Earth Conscious Gardeners - Sustainable Nutes
Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in agriculture but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Jason Patrick, founder of Sustainable Nutes, located in Kailuam, HI, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Sustainable Nutes, a dba of La'au (pronounced "lāh-'ow") Laboratories HI, LLC, is a Hawaii-based natural organic fertilizer manufacturer operating on the island of O'ahu in Kailua, HI. As our name attests, we focus on producing the highest quality Earth-conscious and climate-smart plant and microbe nutrients from sustainable local sources to support and implement reducing commercial agricultural (organic-certified/ sustainable) and seafood (fresh, wild-caught) industry waste streams.
Our sustainably sourced eco-waste streams are recycled and repurposed for new beneficial climate-smart agricultural products intended to care for agricultural, ornamental plant crops, other commodity plant crops, beneficial microbes, soil amendment and regeneration, soil biodiversity, and, overall, preservation of natural ecosystems. Meanwhile, our production conditions ensure that our organic liquid fertilizer has great results with every batch and use. Everything from our manufacturing to our packaging is sustainable and recyclable.
Our mission is to provide quality organic-based agricultural products, services, and education. These will focus on nurturing plants, soil and regenerating sustainable environmental practices. All while providing a safe and effective product. Our products are 100% natural and organic and do not include or use any contaminants or chemical adulterations that compromise the risk of health, safety, and environmental revitalization. Our products are safe for everyone, from children to adults, animals, and natural ecosystems. We are not currently OMRI-certified for USDA organic-certified producers, but we are aiming to acquire this certification in the near future.
Our customers are home gardeners, container-gardeners, living-soil enthusiasts, indoor-growers, small farmers, and other commercial cultivators that are also focused on "green" and eco-friendly methods of cultivation and overall plant and soil care. Our nutrient consumers utilize our products for indoor and outdoor potted plants, African violets, annuals, fruit trees, fuchsias, gardenias, herbs, hibiscus, orchids, ornamental flowering trees, perennials, succulents, and vegetables, as well as cannabis and hemp.
Tell us about yourself
I am the Founder of Sustainable Nutes, and the head of operations. Since my youth, my biggest passion and focus has been botany, or plants, and their benefits from food to medicine to bio-remediation. This passion continued to grow and soon blossomed into La'au Laboratories HI, LLC and, then, Sustainable Nutes.
I studied Molecular and Cellular Biology and Microbiology, emphasizing Botany and Ag-Science endeavors, at the University of Hawai'i. I am certified in Agripharmatech: Ethnopharmacognosy (Ethnobotanical Pharmacognosy) and Agripharmatech: Plant-Food Production and Technology.
I am an experienced biological scientist, researcher, and conservationist aimed at bettering and preserving global ecosystems through sustainability and soil quality. I have supported other businesses and worked as a consultant, presented seminars on molecular biological systems, worked on ranches, farms, and nurseries, worked in conservation, identified endemic, indigenous, and invasive botanicals in remote Hawai'i ecosystems, and used technology to analyze plants and products for quality and consumer safety.
When the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic reached their height, I made the important decision to leave the analytical laboratory science sector and QA/ QC testing to prioritize the positive support of gardening and commercial agriculture. My biggest motivation is bettering ecological diversity, soil health and fertility, resource conservation, and overall plant and tree propagation. This motivation is considered important as our environment plays a major role in our lives. Without proper mitigation, the negative effects of increasing ag-production expenses, increased herbicide/ pesticide use, and increased chemical fertilizer use will inevitably limit or diminish the quality of our natural soils and ecosystems, which in-hand will cause a greater state to environmental health and regeneration.
I am continually involved in the Agro-Botanical industry providing climate-smart solutions and scientific consultation in the private and public sectors.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
My biggest accomplishment as a small business owner is the help and support we provide to fellow plant-enthusiasts, gardeners, and commercial producers. Whether through our sound, "green" products, consultation, or just helping someone better care for their favorite plants and garden, we consider this support to be an accomplishment as we focus on bettering plant care for all.
In addition, our educational and marketing presence can be seen as near as the Hawaiian islands and as far as South America, Europe, and even Africa, where other Earth-conscious plants and soil enthusiasts have begun to take an interest in what we do and how we do it, to bring the same fundamental, sustainable goals to different regions around the world for the sake of bettering environmental health and overall food security.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
One of the hardest things that we've experienced as a small business is to reach our audience dynamically. Despite the ease and early success of our organic marketing campaigns through education outreach, grower support, and helping others become more active in sustainability and maintaining soil fertility, there is difficulty reaching and engaging with our preferred audiences.
Today's constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic have limited the accessibility to reach customers and businesses in a face-to-face dynamic, but in exchange, this has allowed for more accessibility through social media tools like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Even with the ease of reach and tools such as social media and an online web presence, there is still the issue of gaining your audience's attention and maintaining it through strategic posts, stories, etc.
The key to success, staying humble, maintaining informative engagement, hard work, and positivity. These key factors, no matter how tough the climb may be to supporting a more positive and ecologically-beneficial future, will help overcome these hurdles as they present themselves.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
Three tips I'd give to anyone looking to start, run, and grow a business today, the post-COVID-19 pandemic would be to maintain focus and determination, stay humble and optimistic, and work smart and hard to achieve each goal.
Is there anything else you'd like to share?
Today, more so than previously, from a global perspective, the price of agricultural production is greatly increasing due to necessary operating expenses. In bettering global climate-smart ag, more has to be done on a regional and localized effort to maintain sound operations and quality products that continue to strive for continuing and bettering the quality of dietary nutrition and overall consumer health (affected by environmental contamination).
We hope to see a greater success of operations aiming to reduce natural resource use and increase recycling capabilities for supporting agricultural productivity. And, with a collective localized focus on producing localized or regional food-crop needs by employing innovative methods, we, as a whole, could reduce the consumer costs associated with food production, which is necessary for mankind's' growth and evolution.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://hinutes.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SustainableNutes/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sustainablenutes/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sustainablenutes/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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