Feeding the Roots

Feeding the Roots

Hawaiian Indigenous Natural Farmer Alika Atay comes explaining that plants are like people, requiring specific lifecycle nutrition for their different phases of development, from flower, to fruiting, to ripening. Alika practices the natural farming techniques of his ancestors, and is part of HINA (Hawa'iian Indigenous Natural Agriculture). Combining a deep spiritual reverance for the land (the Aina, That Which Feeds Us), and the ancestral agricultural techniques of his ancestors with the science of permaculture, he seeks to increase yeild, crop size, and flavor so that he and his colleagues can feed the people in a good way, with ancestral and nutrient-dense foods, in a manner of farming that does not deplete the land. In this video he explains three facets of utilizing natural fertilizers in plant applications. Although he is speaking about the locale and ecology of the Hawa'iian islands, the logic is applicable everywhere.