Mr. Ooki at his farm in Tosuka ward in Yokohama, Japan
Currently in Japan, it is difficult to grow 100 percent organic vegetables, especially in urban areas as chemicals surround us – such as in our groundwater and air. Despite this, Toshiyuki Ooki, has found a way to come as close as possible to truly organic vegetables in the urban centre of Yokohama. Ooki, a retired businessman had a simple wish to grow safe vegetables and together with a special net to eliminate the need for pesticides and careful farming methods, he is making it happen. Ooki also shares his unique and safe farming method with other farmers. Schools and a university in the area rely on him to provide fresh vegetables as well as they learn about the farming process and how food reaches their plates. Students, parents, teachers and the community alike are all involved in making this a truly cost-effective and holistic process as well as a best practice that could be emulated in other cities in Asia.
———————————————————————————————————————
Toshiyuki Ooki began farming in 2003 after 39 years as a businessman. He entered Kanagawa Farming Academy to study the basics of farming and followed by a one year apprenticeship, observing farming techniques, crop conditions, and methods of pesticide reduction. Born from a desire to produce safe and healthy, quality vegetables, Mr. Ooki developed his own methods of pesticide reduction. Today, Ooki supplies vegetables to five schools in the Yokohama area, educates students and local farmers about safe methods of produce development, and plans to expand his work throughout Japan and overseas. In addition to improving local food quality and safety, Oki formulated a special kind of net devised to cover the vegetables he cultivates from insects while minimising the use of necessary pesticides.
The City of Yokohama officially approved Ooki’s farming methods in 2005, entitling him to produce vegetables using his own environmentally friendly methods. His unique farming process utilises a super-thin nylon net, which allows sunlight, air, and water to pass through but not insects.
According to Ooki, there is no such thing as 100 percent organic food. At some point in its growth process, vegetables will be contaminated with foreign elements, which in most cases are of an edible amount. Even tap water contains chemicals to make it drinkable. Rain contains pollutants from the air. Only strict regulations, checks, and monitoring will ensure “almost organic” products. Therefore, correct labeling and information dissemination must be promoted to give consumers the truth about labeling standards of organic food.
The overall goal of Ooki’s farming methods is to create a healthier and safer community by providing produce with the absolute minimal use of pesticides and other agricultural chemicals.
CITYNET staff visited Ooki Farms in October to see his urban farming practices in action regarding environmentally friendly farming, and the importance of providing pesticide-free produce to local schools.
The net was developed by Mr. Ooki to eliminate the need for pesticides.
CITYNET: Can you tell us about the net you developed and how it works?
Ooki: The net I developed is used to maintain a level of cleanliness in the vegetables. If the net is used properly, the heat from the sun kills the bugs without the need for agricultural chemicals. Before planting the seeds, I place a plastic sheet over the ground to raise the ground temperature enough to kill the insect eggs in the soil. However, the main problem with the net-system is that while the heat from the sun kills the bugs, after the plastic sheet is removed, bugs cannot enter from above or around the net, but they can enter from under the soil.
CITYNET: How does the net stay fastened to the ground?
Ooki: I use a series of clamps that I developed as well.
CITYNET: How do you know when the eggs in the soil have been eliminated?
Ooki: It depends on the soil temperature. When the ground temperature reaches 15 – 25 degrees, the plastic sheet needs to remain over the soil for about 20 days. When the ground temperature exceeds 25 degrees, the plastic sheet is only needed for 10 to 15 days.
This process is currently not widely used. It is generally thought to be more convenient to use chemicals, so pesticides are often used instead. However, if pesticides are used, rain water washes the pesticides into the drainage system, and those chemicals eventually end up in the drinking water.
CITYNET: Are you currently the only farm using this system?
Ooki: I’m currently working hard to teach other farmers in the area how to utilise the net-system as well. It is because of this net-system that Yokohama has given me a special certification that I received in March, 2005. Very few people have this designation because this method of farming is vey rarely used. Every three years somebody from the Yokohama government comes and checks to see if I am still properly pursuing environmentally friendly farming methods. If that person decides that I am not currently up to standards, I will lose my certification and be forced to take a course to get the certification again. In general, however, those who have received the certification tend to be very committed to the cause and therefore are not inclined to loosen their standards.
CITYNET: You are a retired businessman with a background very different from than that of a farmer – what made you decide to dedicate yourself to farming?
Ooki: Yes, I was a businessman for 39 years. Well for one, I wanted to have more control over my life. Businessmen tend to lead very structured lives with very little freedom. So at 55, I decided I wanted more freedom, and to have a job that can be of use to people.
There are plenty of other jobs and volunteer opportunities that can be helpful to the community, but today’s middle school students eat food from so many different sources, and kids don’t know where that food comes from. That’s why I decided to learn where that food comes from and how it is produced. After that, I began to pursue clean and safe farming methods that I could teach to students.
CITYNET: Where is the net being sold now?
Ooki: They are only available in stores in Kanagawa. However, people from around Japan have bought it directly from me. If somebody wanted to buy the net from overseas as well, they could order it directly from Oki Farms.
CITYNET: And how much does it cost?
Ooki: There are several sizes and cost depends on the size. They range from 17,000 to 69,000 yen and the clamps cost 65yen per piece.
CITYNET: How has climate change affected your farming process?
Ooki: This year the hot season has been very long with not a lot of rain, which means less water from sources, and irrigation has become more difficult.
CITYNET: And what has been the most difficult aspect of the agricultural process?
Ooki: The climate has been changing every year, yet I have to grow the same crops in different weather. Especially now that I am providing produce for schools, I am required to produce the same vegetables each year despite the change in climate. For example, this year has been especially hot, so I’ve had to water the plants at night instead of during the day, and when it is cold, I have trouble protecting the vegetables from the weather.
I also take my water from a well, which contains fewer chemicals than drinking water, at least for now. But this could become a problem in the future if well-water also becomes contaminated with chemicals.
CITYNET: What kind of feedback have you received from the schools?
- A school project done with Ooki farms where children learned how to grow rice.
Ooki: In general, the students say that the vegetables are better than before. On top of that, vegetables from my farm are actually cheaper than those from the market because I sell directly to the schools. So, the vegetables are cheaper, better, and safer.
Every year children also visit the farm. Once, on a school fieldtrip, a second year student saw that my fields were covered in white nets while the other fields were not, and so he asked his teacher about it. The school’s nutritionist and principal came to ask me about the nets, and from there they learned that I used the absolute minimum of chemicals, and the schools decided to begin buying their produce from me. I actually did not contact the schools first, they contacted me.
I believe I am the only person in Japan working like this, but other farms have begun this process as well. I would like to provide safe vegetables to schools, and increase the overall health of students across Japan. But on top of that, I would like safe farming techniques taught in food education classes, so that students can learn that farming can be an important and exciting job.
CITYNET: Do you have any advice for cities in developing countries without easy access to safe food sources?
Ooki: That’s difficult to say… to give advice I need to see the farms, and decide on a case-by-case
Mr. Ooki is working to produce fresh and safe vegetables for peace of mind.
basis, but, I would say that the keys to success are clean water and clean production. If the produce is not clean, people will not want to eat it. Safety in food provides a certain peace of mind.
[...] Read the complete article here. [...]
Congratulations to OKI-san for his success in organic vegetable farming. I wish I could do the same for my urban farm. I also tried apiculture and had eight colonies of bees but when the typhoon came, I was able to harvest from only three colonies. But the breakthrough is that the honey tasted of lemon grass because I had lemon grass planted nearby. We have to just try again and work with climate change.