 We will visit with amazing people doing wonderful things with space-age technology. Speaking of an amazing person, I'd like to introduce to you Dora Nakafuchi, who hosted and emceed the first virtual field trip to the Lacy Day of Discovery. Dora will share with you a little bit more about this Lacy Day Discovery and how and why we honor him so much and we just love him. And we love you too, Dora. So welcome aboard and explain to us who is Lacy Beach. Thank you, Wendy, for having us on this show and really hosting this first astronaut Lacy Beach Day of Discovery's virtual field trip day. And it's actually a follow-up to the event that was held on October 24th, earlier in October. And what we did was because we had to go virtual, because of the COVID-19 virus, we separated the workshops that were really offering hands-on experiential experiences for the students. We separated out into these virtual field trip tours. So really kind of the mastermind of art and ring Kimura. They, we call them the dynamic duos. They really inspired kind of this thinking of extending it into these virtual field trip days because it's like going on a field trip to see how these folks are actually using the technologies that were maybe developed here on earth for space travel or for other solutions or other problems here on earth that we can resolve using space-age technology and other types of new materials that have been discovered through exploration of space. So these field trip tours really offer folks a little bit more in depth and opportunity to meet people as well who are actually using, doing and producing from these new tools. Wow. You know, you invited all of us to tune in and I had no idea the caliber of this event. And I understand this is the 19th year. And I also understand that it was hosted at another school. And last year, you kind of assisted even further. And I had it at another school location if we can address that name of the school, if that's allowed. Yes, for sure. That last year, we were very honored to have hosted the 18th annual Lacey Beach Day of Discovery on the Kapalama campus at Kamehameha schools. And we actually carried the torch over from Kuna Ho school, which had hosted it for many, many years. And hosted again this year sponsored by Hoan Electric and the Hawaii Spacecraft Consortium. So we were very honored to have it on our campus where we hosted last year around 500 students on about 100 other volunteers that came on. So 600 in total. This virtual event was really a pivot. We really were not expecting. We didn't know how it was going to go actually. Oh no, this is such new technology for all of us. But you nailed it. You're the team, all the sponsors, Nainoa Thompson came on board. I felt his heart. I was crying. I was like, oh my gosh, what hole did I just climb out of? Because it was such an amazing day. Full of love and aloha for one of our own from Hawaii. Lacey Beach, a graduate of Kuna Ho High School. And the second astronaut from Hawaii. That's amazing. I was I was blown away with the whole event. And so thank you so much for keeping it alive. And continuing to educate our young Kiki in that direction and Kiki from all over the world as we go virtual to just learn and be wanting to be more just curious on what's out there. And that's what this is all about to continue that desire and that dream. For space and beyond. Wow. So exciting, Dora. So before we get started, um, I want us to learn a little bit about we're going to talk about the tower gardens. And we have a man here, a friend. His name is Tim Blank. And he's going to share with us how the tower gardens were developed and the connection to space. So I want to introduce to you a dear friend. His name is Tim Blank. And Tim is the developer of the tower garden and the mineral blend, which is a food source for all the plant growth and the success of the plant growth in the tower gardens. So mahalo Tim for joining us live on this virtual field trip as we watch his video that he sent to us. Hey everybody, this is Tim Blank. I'm co-founder and chief technology officer for the Tower Garden Company. It's such an honor to be part of this series and be here with you today. You know, before I talk about what I'm going to share today, I'm going to go back in time about 30 years, 40 years actually, and share with you a little bit about where I grew up. I grew up on the western side of North Dakota. I grew up in a rural farming community. And I saw how difficult it was for farmers to grow food, uses a lot of water, uses a lot of land, and every farmer is subject to the temperature and the rain. And I really gained growing up a great admiration and appreciation for the people that grow food for our country and for the rest of the world, actually. And I also saw how difficult it was and how many natural resources that farming actually consumed. I myself started my own garden when I was nine years old. And I can tell you, trying to grow a garden in the rocky soil of North Dakota took an entire summer's worth of labor just to get a single head of lettuce or a beautiful kale plant. When I was in high school, I had an opportunity on one of our first family vacations out of state to visit a very special place at the Walt Disney World Company called the Land at Epcot. And for those of you that know Epcot, it stood for the experimental prototype community of tomorrow. And this land pavilion they had at Epcot was very special. They were growing under controlled environment agriculture in a greenhouse. They're growing 100 food crops from around the world using every hydroponic system imaginable, using up to 98% less water, using up to 90% less land and no harmful pesticide chemicals. And up to 10,000 people a day came through on a boat ride and saw what was going on at the land. And I remember I went on that backstage tour. And I was just completely in awe. I thought to myself, wow, this is the future. This isn't the solution for all these challenges I saw with conventional gardening and commercial farming. So I went on to college that in fact that experience inspired me to go get a degree in horticulture and to help make a difference. Now I didn't know back then how I was going to do that, how I would make a difference, how I would be part of the solution. I just knew that this is something I wanted to do. So I listened to my heart. I followed my passion. I got that degree in horticulture. And you know, it was no small miracle. I actually got hired back to the land at Epcot at the very place that inspired