Stories of Regenerating ʻĀina and Caring for the Microbial Realm

This webinar shared some of the mana’o and innovations cohort participants demonstrated through on-farm workshops across the islands as part of this project. We also shared examples of how local researchers, extension agents and service providers participated in these farmer-led workshops and co-explored ways their latest research, lab work and field trials could better support local producers in making informed decisions on priority soil health practices and plans. [Timestamp: starting at 6:40]

Next, John Caverly with Sweet Cane Farm shares his process to regenerate his 18 acres in Onomea on Hawai’i Island which had historically been in sugar cane production for 70 years and commercial sweet potato and ginger for 20 years after that. He began by honoring the three mentors, which were all grandmothers, who taught him regenerative agriculture practices such as composting and mulching and practices to create habitat and feed microorganisms.  He shared indicators of soil health he began to observe in the field after six years of refining these practices through the application of Korean Natural Farming inputs, biochar, and blue rock dust (a byproduct from the local quarry) and the use of a diversity of nitrogen-fixing trees and shrubs, including Glerceida, Pigeon Pea, and Ice Cream Bean. He ended by reflecting on how he’s been able to deepen his understanding of the needs of his land by continuing to invest in his own growth and spending ten hours a day, seven days a week on his farm by keeping the joy of farming at the forefront. He also reminds mahi’ai to just ‘do what you can do’ and that we can complicate life by introducing grandiousie ideas. He wishes us ‘Good Luck”, expalingin that L.U.C.K. stands for: L: Labor, U: Under, C: Correct, K: Knowledge. [Timestamp: starting around 15:00]

Shawn Pila, a beginning farmer on his 8.5 acre farm, named Kulāiwi according to the place-name in Hakalau shared some of the initial steps they’ve taken to regenerate their land into an organic tropical fruit farm, which also includes 3.5 acres of native plants and integration of rescue animals. He shares how he initially thought he’d apply a 13 step process to regenerate the land in a year, but has stepped back from that approach and is now going slower to understand the needs of his land, focusing on building soil health using pioneer plants, including fast-growing vegetation such as ti and ko (sugar cane). As a TV producer and surf photographer, he’s documenting his process which can be viewed on his YouTube Station. [Timestamp: starting around 32:15]

Following the stories from our mahi’ai, Dr. Kiana Frank, a kanaka ʻāina microbiologist, helped us frame and understand how kupuna in each of our communities throughout Hawai’i were ma’a to the microbial world around us and how microbes cultivate the mea’ai that feed us. As part of her presentation, she shared her process of discovery and the tools she uses today with her lab, which she honed growing up on her own ʻāina in Kawai Nui Marsh on Oahu and her early experience with lepo ‘ai, sparked by her tutu. She also shared specific examples of how she used mo’olelo from this place to understand indicators of nitrogen cycling in a fishpond setting and how she is actively working with mahia’ai from her community. As part of her presentation, Dr. Frank, shared some of her data from soil and water samples in traditional food systems. The data showed unique microbe communities in each of these systems, including lo’i kalo, loko kuapā, Loko Pu’uone, Loko Wai Opae and streams.  [Timestamp: 41:05]

Building off John’s statement that he’s a “biological farmer” and his practice of heavy mulching from a diversity of sources, Dr. Frank posed a challenge to attendees: “How do we transform land back to ʻāina and restore the ecosystems for resiliency going forward?” Going deeper, she inquired if mahi’ai might take steps to increase the use of mulch (or other similar practices that make sense for the operation) to create habitat and encourage nitrogen-fixing microbial communities and a shift away from the conditions that contribute towards the denitrification process and excess nutrients and sediment in our waterways, reminding us that if we farm in a way that manages our microbes, we can aid in nitrogen removal from our aquifers.”We have to be ma’a of the way applying fertilizers and animal husbandry impacts the rest of the ecology because everything is connected and our kupuna understood this connectivity.” [Timestamp 59:34]. Dr. Frank and John both reflected on the phenomenon of how: “The more we grow as mahi’ai, the more we’re able to see”. Dr. Frank reflects on how she’s been able to find new and different meanings and understandings from the same mo’olelo about the place she grew up in Kawai Nui on O’ahu as she’s read these over the years.

To learn more about her lab, which focuses on understanding the complex role that microorganisms play in biogeochemical cycling, with focus on describing the microbial community structure, functional capacity and rates of metabolic activity in the context of the physico-chemical environment please visit: https://www.labhuiofrank.com.

