Brown Sugar + Rice = the Whole Toolbox
Joe McGinn, Hawaii Natural Farming, Oʻahu
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This part runs from 0:00 to 27:44 of the session video. Keep watching and the next part plays on.
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Joe McGinn opens the afternoon by asking everyone where their grandparents are from, then walks through Cho's principles of natural farming in slides, read through a Hawaiian lens. He ends on a simple point: every solution rests on brown sugar or on rice vinegar, so anyone can start, beginning with Food (FPJ).
What he taught
What do Cho's principles look like when an Oʻahu farmer teaches them, and what is the least you need to start?
Thursday afternoon, the first talk after lunch. Joe McGinn, a guest speaker from Oʻahu, gives a slide talk in English ('Basic Principles of Natural Farming'). Master Cho is in the room but doesn't speak in this part, so there is no Korean and no interpreting. Slides read from the frames: a genealogy (Hawaiʻi > Ahupuaʻa > ʻIli > ʻOhana > Kānaka), the principles from Cho's 'blue book', the nutritive cycle as keiki/mākua/kūpuna, a guiding-principle triangle, photos of Microbes (IMO#1) boxes, and a 'Language of Natural Farming' slide.
- Microbes (IMO#1) box, as Joe teaches it — A natural wooden box filled about two-thirds with rice; the air space is 'very, very important'. Bamboo is a good place to set it. (Joe, spoken and slide; no quantities.)
- Where a beginner starts — Food (FPJ): plant material and a little brown sugar in a jar. Joe starts beginners here because it needs nothing else. (Joe, spoken.)
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Supermarkets and tractors came in around the 1930s, so grandparents born before then farmed without machines or chemical fertilizer
Joe's reason for asking where everyone's grandparents are from: they very likely practised some kind of natural farming.
▶ 4:34 As spoken
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Everyone trained by Cho now belongs to an unbroken chain of knowledge from Cho's teachers through Cho
So they owe it the most honest, pure keeping. Joe says Cho learned from 'five masters' in Japan and names Shibada Genshi; Cho's own books name three teachers.
▶ 8:46 As spoken
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Cho's principles on the slides: environmentally friendly, respect for life, high quality, no pesticide, no herbicide, no mechanical tillage, no chemical fertilizer, no pollution, no artificial heating, farmer-made feed and farmer-made solutions, the nutritive cycle
Joe calls them the principles in Cho's 'blue book' and frames 'environmentally friendly' as mauka to makai.
▶ 11:26 From the slides
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Insects are messengers: don't shoot the messenger
Read what the bug is telling you, then give the right nutrient, the right amount, at the right time.
▶ 12:17 As spoken
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A tractor tills 6 to 8 inches at most; earthworms go as deep as 6 meters in a drought
Joe's case for letting soil animals do the tillage.
▶ 12:46 As spoken
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Two lettuce heads planted the same day: one on bagged organic fertilizer, one on natural farming
Shown on the 'High Quality' slide to answer the myth that untreated produce is full of bug holes. No measurements given.
▶ 13:15 From the slides
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The nutritive cycle in Cho's terms is Type 2, changeover, Type 3
Type 2 builds the plant body, mainly nitrogen, like a child building its skeleton. The changeover is like entering the reproductive years ('morning sickness'), fed calcium phosphate (Structure, WCP). Later, as fruit forms, calcium (Reproduction, WCA), like calcium for kūpuna.
▶ 15:00 As spoken
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Reproduction (WCA) at fruit forming improves shelf life and sweetness, and helps move nutrients if there's a blockage
Joe's summary; no trial shown.
▶ 16:19 As spoken
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Joe's group grows Microbes (IMO) around the Hawaiian moon night called Akua
Akua can mean God and, Joe says, fungus. 'The results speak for themselves, go try it out.' No results were shown.
▶ 18:10 As spoken
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Guiding triangle for decisions: first the ʻāina, then people, our own desire last
Ask: is it best for this place (microbes, plants, animals, land, water)? Is it good for people? Only then: is it what I want?
▶ 21:54 From the slides
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Microbes (IMO#1): box two-thirds full of rice, keep the air space; bamboo is a great place to collect
Shown with photos of the group's boxes.
▶ 22:37 From the slides
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Microbes (IMO), Protectors (LAB) and Medicine (OHN) are the three most powerful, and take the most time, commitment and resources
Joe's ranking. His 'Language of Natural Farming' slide listed BRV twice on purpose; the second should be OHN, and the room also called out seawater.
▶ 23:24 As spoken
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Food (FPJ, FFJ) and Fuel (FAA) all need brown sugar; Cleanser (BRV), Reproduction (WCA) and Structure (WCP) all rest on vinegar from rice
So 'the entire system can be broken down into two things, brown sugar and rice.' Start beginners on FPJ: a jar and brown sugar.
▶ 23:47 As spoken
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Brown rice beats white because the nutrients are in the bran and hull, which milling takes away
Joe credits a 'Susan Kiefer' (name as heard). A question about whether the calcium solutions need brown rice vinegar is held for later; Kim Chang, the interpreter, and Cho answer it near the end of Drake's talk.
▶ 25:09 As spoken
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Dr. Park: almost all the solutions get better with age
Joe: 'In natural farming, all of us get better with age.'
▶ 26:17 As spoken
- This is Joe McGinn's teaching, not Cho's. Cho doesn't speak in this part.
- The lettuce comparison and the Akua-moon IMO were shown or described without measurements.
- Several answers in the opening grandparents round are in Hawaiian and only partly audible.