me to go to get my degree in horticulture. In fact, in 1993, I started out as an advanced intern at Epcot. And I got to work in those beautiful greenhouses. And I was just so blown away by everything that I got to do there and everything I got to learn. Now, after my internship, I thought, well, maybe I'll go start a hydroponic greenhouse and become part of this solution. And I was very blessed. I got hired on into some very amazing research positions. In fact, over the next seven years, I went on to work for for the USDA, the Department of Energy, and NASA, actually. And I'm going to share more about that in a moment. But after seven years of doing all this research and being part of every aspect of those greenhouses, I got hired to manage the entire facility and our intern program that was part of that facility. So that was an incredible experience. And one of the things that always stuck with me was the research that I did for NASA. I'm going to share what that was all about. So back then, we were doing prior to Elon Musk and SpaceX and everything going on. We were doing some projects that were that would eventually go to the moon, to the space station, and then on to Mars. And I remember being part of this group of scientists, and we all sat around and we were just brainstorming and thinking of how we would survive on the moon or Mars. And I remember one of the things that really stuck with me. And we were saying of all that the astronauts or those folks living on the moon or Mars had to eat was coming from what they were growing. We knew A, we had to do it hydroponically like the technology you see behind me. And we knew we had to grow vertically. We had to grow a lot of food in a very small space. And we knew that that food had to be as nutritious as possible. So we began talking about trace minerals that were important to human health and recycling that nutrient solution. I thought to myself, and I remember asking a question to all these people, if getting all this nutrition into these astronauts bodies is so important, why aren't we doing this on earth here? Why aren't in agriculture, why aren't we focused on this? And the answer was very simple. No one had an answer. And that just isn't where agriculture is today. So that as I began to do research for NASA, I looked at all the possible trace minerals that we could add to nutrients. And when we my wife, Jessica, and I founded Future Growing, which is today Tower Garden, we founded that company back in 2006. One of the first things we did is I took that science that I had the foundation for and I began experimenting with the world's first one size fits all hydroponic fertilizer. And the first hydroponic fertilizer in the world to have a complete range of trace minerals that are very important to human health. So it's really that work I did for NASA inspired the Tower Garden mineral blend that we actually have today. And over the years, we've modified and improved that formula. Today, it's even clinically proven. So I really love the relationship that the Tower Garden has with NASA. And even in fact, choosing aeroponics, why did we choose aeroponics for the Tower Garden? There's a lot of forms of hydroponics and that aeroponics is considered to be the best because the roots inside these beautiful towers are in a hollow chamber. So they're getting maximum amounts of oxygen, water and nutrients. So these plants grow very fast. In fact, the plants you see here, you know, these over here were just transplanted a couple weeks ago. So you can literally harvest a full head of lettuce or kale or any one of these other crops within three to four weeks. In fact, if for many of these crops, we're going to continue to cut off of them for gosh, probably six months. This tower here is my one of my juicing towers. It's more than six months old now. We got charred and, you know, look at this. We got a beautiful salary plant up here, multicolored kale, some parsley in there. And in all we do is we just pinch off these leaves, pinch off those celery stalks and we juice with them, and then they just flush right back out. And these gardens don't require bending, weeding, tilling, things like that. So back when we were bringing the Tower Garden to market in the early development stages, we chose Tower Garden and we chose Aeroponics because we felt it was the best way to grow. And we grow more food and less space. Here on our Tower Garden home, we have 32 plant sites on a 24 inch footprint. And all these plants are growing with these state-of-the-art LED lights, which are full spectrum. So they have everything that the plant needs for good, healthy photosynthesis. Now when you think about the Tower Garden and the fact that we can grow everything from a beautiful beef steak tomato to a head of lettuce, it's all about keeping it fun and simple, both for students and for people at home and for businesses. They're not going to be involved in urban gardening if it takes a lot of time. So really the ability to eliminate the bending, weeding, tilling, keeping all this Tower Garden fun is really what it's all about. You know, the old way of doing hydroponics was having a different fertilizer for different crops. In fact, there's still lots of people today that say that's the only way you can do it. And we know differently with Tower Garden, with the Tower Garden mineral blend, we can grow almost every above-ground crop imaginable on the Tower. And so I just really wanted to point out, look what you can do. Let you know when we think about the challenges, for those of you in school especially, and you're learning about the environment, you know, the challenges with our natural resources, the areas around the world and out west in the United States where we're running out of water, they grow, you know, the California is considered the vegetable basket for the U.S. and they're just simply running out of water. We're on a trajectory where the crops are growing, the crop usage is going up, the water is going down, and eventually those two paths collide and somebody has to give. And that means that, you know, in the future we're not going to be able to grow all those crops. And another thing I think about with technology and science is when we look at making a difference for Planet Earth, all these vegetable crops travel, you know, thousands of miles. If I'm over in Orlando, Florida, and I'm buying lettuce in the store or kale or chard or parsley or any of those things growing behind me, some dill up there, some green onion, those travel 