's not quite that. When it comes to Hawaii shipping [feed] in by boat, rather than hauling feed from the mainland, making it here and feeding that is the safest way. The most safest way to do it is when you make a feed from here, not bring it from outside. He is going to tell you maybe tomorrow how to make a feed. I'll have to [teach] you how to make feed. But if you eat too much at first, it sits in your stomach. You can't digest it, so no. If you get too many knowledge, you cannot digest.
그런 게 아니고, 하와이에서 배로 [사료를] 가져온다고 했을 때, 본토에서 사료를 실어다 먹이는 것이 아니라 여기서 만들어서 먹이는 방법을 쓰는 것이 가장 안전한 것입니다. 사료 만드는 것을 [가르쳐] 줘야지. 근데 처음에 너무 많이 먹으면 체해. 소화가 안 되니까 안 돼.