Destiny Apilado, a graduate student in Environmental Management at UH at Manoa, studying agriculture policy conculded our webinar presentations by sharing her personal mission to help make agriculture in Hawai’i more sustainable, economically, environmentally, culturally and socially. During her presentation, she shared her current project, “Informing Place-Based Equity for Hawaii Local Producers” and her survey which aims to identify and understand challenges that mahi’ai face in gaining access to resources needed to steward and grow food on their ʻāina. This survey will be used to communicate needs and opportunities to better service Hawai’i food growers to decision-makers, including State Legislative Office, NRCS and the Climate Smart Commodities project. She also shares opportunities provided through federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), to help farmers stay on their land and to support ʻāina practices, such as soil health or ‘climate smart’ practices.

The Q&A generated some rich dialog and included questions, suggestions and insights, including:

Questions directed to Dr. Frank:

• Is there any fungi known to be native from the past?
•  Does soil fungi blow long distances in the air? More specifically, can spores blow thousands of miles in the wind?
• Do you recommend any films or resources for beginners to catch up on the basics?
• Can you explain about microbes and fungi and their different purposes?
• Academia can be a colonial mindfield. How do you deal with objective scientists who see creating relationship as unneccesary and only see our microbial relatives as beings to extract from?
• Can you share that biocultural slide and microbiology of indigenous food systems, microbial pilina..would like to look at them more intenetly (referring to Dr. Frank’s presentation)
• I am reminded by Dr. Frank of Susan Simmard’s memoir Finding the Mother Tree, where she discusses how as a child she too ate mud, in her case humic topsoil was her favorite. I am curious how much risk we have with soil getting under our finger nails. How benficial and harmful can it be for our gut health?
• Mahalo ia ‘oukou pakahi a pau i ko ‘oukou mau ‘ike….

Questions directed to John Caverly, Shawn Pila and other farmers in the talk:

• Have any other farmers observed a decrease in weed pressure in their fields after applying good fungally-dominant compost?
• I raise Ohia on “semi sterile media” by seed as typically reccomended to not spread ROD, but they seem lifeless, is there a standard age when to introduce them to “normal soil” maybe I waited too long for their growth phase…?
• How are farmers applying bluerock dust on their farms?

Questions Dr. Frank directed to our mahi’ai:

• “How do we transform “land” back to ʻāina and restore the ecosystems for resiliency going forward?” [Refering to the term ‘land’ in a similar context to the use of the term ‘dirt’… diving into the conversation of how ‘dirt’ and ‘land’ are  symptom of poor management from the people and process for how ‘dirt’ becomes ‘soil’ through intentional managment as similar to how ‘land’ becomes enliviend and transform back to ‘aina].
• “Microbes are our physiological representations of our pilina to place”. How might we use this as our own internal indicators of ‘soil health on our farms?
• “When we think of how our kupuna got to these spaces of momona, of abundance, they were managing the microbes to work for them.” How are we using microbes on our farms today?

Dr. Frank reminds us in her presentation, “Anyone working with ʻāina in Hawai’i needs to incorporate the important layer of place-based information. Each of our communities has information on history, mo’oelelo, place names and peoples and akua of those places.”. When asked during the Q&A about the process and resources for place-based information, Dr. Frank suggested:

• Mindset:
  • Working to build this mindset in people who are work with ʻāina at all levels, from the community, to university, agencies, organizations;
• Understanding:
  • Learn or teach people how to use Nā Puke Wehewehe ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi correctly. https://wehewehe.org;
  • If on ‘Oahu, Sites of ‘Oahu is a resource that can be used to identify important features and snippets of mo’olelo that you can find;
  • Ulukau.org https://ulukau.org/index.php
  • Ava Konohiki Ahupua’a Online Resources: https://geoportal.hawaii.gov/datasets/07624815fc7d42d4b23c527d20ad2f58/explore?location=21.419112%2C-157.975187%2C11.62
  • Kupuna in the community and Hawai’i Civic Clubs hold a lot of knowledge; 
  • Those who speak ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, read and try to understand the way our kupuna spoke and wrote about microbes and their management in our newspapers, mo’olelo, mele and oli. 

• Approach:
  • “Huli ka lima i lalo”, Not coming with our hands up, but having our hands down, in service to ʻāina;
  • Engage with ʻāina before you try to sample her. This includes starting by knowing all of her names; 
  • Dr. Frank applies the saying, “A’a i ka hula, waiho i ka maka’u i ka hale”-Dare to dance, leave shame at home. Meaning, you bring your own ways of knowing and style that make since for you and your ʻāina.
  • Maka Hana Ka Ike. You learn so much from working with ʻāina. As you work, you ike maka. In the act of working and seeing to the needs of your ʻāina, you’ll recall a mele or oli and you’ll gain a new and fuller understanding of the meaning. 
  • Keep going back to read the mo’olelo, oli and mele of your place through the years. New perspectives and insights into these sources of knowledge occur as your own life experience expands. [Timestamp 1hr:18 min]