2,500 miles from field to table and they're up to two weeks old. And so that leaves a huge carbon footprint on Planet Earth. So this technology that NASA has always been all about and that we're all about at the Tower Garden Company is grow food where you live and grow anywhere on Earth. And you just think about how much carbon footprint we eliminate when we do that. We eliminate the diesel to harvest and the chemicals that were sprayed and the plastic wrapper for the produce and the cardboard box to ship it and the semi truck that traveled across the country and the cooler to ship it. And then when you're harvesting it fresh, what's amazing is this celery stalk smells like I'm in an entire room of celery. That's the nutrition. Smells so darn good. So one of the final things I want to lead you with is I just shared with you a little bit about the Tower Garden, how it works, what we can grow and the power of Tower Garden education. Now we have Tower Gardens, I believe over 10,000 Tower Gardens in schools across the US and around the world. They've been incorporated into STEM curriculum and lesson plans and activities. And we're, you know, during this period where people have been homeschooling or having to do schooling remote, it's been very, very powerful. You know, we use Tower Gardens with our own kids now that we're schooling at home and it makes lesson plans and activities fun. When you can bring science into the home or into the classroom, it's a lot more fun. I recently visited Ryan Elementary in Chandler, Arizona and the entire school is filled with towers. It helped move that school from a B school to an A rated school. It's it incorporated Tower Garden to the STEM curriculum, the disabled learning and just a whole wide array of things. And so, you know, children, I really think of the Tower Garden as the iPhone of gardening. Kids love it. It's technology. It's fun and simple and it's like instant gratification. They plant a seed and literally two weeks later that seed has sprouted up into a couple inches and then they just pop it in the tower and a week or two later they're harvesting clean, healthy produce from that tower. So, I'm so excited about what we're doing with the Tower Gardens and education and within our own communities. You know, we have people, you know, when we think about LED lights, I did a project. I want to share this one final thought. In 1994, I did a research project for NASA that was using LED lights. Now back then, LED lights were really expensive. They didn't put out the same intensity. But I remember, you know, the way NASA thought was that we would have to be low energy use and a lot of growth. So, really, these lights we're using today are just an extension of what, you know, NASA was doing way back in the day. So, here we can grow food in an apartment and a condo. You can grow food on the South Pole like this anywhere on planet Earth. If you have a 24-inch footprint, you can grow all this food using low wattage state-of-the-art LED lights. And so, it's just so fun to see kids learning about this technology, doing the nutrient solution chemistry, the pH, the lights, and learning that there can be a different way to grow food at home or even on a farm within your own local community. So, I hope you've all enjoyed what I have to share today about the Tower Garden and all the possibilities of growing food in school and in your own local community. Bye, everybody. Aloha, Tim. Wow. He has a lot to say. And, you know, every time I look at the Tower Garden, in fact, I got one right here. It's in my office. So, like he was saying, I live in a condo in the sky. And I got my vegetables growing right here behind me. And I have been growing them for the last nine years. So, there are some people that have some questions out there. And they were sending in the questions while Tim was sharing. And I guess they're kind of new to Tower Gardens. And they just wanted to know, do we make sure the water is pH balanced when we're soaking the rock wool? The rock wool is the medium that holds the seeds to produce the seedling. And actually, at that point, we don't really need to use, I don't balance my pH for that stage. And I don't even put the mineral blend into the water at that stage because they're just little seedlings. And the seedlings, after a day or two, they'll pop and they'll start sprouting. When they start sprouting, probably after the first week, that's when I'm going to start using some of my nutrients from my, you know, I'm going to blend it up or take it from my tower. So, then I'm going to start infusing the nutrients into the food source, which is the water, the nutrient base, to help those seedlings just get a little stronger and pop up. So, when they're about two weeks old, from that point, we'll just put it in the tower garden. And after we put it in the tower garden, you give it about two and a half to three weeks. And you better get your bowl ready because salad's coming. And one salad comes, right, Dora? Salad comes. So, there's a lot of things that we should know. There's one more question. It says, what should the water level be in the seedling tray with the rock wall? Basically, you don't want to put too much water. In the beginning, I thought I would put like a quarter of the rock wall covered with water, but you don't really need to put that much water. You're just needing to saturate that rock wall so it's wet. And it doesn't have abundance of water because then you might have some issues of root rot, even at that very young age. So, not necessarily to just drench it with so much water, but just enough to keep it wet and hydrated. So, let's move further. There's so much to talk about. And I love it the way he just meshed how tower gardens, you know, from land to space, and now from space, we're going to come back. But before we do that, so Dora, we have a slide here and I want them to see it. Is this what it'll be like to grow fresh food in space? That's a really, really good question, Wendy, because, you know, as Tim was saying, when he talked about back in, you know, the 90s where he started thinking about this technology, it just kind of refreshed my memory about all the life science experiments that were happening at NASA and places because they were looking for astronauts to live in the International Space Station. And it's interesting now today, just from that slide that was just on earlier, you could see where astronauts are growing and doing these payload experiments where they're learning to grow in a