Happy New Year!
Core members of our volunteers gathered on New Year’s Day to start natural farming in 2025. They helped us clean debris from fallen trees in the forest and cut down weeds that had grown too tall for the farm.
The Hawaiian Islands have various climates, such as subtropical rainforest climate, savanna (tropical dry grass field), and monsoon climate. Big Island is known as one of the most diverse microclimates in the world, with as many as 13 climatic zones on the island, including the tundra climate of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.
Our natural farm is located in the forested area at the base of the Ko’olau Mountains on the Windward side of Oahu. It does not have extreme diversity like a tundra. Still, it also has a combination of monsoon and subtropical rainforest climates, and the weather can change quickly from several square meters to several square kilometers depending on the atmospheric flow.
Five years after clearing and cultivating the land covered with wild shrubs, vines, weeds, and debris in a dense forest deep in the mountains, Gary, the owner of Second Nature Farm, has been exploring what our natural farming can do to accommodate this changeable climate. At the beginning of 2025, Gary and Takae planned to accelerate various projects to put the unique agroforestry of Second Nature Farm on track with young volunteers who love the diversity of nature here.
Our farming has been made possible thanks to the help of volunteers who revere nature as the No. 1 boss, caring nature, and love nature farming. There is an endless amount of hard work involved in taking down old, leaning trees, carrying them out, and planting new ones, busting through tall weeds and hauling them to the chicken coops, and hauling piles of mulch chips to the fields to make compost for organic soil. In their late lives, Gary and Takae could not have made it this far in five years alone.
Women volunteers have been increasing recently.
In gratitude to the volunteers who have worked so hard with us to cultivate the land, Gary and Takae have set a goal this year to focus more than ever on the management of the farm’s business and to generate a certain return from the project with our specific vision for those young people. We hope this will allow our current volunteers to find opportunities here to fulfill their lives materially, intellectually, and spiritually, in the years to come.
Founding volunteer members.
As stated on the “About the Farm” page of this website, the mission and purpose of the Second Nature Farm project is “to help generations of people pursue their healthy living in harmony with Nature.” Furthermore, borrowing from the words of the late Kazuo Inamori, whom we have admired as the best mentor for our lives and whose philosophy of altruism made countless companies, employees, and their families happier, we have adopted the management rationale: “To provide opportunities for the material, intellectual, and spiritual fulfillment of all employees, and through our joint efforts, contribute to a healthier and better society and the future of humankind.”
In 2025, there are predictions in various fields, including politics, economics, and international society, that unprecedented shakeups will occur in many countries. There are also observations that the effects of climate change, such as wildfires and catastrophic floods, will continue to increase. In today’s world, where anything unexpected can happen, there is an increasing need for a healthier and a happier life, both physically and mentally, in harmony with the natural order of things, with the natural laws and one’s own right axis established so that one can cope with any changes.
Sincerely hoping to make this a reality through the farm’s projects, Gary and Takae are eager to make it a reality through their business management.
We wish to make a leap in 2025!
