Hawaiʻi Pacific University (HPU) hosted a research symposium and panel discussion on July 17 at its Aloha Tower Marketplace campus where scientists presented the findings of a two-year field and laboratory study, conducted with the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) at Mānoa, evaluating whether Genki balls improve water quality in Hawaiʻi’s waterways. These findings were presented alongside research conducted in the Ala Wai Canal, highlighting the system’s complexity and the difficulty of attributing changes in environmental conditions to individual bioremediation efforts.

Genki balls are fermented mud balls made from mud, rice bran and molasses, combined with a commercial product called Effective Microorganisms, or EM, which is marketed as containing lactic acid bacteria, phototrophic bacteria and yeast. 

Read more about it in the July 28, 2026 SOEST News item.