microgravity environment, learning to grow using these nutrients, all the things that Tim talked about, which you can see kind of the purple yellow, the pinkish light, you see one of the astronauts, they're attending it. And the reason is because they need fresh produce, fresh food. And as Tim alluded to, that aeroponics environment, you don't want a lot of water and soil, can you imagine the weight going up into space? The aeroponics idea is actually something that I remember when I was going to school, and I had an opportunity to work at NASA Ames and we got to visit this entire lab full of basically aeroponics. And the reality is that it's that tower right now. It may look a little bit different for space, but it's the same principles and same concepts learning to grow. And I love the fact that he mentioned that the way that technology grows is that it's 98% less water, 80% less land, because we are here in Hawaii, we have very, our land is limited, our water, fortunately is abundant, but we do also have these natural droughts, drought cycles, and we are affected environmentally from global warming and everything else. So just kind of the whole concept he shared, it's really that circular economy in terms of circular agriculture regenerative agriculture, conserving our resources, conserving our lands, connections to the ocean, because that's the source of a lot of our water, and then linking in with space and thinking ahead as to how we would grow in the future. Right, and here we are basically in the future. So, you know, Tim Blanky cutting edge from Epcot Center, and all good things come from Epcot Center. And of course, he did meet his wife Jessica there and they're married and they have two beautiful daughters, but they come to us with so much passion about that generation, the keiki, you know, to grow them healthy, to encourage them to grow healthy, and then encourage them to eat healthy. So that's the whole value. It's just not another system, but it's to really encourage the next generation to thrive and be more self-sustainable by doing it on their own. So he's put the fun back in to growing up. And now we want to talk about another dude who also does that. So I want us to learn, let's learn how another teacher, this is in a classroom setting, Tim Blanky is in the world, he's in Epcot, but let's learn about another teacher who is inspiring kids to be healthy. And who knows, and who knows just who knows, maybe the next generation of space agronauts. So from space, growing with our aeroponics, growing system to classrooms. Everyone, you have to meet a very enthusiastic fifth grade teacher from the Bronx, and his name is Stephen Ritz, and he is the Green Bronx machine. Hi, I'm Steve Ritz, a teacher at Public School 55 here in the South Bronx, and I make a difference by growing food four stories up in my classroom 365 days a year, right here in the South Bronx. Who wants to grow the butterhead lettuce? Okay, I became a teacher because it seemed like the right thing to do. And then I got bit, the magic hit. Every day here is an opportunity to do something great, to change lives, to transform a community. This is a community that needs education, this is a community that needs motivation, this is a community that needs connections to bigger things, and we are the conduit for that. I'm not a science teacher by trade, I'm certainly not a farmer. Many years ago, someone sent me a box of daffodil bulbs, and we hid it behind the radiator, and the heat and the steam from the radiator forced it, and the kids saw this beautiful, blooming thing of life. I had an epiphany, and that began the work of actually, you know, planting seeds. It planted seeds in my mind, and kids felt great, they felt wonderful, and I wanted to replicate that success. One, two, three, si, se, puede, we have a taco! Food is a non-negotiable. We have children here who have never seen what real food is, and we also have kids here who have emigrated from other countries in search of food. We are 37 percent food insecure in this community. We have 40 percent unemployment in this community. 99 percent of the kids in this school qualify for free and reduced lunch, and to think that food is the entry point for public education, for reading, for writing, for literacy, for math, for aspiration and inspiration is incredible. But most importantly, by growing food, we're creating life. We're planting seeds, and that's what this is about. We are harvesting hope and cultivating minds. We made holes and planted seeds. Then three days it will grow and grow and grow. So this is a soilless system. Here's day three. OMG! And what we've been doing here, these other classes. Mr. Steve, he's teaching us how it's natural. He taught us about pH, like it's bad and good. Then you can eat more healthy vegetables and food. We have 96 percent daily attendance. That's an opportunity for me to get in and get those little brains cooking. Retention is going up. Faculty involvement is going up. On Sunday, when I walk the street and kids tell me, I can't wait to see you tomorrow, we've got thousands of residents out there looking at us from the projects with our classroom, glowing in the middle of the night, saying, what's going on in there? And that's exciting. We're creating awareness and excitement. Check the pH of what? Not everything. When you teach kids about nature, they learn to nurture. And when children learn to nurture, we as a society collectively embrace our better nature. He believes in the Bronx and he believes in the students of the Bronx and their potential. Any student he works with, he connects and keeps in contact. He is always thinking of them. Every day is an opportunity to do something great. My favorite crop is organically grown citizens, graduates, members of the middle class, kids who are going to college, kids who are voting, kids who are staying out of jail. And now here at an elementary school, we're finding it is easier to raise healthy children than fixed broken men. And what could be more inspiring than that? Job creation programs, family health programs, cooking programs, the future is unlimited. Teaching kids to count is cool, but teaching them what counts is also critical. And while I'm very much about ABCDs, this is also about asset based community development. So we want to bring the walls as far out into the community as possible and bring the community as close. So if we can knock down stereotypes and bring kids in bridge schools around things that are going to benefit the environment and