- Joe's '0.02% understood' figure is second-hand (via Chris Trump); he gives the rest as 98.98%, which should be 99.98%.
- If you're new, start with Food (FPJ): plant material and brown sugar in a jar.
- Leave air space in a Microbes (IMO#1) box; don't pack it full.
- Before a decision, ask what's best for the land first, then for people, and only then what you want.
- Treat insects as a message about the crop's condition, and answer with the right feed at the right time.
Next to Master Cho's books
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Agrees
Type 2, changeover, Type 3 These are Cho's own terms: Type II for active vegetative growth, Type III for flowering, with the changeover between them likened to morning sickness.
Cho, Janong Natural Farming (2003), p. 83
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Differs
Cho learned from 'five masters' in Japan Cho's book names three Japanese teachers: Yamagishi Miyozo, Shibada Genshi and Ōinoue Yasushi. Cho names the same three later this afternoon. Five is Joe's number, not Cho's.
Cho, Janong Natural Farming (2003), p. 7
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Agrees
IMO#1 box not overfilled; air space matters Cho fills the cedar box with steamed rice to about 7 cm and warns that overfilling cuts off the air the aerobic microbes need. Joe's 'two-thirds full' makes the same point.
CGNF Advanced (2005.05) (English translation), p. 29
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Agrees
WCA late, as fruit forms, for sweetness and keeping Cho sprays WCA after the fruit has sized up, to stop overgrowth and give sweet, firm fruit.
Cho, Janong Natural Farming (2003), p. 132
“Don't shoot the messenger. They're communicating something to you.”
▶ 12:17
“While a lot of people out there are just trying to fight to get a piece of a pie, guess what? We got the recipe. We can make as many pies as we want.”
▶ 20:50
“In natural farming, guess what, all of us get better with age.”
▶ 26:42
In this part
- 0:00Where are your grandparents from?
- 4:15Grandparents farmed before supermarkets and tractors
- 5:53Cho's teachers and the chain of knowledge
- 10:13The person, the family, the land
- 11:23Cho's principles, slide by slide
- 14:59The nutritive cycle as keiki, mākua, kūpuna
- 16:43The Akua moon, spirit and practice
- 21:05Guiding principle: ʻāina, people, desire
- 22:32Brown sugar and rice: the language of natural farming
- 25:40A full toolbox, better with age
Transcript
English translation, checked against the English as spoken.
0:00 Joe McGinn: that we do in our class to sort of get people to know each other better, also to make natural farming a little bit more personal and relevant to who we are and where we come from. So with every class we start with three basic questions. So if you don't mind, entertain me if you will. This is probably the biggest room we've done it for, but I think we can do it. My wahine warned me, she said, don't do it, there's too many people. I said, no, I think we can, I think you can. So the way we can be successful at this is have your answers ready. Let's move really quickly.
0:33 Let's respect each other as well. So everyone's going to have a chance to talk. So if you can, allow them to speak. Allow us to hear what they have to say. And we'll bring it all together once it's all said and done. So if you don't mind, we'll start on this side of the room.
0:55 Okay, three questions we're going to ask. Question number one, where are your grandparents from? Question number two, you know what, we'll save question number two and we'll save question number three for later. So this is how it's going to work later. So later on, after the session, you guys have a chance, come up here and answer these questions. Question number two, where are you from? So that's either where you were born, where you're living now, where you're farming or gardening now. Could be any one or any of those three things.
1:26 But go ahead and put the name of that place of where you're from. And also, what do you want to learn? With all the classes that we offer, we try to structure the education specifically to your needs. So if there's specific things you folks want to learn, go ahead and write that up. I want to learn this, I want to know more about this, I need clarification on this. So we'll take questions two and three and we'll save that for you guys can do later. But the one question I really want to have and everyone answer out loud is where are your grandparents from?
1:56 So Dana, where are your grandparents from?
1:58 Audience: (In Hawaiian) ... my grandparents ... my father is from Kauaʻi.
... koʻu mau ʻelemakule ... koʻu makuakāne no Kauaʻi.
2:07 Joe McGinn: Kauaʻi? Where in Kauaʻi?
2:09 Audience: Poʻipū.
2:10 Joe McGinn: Poʻipū? Okay.
2:16 Audience: (Answers in Hawaiian, not clearly heard) ... Kona.
(ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, unclear) ... Kona.
2:21 Joe McGinn: Kona? Okay.
2:23 Audience: Of Hōnaunau.
2:25 Joe McGinn: Hōnaunau.
2:27 Audience: (In Hawaiian, only partly clear) My mother ... the grandparents ... [place unclear].
ʻO koʻu makuahine, ʻelemakule ma ... [unclear]
2:38 Joe McGinn: [Place unclear], awesome.
2:39 Audience: (Hawaiian, unclear.)
E hapa ... [unclear]
2:40 Joe McGinn: Awesome, okay.
2:41 Audience: (In Hawaiian) I'm from Puna ... from Kaimū, Kalapana.
No Puna wau ... Kaimū, Kalapana mai au.
2:47 Joe McGinn: Kaimū, Kalapana. But again, we gotta be quick, okay? We got 50 people in here, so where are your grandparents from? If you're lucky to know where all four of your grandparents come, shout out the name real fast. But let's know, where are your grandparents from?
2:58 Audience: My name is Larry.
2:59 Joe McGinn: Larry, what's up Larry?
That's the first few minutes. Members read all 403 lines, with the Korean as spoken, and watch along.
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