Our speaker for Feb 9 at Simply Sichuan is Hiro Nagao, President of EM Hawaii LLC. Hiro’s ancestral roots come from Gushikawa- Okinawa in Japan. His grandfather immigrated at a young age, moved his family to various islands, and finally settled in Kula, on the island of Maui. His father was raised on a vegetable farm, and after joining the service, he moved to Okinawa to take care of family matters. Hiro was born in Okinawa, but the family moved back to Hawaii at five years old, just before Okinawa reverted to Japan. Growing up in an environment of naturally grown foods and having fond memories of visiting the Maui farm led Hiro to change his major from engineering and earn a bachelor’s degree in horticulture from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.
After graduation, Hiro wanted to learn more about his Okinawan roots, so he lived and worked as an assistant English teacher for Intermediate and Elementary schools in a small rural town called Sashiki for five years. After attending several lectures in Okinawa and reading “An Earth Saving Revolution” by Prof. Teruo Higa, he was inspired. Hiro decided that promoting the benefits of EM® and getting away from the overuse of chemicals would be his life mission. He joined the EM Research Organization as a researcher in 1995 and opened the branch office (EMRO HAWAII), Inc. in 1996 to share the benefits of this amazing technology. Hiro then had the opportunity to take over and reorganize as a locally owned company, EM HAWAII, LLC, since 2006 and has over 24 years of experience with “Effective Microorganisms®.”