the world as a whole, wow. I mean, like, and you know, he was trying so hard to hold his hands back and he actually is like so animated and so pumped up. He must be eating all that green stuff he's growing. What do you think, Dora? I mean, the guy is just full of passion and love. And that's a whole idea behind growing and learning and growing healthy is all that love he pours into every one of his students and that they pour into all of the food that comes out of the tar gardens. And so then the kids eat more love, not just feel love, but then they grow around and surround themselves with love. And that's the whole success to growing up and they growing up with great vegetables and having fun doing it. And so that's what this talk is all about. We just want to really encourage all of us to just put more passion into what we're doing, especially when it comes to our bodies, really want to steward and take better, better care of it. And you know, with all that passion that Steven has, do you know that Steven Ritz was nominated, one of the 10 finalists for top teachers of the world? And of course, I mean, I've nominated him over and over and again. I mean, there are a lot of other qualified teachers in the world, yes, and kudos to them and keep up the great work because you are the heartbeat for our students and you've got our kids for a great portion of the day. So keep up the great work, all of you. We applaud you and we commend you. And you know, Steven Ritz, with all his passion, he has a worldwide demand for all of his knowledge and passion for students all over the world. You know, that he travels to like Dubai and all the different regions in our United States and not just the affluent, but he goes to the impoverished, the neighborhoods that really need help and love and produce. And you know, he comes from the Bronx, but every state, every country has Bronx. And so we just have to open our eyes and our hearts about that. Is that right, Dara? I know that your passion for tower gardens are just as great as Steven Ritz. So share with us a little bit about your passion for towers. Well, I just seeing what his background and something that I wanted to comment about was like both Tim and Steven had the background with the tower gardens. And at first he's like, that looks like a set. But you're like, that's real. It's for real. And what a healthy, beautiful set that would be. Yeah. And I was like, I want to go back to his class. I want to go to the Bronx, Dora. And you know, can you imagine the quality of the air that these students are breeding, that these plants are growing within their classrooms? And like for my tower right here, my living room, or you know, right in my office, it's allowing me better quality of the air, better than any filter or filtration system that I could purchase. That's all natural. So I mean, I would love for all of us to hear a little bit more from Steven Ritz. Would you like to hear more, Dora? Yeah, let's see what else he's up to. This is our skyline. These are our shops, our supermarkets, our windows, our doors, our homes, and our yards in the poorest congressional district in America. This is our soil. Here we are growing something greater for children who love to learn, to make, to nurture and to taste. This is Green Bronx machine. As COVID brought the world to a standstill, it became the ultimate manifestation of three larger illnesses, racism, greed, and corruption. And from this very classroom, Green Bronx machine pivoted. We pivoted into advancing systemic solutions. We found new ways to secure and distribute food to those who needed it most, often rescuing the very best non-sellable food that was destined for landfill. We found ways to make gardening safe, social, and responsible. Here, we continue to be the light inside of our tunnel instead of expecting to be the light we so desperately seek at the end. We use gardening and food access to build unity into our community. We used our local net work to grow our net worth. We even built farms 10 stories underground. And now we are experimenting with turning our gardens into internet hotspots, bringing food and communication to communities that could traditionally afford access to neither. From this tiny corner of the globe, we had frequent conversations with students and teachers all around the world, often with thousands. Food is the language through which society reveals its structure, who has access to what, when, how, and at what prices determines everything. And from day one, we understood the best way to improve our immunity was by eating more fresh fruits and vegetables. Week after week, we delivered and continue to deliver bags and bags and bags of fresh healthy groceries, door by door, block by block, to those who need it most. For others, we delivered food on Tuesdays and then held Zoom cooking classes on Wednesdays to make sure that everyone knew how to cook and utilize that food in the healthiest way possible. Let food be thy medicine and let medicine be thy food. Wow. You know what? I mean, guys, I'm going to just take me over here. I don't know if you can see what I'm doing over here, but I can't wait anymore. I got my salad. Hey, I'm just going to put it in my bowl. And this is going to be my lunch, okay? Because Stephen Ritz, he's making me hungry. So we're going to talk some more and I'm going to ask Dora some questions. And when Dora's talking, I'm going to be gobbling up my salad because just like those kids, I'm going to eat it. So I know growing and connecting is so key to growing healthy. And Stephen Ritz makes it just so much fun. So we applaud you, Stephen. We're doing that and just invigorating the communities that need just an influx of love to just grow healthy. And how amazing is that? I just can't get over all his energy. And I know it has to do with all this great food that he's consuming every day. So I'm sorry. So Dora, you keep talking because I'm going to chew my salad a little bit. Sorry. I'm making me hungry. I definitely, wow, what an inspiration just to see that kind of connection in the classrooms, helping the students. And he talked about harvesting hope, you know, planting those trees. Every day, I think our students and teachers are also trying to make those connections. And especially in this COVID times, you know, even brought that forward is that their communities are now benefiting from what these kids are doing in the classrooms and what they're learning in the classrooms. And I don't even think they're learning in the sense of