Category: Natural Farming Hawaii

Posted on

Exploring the KNF Chicken Coop

In April of 2019, Ocean Grace Farms began our transition to natural farming from using conventional farming methods. Watch a video here documenting the first chapter of our educational journey. We have learned how to make Korean Natural Farming Inputs/Solutions on our farm and have began making Compost Tea Brews and implementing foliar sprays on our cacao and fruit orchard. We continue to have the Chinese Rose Beetle eat a significant amount of our Cacao Leaves-primarily the heirloom varieties. We are documenting our transition in hopes to share with other Conventional Cacao Farmers that there are Natural Farming Solutions to the “Chinese Rose Beetle Problem”.

Hawaii Cacao | Protective Hoops

This topic of “Management of the Chinese Rose Beetle (Adoretus sinicus) Adults Feeding on Cacao (Theobroma cacao)” is one that has been on our radar since establishing our Cacao Farm.

This article explains that when the trees are younger- a common practice is to use “protective hoops” or cages to protect the young cacao from: 1) Sun 2) Wind and 3) That Chinese Rose Beetle. As the trees get older we remove the cages.

Could a KNF Chicken Coop help minimize beetle grubs, provide fertilizer, increase spreading IMOs and provide fresh eggs for our family and friends? That is what we think. I wonder what other benefits a KNF Chicken coop would provide? Are there any cons?

These are the questions we are heading out to explore this coming month. Join Us! On our road trip. We will be posting on @oceangracefarms instagram.

We have read that chickens roam and feed on beetle grubs and as a result may minimize beetle infestations naturally and without using poison or pesticides. It is no longer an option for us to consider poison or pesticides because of the choice we have made: to use natural farming methods no matter what. We know the value of IMO (Indigenous Micro Organisms) from making our own IMO pile, as we implemented other KNF methods, such as: Compost Tea / Liquid IMO .

The first step on our exploration of the KNF Chicken Coop is to tour other Big Island Farms that already have a working KNF Chicken Coop on their farm and talk story with them. Update: Please see video below of our tours…

Big Island Farm Tours: KNF Chicken Coop

We have completed 2 of the 3 tours and posted the video above. We look forward to sharing more of our journey with you! If you have questions you would like us to answer in an upcoming video: please submit it here.

Additional Resources: KNF Chickens and Poultry Farming

Chickens
Posted on

Conventional VS. Natural Farming

The current mainstream cultural conversation is about organic agriculture vs conventional agriculture. It’s interesting to note that conventional agriculture (the general practices of most farmers) was regenerative/organic farming  for tens of thousands of years. Over time farming through chemical controls became known as conventional. Historically, this transition took place in the last 70 years and during my lifetime.

We are slowly discovering that the real conversation and comparison needs to be about regenerative or sustainable farming vs conventional farming. Organic farming uses most of the conventional mainstream efforts and simply replaces chemical compounds with plant compounds, maybe a step in the right direction of human health and is only a small step in the right direction for planetary health. 

There are those, especially large scale farmers, that say we can’t feed the planet with anything other than conventional farming. They are relaying on the old age “if it ain’t broke (and we are making money) don’t fix it” idea. However, making the connection to our planet’s condition as being a part of the assessment about its brokenness, is a shadow that few will give credence. It’s just too hard to get our arms around doing something about it. It takes the force of money to make most of us pay attention. Even when we are financially wiped out due to planetary forces like the force of an unusual hurricane, it’s still too hard for most to connect the dots.

However, in an answer to the question: What can one farmer do to take care of our planet? It is being answered in this regard every single day- with the proliferation of farmers markets. Even though not all farmers that sell in a farmers market are organic, they are all local and they are all small, which are two very important components of the shift. The badly needed shift will happen as local, small, organic, regenerative and sustainable farming become more a part of our conversations and most importantly the way we spend our money. As the big guys loose business to these other channels AND their bottom line is impacted they will look at meeting the markets demands. 

Of course, the question du jour is: Will this transition give the planet the time to recover and our grandchildren a planetary home to survive? We don’t have to wait for the big guys to suddenly make planetary health a priority in their business plan. Each individual votes with our dollars. As more and more insist on organic and as more and more of the organic buyers insist on sustainable, and as documentaries come out that explain how mono cultures effect the planet and there is education about all of it, one farm at a time, one person at a time, we can do this!

This is a note written from Martin Mazzanti, founder of Ocean Grace Farms.

Join us in our educational journey! Follow us on instagram: @oceangracefarms