Dr.Teruo Higa’s
Living A Dream

More and more people have learned about the results of the countermeasures against radioactive contamination in Fukushima by utilizing EM. Our vision for the future is to make Fukushima a world-class organic farming prefecture representing Japan and develop it into an EM paradise, and in this regard various related activities are ongoing. 

As I have already mentioned several times, the Oishi 3-chan Club, run by the non-profit organization Ryozen Satoyama School in Ryozen Town, Date City, is playing a leading role in this effort.

The Oishi 3-chan Club has recently published a great textbook on the use of EM entitled, The Progress of the “Soil Preparation Workshop”(Part 2): Toward an Organic Village! This textbook is not only about EM technology, but is also about taking the lead in revitalizing aging communities, and it is full of vital information for the future of organic farming and community revitalization.

Here I would like to introduce the first part of the textbook. Implementing organic farming while repeatedly reviewing the contents of this textbook can also be a guidepost on the way to “safe, comfortable, low-cost, high-quality, good-cycle sustainability,” in other words, the ultimate goal of SDG’s. 

 *For inquiries about the materials, please use the Oishi 3-chan Club Contact Form
 

1. Introduction

Ryozen Satoyama School (a non-profit organization) is located in the beautiful mountains of Ryozen Town, Date City. It was established in 2000 using a closed junior high school building. Based on the principle of “Everyone is a teacher, and everyone is a student,” the school serves as a base for activities in which all people, regardless of age, support each other in a positive way. In 2007, it acquired NPO status and has been engaged in a variety of business activities.

One of these activities is the Oishi 3-chan Club. In order to preserve the beautiful satoyama landscape in hilly and mountainous areas, it is necessary to keep fields and paddy fields from lying fallow. With fewer young people and increasing depopulation of the area, local senior citizens are taking the lead in growing a variety of vegetables in small quantities in their own fields and are engaged in activities to sell them at the direct sales corners of mass retailers and at farmers' markets.

In July 2019, with the cooperation of the EM Research Organization, we started the “Soil Preparation Workshop” to learn how to prepare soil without relying on pesticides and chemical fertilizers in order to create a sustainable community and protect our farmland. At the workshop, we learned basic soil preparation methods, how to increase the number of beneficial microorganisms in the soil, and how to use them in daily farm work. The first volume of the summarized overview was published in March 2020 as a booklet titled “The Oishi 3-chan Club’s Soil Making Seminar’s Basic Steps”.

The second volume of this booklet is a summary of the “Soil Preparation Workshop” from April 2020 to the present. We hope you will find it useful along with the first booklet.

 

2. Overview of Oishi 3-chan Club Activities

The Oishi 3-chan Club was founded by three groups in the Oishi area, older men and women in their 60s to 80s, the idea being that the elderly should "stay active, enjoy cultivating the fields and selling the vegetables we grow, and rejuvenate our bodies and minds by 20 percent.”

This activity started in 2014. We grow a variety small quantities of vegetables in our own fields and sell them in corners of mass retail stores where produce is sold directly to consumers, and at farmer's markets. Currently, we deliver vegetables collected from our friends to six mass retail stores in Fukushima City. 

We have improved our fields through the use of activated EM and EM Bokashi. In order to grow safe and tasty vegetables, we put a lot of effort into creating rich soil.

Every month we hold a “Soil Preparation Workshop.” These workshops also provide hands-on training in making EM Bokashi. We also distribute activated EM to other farmers we know.


At the end of January 2020, EM Eco Koriyama, non-profit organization was kind enough to provide us, gratis, equipment to cultivate EM activated solution, and we began implementing it at the Ryozen Satoyama School. In April of the same year, we started distributing activated EM to our fellow farmers.

In September 2021, an EM Bokashi production house was installed using a subsidy from the 2021 Date City Renaissance Promotion Project for Agriculture in the Midlands and Mountain Areas.

The installation of this EM production facility will lead to full-scale use of EM Bokashi starting from FY2022 

From the beginning of the fiscal year we have been planning training sessions on resource-recycling agriculture, which has become an issue in many areas. In November, we visited the Midori-no-kai, a non-profit organization in Toride City, Ibaraki Prefecture, that has been for many years operating a business that composts food waste in cooperation with the local government, and there we held a training session. (See the next page for details.)

Our activities have seen steady results. In fiscal year 2020, we sold 20 million yen worth of agricultural products, etc. Sales for fiscal year 2021 are also going well so far, and we expect sales to reach 25 million yen by the end of the fiscal year.
 

Our goals for the future are:

1. Make soil preparation (EM Bokashi fertilizer) a part of ordinary life, and distribute activated EM in order to produce delicious vegetables.

2. Create a sustainable environment that helps create a healthy and active life for all.

3. Strengthen production and sales to create an independent system.


 

Invitation to the 1st Ichiro Masaki Memorial Universal Village and EM International Conference 

The EM Research Organization is promoting various activities to make EM a more tangible part of society and incorporate it into public administration. This international conference will be held to commemorate Dr. Ichiro Masaki, a professor at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), who had deep appreciation of EM and even created a subcommittee on EM at the Universal Village International Conference.

The first conference will introduce case studies from Japan, and in the future, we hope to hold conferences every two years to gather case studies from all over the world and make the conference content more inclusive so that government agencies and specialized organizations from various countries can participate.


The 1st Ichiro Masaki Memorial Universal Village EM International Conference 

Date: Saturday, November 19, 2022, 9am-12pm (Japan time)
Place: Online (Zoom Webinar) *Zoom must be installed in advance.
Participation fee: Free of charge
How to apply: Online pre-registration 
URL for application:
Japanese
English

You can also access this from the form or the QR code below.

We do not accept applications over the phone.
• The Application deadline is until 11:59 pm on the day before the conference (November 18th)

For inquiries, please contact 
EM Research Organization, Inc.
Universal Village EM International Conference Secretariat
Contact: Uehara or Tamai
Phone: 098-935-0202
Email: uv-em@emro.co.jp

Note:
・When you register, you need to select either “Same day viewing” or “Viewing at a later date”

・The presentations will be given in Japanese with English subtitles. (Only Dr. Higa’s summary lecture will be simultaneously interpreted into English)

・If you are viewing from overseas please be aware of the time difference. (The conference will be based on Japan time)

・Inquiries about how to use Zoom are not supported.

・No cancellation notice is required.

Click here to go to the EM Research Organization information page.