like studying and taking tests and learning, but it's sinking in. It's at a deeper level where it's part of them now, because what they eat is now becoming part of them, part of the community. And I think that's going to carry us a lot further, you know, from wherever they're coming from, you know, whether it be the Bronx, whether it's here in Hawaii, whether it's on an ocean connecting with the rest of the world or even in space where it truly is an international space society that we're going to have up there, we're going to have to learn to work together. And I love the fact that food is involved, because I'll eat anything, because I'll try anything. But at the same time, you know, I think food is a way to experience culture, people's values, and honestly healthy food is like you said, you know, your net worth and everything you said, net worth, network, next with the community. And I think that's something that here in Hawaii being the Aloha state that really resounds with us and should be something that we can actually embrace and connect to maybe make make the next generation those agronauts like you talked about, you know, their their jobs could be international. And it could be as it could be on the oceans or it could be, you know, here on land and still continuing to grow for our communities and societies. And it is and we're so close to it and bringing people like you with such qualifications, Dora, to our great state and to our great schools. So I just love it that we're partnering and that you have that kind of passion for the keiki and the future generations. And so, you know, you mentioned something really neat and it just segues right into what I want to discuss with the next. It's a young man. And during the times of COVID, he came to his mom and he said, Hey, mom, I can't find a job right now. It's really hard. I said, well, son, there's COVID and a lot of people are losing their jobs and there's not a whole lot of jobs out there. And so they sat down together jointly as a family. And they decided they decided as a family to give this young man an opportunity. And this opportunity was to turn their front yard into a targarded farm. So they just got the pick and shovels and they dug out the front yard. They laid out a 20 by 20 foot slab. They had purchased some tower gardens. I think they have about 20. And they said, let's start a farm. Son, is this what you want? And he said, yes, mom, this is what I want. And so the neat part is I'm going to let you see. We have a little snippet of this young man. His name is Jax. And he's going to tell you a little bit about his name and what he has gone from right in his front yard because of COVID. Take it away, Jax. So these right here are many eggplants. And those are basil. So right now we're in between crops. So we're switching over to winter now. So if you didn't notice, I am in a wheelchair because I have a disability. But, you know, we're focusing on the tower gardens. So the reason why I love this tower garden system is because since I'm in a wheelchair, I can't get around in dirt or rocks, rocky areas because it's harder. But with these, I can move it around because they're on dollies. So it's easier for me to move them around and pick plants. So if they're like this, I can just move them to get to the back. So in the beginning, when we planned to make our farm, our tower garden farm, we thought about some ways where we can make it easier for me to move around and push the tower gardens on the side if I needed to. So we thought of concrete. So the concrete, there's a certain mixture and where it has lime. So the lime, the snails and bugs don't like the lime because there's like something in it. But it helps because it's like a protective barrier for the tower gardens so that there's no bugs on it. So that's clean. But it's not guaranteed. But so far, we haven't seen slugs or bugs on the concrete. So we spray it with water. This young man, Jax, he had a dream and his dream is coming true and he doesn't have to drive to work, of course. He just opens the front door and he goes to work and he has a beautiful farm and all his neighbors knows him as Kama Aloha, as he said, child of love. How appropriate is this for him? And when we're designing to design this farm for them, 20 by 20 foot concrete slab, little did we know that this concrete slab would be a deterrent for all the little slugs and the snails because on the big island of Hawaii, that's a massive problem there on that side of the island where they have this thing called the rat lung worm and it's really causing havoc to a lot of crops and a lot of health and lives on that side. But because of the chemical makeup in this concrete, it is a natural deterrent. So the slugs and the snails have not come onto the slab or anywhere near the towers or anywhere near all that beautiful produce that he's producing. So, Jax, thank you for that great science lesson right there teaching all of us just exactly what we need to do for the cement and it helped us deter some of those pests. Did you know that, Dora? I didn't know that until Jax had shared it. I mean, that's amazing because food safety is definitely something that, you know, a lot of our farming community is really concerned about and rat lung worm disease is definitely a problem for these kind of fresh greens and produce especially for our tourists and as well as our local ohana here. So just knowing that there are different ways of growing and setting up your environment that is more conducive to preventing some of this type of food safety issues. That's an amazing step forward. We don't have to spray everything with, you know, dangerous pesticides or anything like that. It's keeping the environment that you're growing healthy. So it's kind of getting an innards look at how this aeroponic system is keeping the food safe and clean. And isn't that neat that this child of love is teaching us all of these new concepts and probably teaching a lot of others out there just to make it cleaner and better. And that's a farm. That's the name of his farm. Out of love. And that's exactly what Jax is. So Mahalo Jax. And I'm wondering if I think he wanted to pop back in and show us a little bit about his harvest. Is there one more clip with his root system there? And wow. Remember the tar garden doesn't use any dirt. So that's amazing because dirt makes things dirty. And so because his tar garden doesn't use dirt, his roots are just beautiful and white. And I always wanted to say we should develop a recipe for