THE AMAZING NATURAL FARM OF MASANOBU FUKUOKA

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To the extent that people separate themselves from nature, they spin out farther and farther from the center. At the same time, a centripetal effect asserts itself and the desire to return to nature arises.

But if people merely become caught up in reacting—moving to the left or to the right, depending on conditions—the result is only more activity. The non—moving point of origin—which lies outside the realim of relativity—is passed over, unnoticed. I believe that even "returning-to-nature" and anti-pollution activities—no matter how commendable—are not moving toward a genuine solution if they are carried out solely in reaction to the overdevelopment of the present age.

Nature does not change . . . although the way of viewing nature invariably changes from age to age. No matter the age, natural farming exists forever as the wellspring of agriculture.:

CAN NATURAL FARMING WORK FOR YOU!

Just about every farm or garden article you're ever likely to read tells you what to do . . . to grow salsify, make lettuce tents, conquer aphids, or whatever. Every one, that is, except the one on these pages: "The Amazing Natural Farm of Masanobu Fukuoka." This article tells you what NOT to do . . . and that's where the trouble begins!

Americans, Canadians, and most varieties of Europeans just plain have a hard time NOT doing something. We're all tinkerers by tradition, manipulators of time and space who as often as not don't know when to leave well enough alone (even when something doesn't work, we still call it "progress" or "new and improved").

So when someone like Mr. Fukuoka—who's grown up in the Eastern tradition of passivity (see, even the word bothers us) in the face of the cosmos—comes along and tells us NOT to do something, we have a darned hard time taking his advice . . . even if we think he's right! It just goes against our grain not to do something.

So if you thought—as we did—that Mr. Fukuoka's farm is an inspiring, visionary model of what, agriculture should and could be—and if you want to live and farm the same way—your automatic response to the article (right along with ours!) was probably to figure step by step how to put Masanobu's great ideas to work in your fields, orchards, and gardens. Right?

Well join the club. The only problem is that this good, old-fashioned American approach to gettin' things done is 180 degrees opposite to what Mr. Fukuoka advocates! Since none of us (no, not even the so-called experts) know enough about Nature to tell for sure what's "natural" and what's not . . . there's no way we can run out and one-two-three "naturalize" our farms! We'd just end up with even more tinkering . . . which is exactly what Masanobu wants to avoid.

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