cooking those roots because that's a big part of that plant. So I know Dora, you wanted to share with us a little bit more about ideal space explorers and ambassadors. So I know we have a link up coming up. Yeah, I just in looking at what Jax has been able to do, I realized that for a lot of the space program, I know right now they're looking for, you know, those that have PhDs very kind of cutting edge and excelling in their own field. And I think as folks continue to travel to space, we're going to need a whole host of folks to be in space. And one of the things that in that article was written up about what kind of people are going to be most needed in space. And those with disabilities like Jax, given that we have a micro environment up there, they're free to kind of explore the open, you know, like Stephen Ritz was saying is that you open up all the boundaries and have folks that, you know, maybe they can't see very well, they can't walk. Those are all things that are maybe challenging here. And I think Jax has done a wonderful job getting his setup for him to be conducive to growing, but in space, he has a whole nother skill set. So who knows? I mean, they may be the ones that are going to help us learn how to, you know, manage these new environments, because we're not going to be walking the same way. We're not going to be doing things the same way. So that article was an interesting article I just wanted to share if anybody wants to read it, take a look at it. The other thing too is I really wanted to kind of point out, like, the growing styles are so different, you know, there are certain things that here we have to grow in soil to get the proper nutrients. But I think in certain environments, certainly in an urban or a densely populated area or in space, you don't have many alternatives. You don't have that soil, that rich, you know, life that's growing in the ground. But you do have these alternatives, which if you want to take advantage of it, it seems like there's opportunities. So that's a wonderful thing to share with us, Wendy. This is really exciting to see all these things. Yeah. And how appropriate is that link? And, you know, just letting everybody have equal opportunity. And, you know, so you see all things are possible, though right there proven, give a kid a wheelchair and watch him roll. And Jack's is on a roll. And so that's why we want to just follow his story and make sure he just represents well, you know, his community and not just, you know, his special needs community, as well, his community of Hilo, a beautiful town with some challenges that Jack has learned to overcome. He has learned to overcome so many challenges. How old is he again? Jack's is 19 is 19. So he's still a teenager, a teenager in his own right. Hawaiian young Hawaiian boy on a wheelchair with a very bright future as he rolls along. So as we roll along, I want to just bring a segue into I want to introduce you to another young grower. Her name is Erin Ryan, and she is our featured 12 year old, seventh grader, and she is a tower and gardener. And just like the postman who will deliver rain, shine or snow, she says that she has vegetables, rain, shine or snow. And so I'm telling you that as a hint, she doesn't live in Hawaii, but she comes to us from Bend, Oregon. Here's Erin. Hi, my name is Erin. I'm 12 year old and I'm seventh grade. I'm living in Central Oregon. My family and I have been growing veggies out of our tower garden. We started at the end of this September. I helped build the tower garden and construct it with my aunt, which was easy to build. I then planted the seeds in a rock wall, like this. This one's not up to two inches yet, which is the height needed for us to put it inside our tower garden. In order for the veggies to grow, it requires water and oxygen. The tower garden has a tub called a thrusterer down here, which holds our water and mineral waste. To check it, if it is between 5.5 and 6.5, which are the requirements needed for our plants to grow healthy, like the vitamins. We put the water up to 10 millimeters in the test tube. We then get our pH tester and add five drops to it. After that, we shake it up and get the pH test chart. We line the pH tester up with the amount of the color that matches the pH test. This one matches with 6.0, which is in the requirements of 5.5 and 6.5. If it is between 4.5 and 5.5, then you're going to have to add more base, which is right here. And if it's between 7.0 and above, then you're going to have to add more acid. LED lights help the plants grow. Since there's last day light during the day over in Central Oregon, and we don't have that much of good weather in the winter. Roots, the pump of the tower, filters and showers from the bottom over here to the top, and showers down on all of the plants inside of it. Here's one of the plants that we have at the bottom. These roots are long because it has to go inside the tub down here since there's not much water since all these plants look up. That's why they're so big. This is why we love our tower gun, so we can get healthy dye out of our day. The tower gun can also grow some fruits and also has mint seen here. This mint has, is really big, which has a better effect on our mint we have down here, which is small, and is, we've been growing for about two months with soil, which hasn't grown much, but we've only grown this one for a couple weeks and it's way bigger than the other one over there. This helps us have a healthy lifestyle fast and easy. We love our tower garden. This is girl, 12 years old. Are you kidding me? Dora, what's up with that? 12 years old, and she's like producing salad. The other day when I was talking to them and we were getting this thing ready, she, her mom said, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on, but Erin, and then the kid gives the mom a drink. The kid went and picked the greens, the spinach, and all the green stuff, blended a drink. I said, mom, here, you didn't have dinner, you just got home from work. Here you go, mom. I'm like, really? And then the best part, she had a metal straw, so it's reusable, and she had a sprig of mint, which they're growing on their tower, and she garnished it and said, mom, here, I love you. This is for you. Like, so just for that, I'm buying another tower garden. I mean, I think it's fabulous, but right now we have a question from the audience, and they wanted to know, do we still need to use pesticides on the produce coming from the tower garden? So let me just tell you, these are plants, and plants are very susceptible to all kinds of pests. If you live in a like a heavily wooded area, like with other plants and gardens, of course, pests will come to your tower. However, we are trying to be as natural and chemical free as possible. So what we've done is we have different concoctions of natural organic pesticides. So we're using like, sometimes we grind up tomato leaves and garlic and neem oil, we blend it up and we use that as a spray. It depends what your pests are, is what you're going to be fabricating as far as a natural spray. So yes, if you have pests outside in the yard, they're going to attack your plants, but I got to tell you, because of the nutrients and the proprietary tonic mineral blend that Tim and his wife have developed for the tower and the plants, these plants become stronger, and so they can be more pest resistant. And so yes, maybe if you have side by side growing one plant on the outside might have way more pests than the ones on the tower. And it's, I would just credit it to the quality of the tonic or the mineral blend that we are feeding our plants. And so that in itself, we're ahead of the game in another, you know, besides 90% less land and 90% less water, we are also 90% less bugs. No, no, you didn't hear me say that. You didn't hear me say that. So I just want to answer that question. Yes, if you have bugs on the outside, you may have bugs on the inside, but easily taken care of. So now our next slide we'll talk a little bit about. Let's see. Yeah, this is also exciting, seeing all this great healthy and nutrient nutritious veggies as we eat the fruits of our labor growing that made easy, fun and nutritious, just have fun with whatever you're doing. And of course, it actually even tastes better when you're having fun. I mean, my kale smoothie for the last nine years, I've been growing this kale backside of me, and I've been drinking it religiously every day for the last nine years. So yes, I get the best breakfast in my body, because I want the highest performance out of my body, whether I'm surfing, whether I'm talking stir with all of you on this zoom call, I want the best for all of you. So you have anything you want to add to that, Dora? Well, I think the smoothies are delicious from these, these fresh tasting vegetables and, you know, the smells are definitely much more pungent. And some of the slide that you showed earlier, I think last year we, the testament was that all these kids wanted a second cup, you know, and so the parents came to pick up, we were doing one of these activities. And I think you were there sharing out about the tower. And I remember one of the kids came in, the mom was like, what are you guys doing? Seeing the green drink, right? And the child was saying, yeah, mom, I'm drinking kale juice. The mom almost like, you could just hear her mouth. So, you know, and I want to just acknowledge one of our kumus on campus who really was, had the foresight to think about all these things, you know, who Cheryl's been doing this. Oh, she's amazing. Love, Cheryl, kumushero. She loves the cakey. She loves what she's doing. And it shows because those kids come out of her classroom, they don't want to leave, first of all. And then when I go there to just observe, I just have the best sense of aloha coming from her to them and then from them back to her and then to us. Respect, respect kudos to you, Cheryl. Love you. Yes. Wonderful. I'm going to go get a smoothie later today. All right. So we learned from the best, like Tim and Jessica Blank, the developers of the Tower Garden, we observe how others are doing it, like Lizette and Stephen Ritz. And then we monitor our youth to do the same. What a system this is and what a system that works. And I'm sure, Dora, you'd love to, and you probably are implementing this in all the school systems that you're working alongside with as well. Well, it's definitely a learning process, you know, and so that slide kind of shared the evolution or the growth of experiences, right? So you plant that seed, you watch it grow, you learn about fruits, and then you do some observation, note taking. One of the things we noticed too is that how do you grow side by side? Yes. Things that are in horizontal fields, in soil, but then growing in a new environment like this. Because we do understand that in the future, we may not all have the luxury of growing in a soil based environment. So here's another reason we need to be versatile. The principles are the same. And those skill sets, which is what we're trying to teach in various STEM related, that slide that you just shared, you can see the progression of how those skill sets come together. So it's kind of interesting to see the pH balancing, which Erin shared, the strong roots, you can actually open up these towers and see, I mean, it's incredible, you're right. It's amazing. The whole idea, Doris, when we figure it all out, you know, what we always need to remember is that, yes, we need to learn to grow side by side. So whether it's vegetables in the garden, whether it's you and me, whether it's mom and dad, daughter, sisters, we just really need to learn to be and grow side by side in life and even in all of our food sources. So I'm excited about what that slide shows as well, Doris, about how on the tower versus how on traditional farming, growing side by side, we need them all. That's a great way to illustrate that side by side growing because your environment really dictates how you grow, what you grow, and where you grow. But technologies like this help us always have the best nutrition in mind. Amen. That's how we're going to be sustainable for the generations to come is just encourage proper nutrition, in fact, max out on great nutrition. Just don't just don't do it. Just max it out. You can't overdo it. And so just like sisters in this next slide, just like family, we all need to grow and live and love side by side. And that's what we want to just share with everybody. So I'm just so grateful, Doris, that we were invited to do this little series with Lacey Day Discoveries. And I hope that next year we can come back. And I hope we've encouraged and instilled a lot of great values in all of your audiences that's viewing us throughout the world. So mahalo to you for your commitment for all these years. And thank you for all that you do. Mahalo for having us and hosting this first virtual Lacey Beach Day of Discovery, the first virtual. Thank you everybody. Let's go eat, man. Let's go eat. Lunch is served. Aloha.