THE AMAZING NATURAL FARM OF MASANOBU FUKUOKA

Enlarge Image Image Gallery PHOTOS PROVIDED BY RODALE PRESS

Masanobu Fukuoka may be one of the most farsighted and downright radical farmers in the world today! Why? Because over the past 30 years he has gradually abandoned most conventional agricultural practices in order to return control of his land to the most skilled grower of all ... Nature herself! In return—he claims—he has reaped both bumper crops and a peace that surpasses understanding.

Excerpted by permission from The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka, copyright - 1978 by Rodale Press. Available in hard cover for $7.95 from any good bookstore or for $7.95 plus 95¢ shipping and handling from Mother's Bookshelf, P.O. Box 70, Hendersonville, North Carolina 28739.

FROM THE INTRODUCTION BY LARRY KORN

For several years I had been living with a group of friends on a farm in the mountains north of Kyoto. We used the now-traditional "agribiz" methods of Japanese agriculture to grow rice, rye, barley, soybeans, and various garden vegetables.

When I first heard stories about Mr. Fukuoka, then, I was skeptical. How could it be possible to grow highyielding crops of rice and winter grains each year simply by scattering seed onto the surface of an unplowed field? There had to be more to it than that!

Whenever there was a lull in our work schedule, I used to travel to other parts of the country . . stopping at tarms and communes, working part time along the way. and, on one of these excursions, I paid a visit to Mr. Fukuoka's farm to learn about his work for myself.

I am not quite sure what I expected . . . but after having heard so much about this great teacher, I was somewhat surprised to see that he was dressed in the boots and work clothes of the average Japanese farmer.

I stayed at Mr. Fukuoka's farm for several months on that first visit, working in the fields and in the citrus orchard. There—and in the mud-walled huts during evening discussions with other student farm workers—the details of Mr. Fukuoka's method and its underlying philosophy gradually became clear to me.

For instance, if the newcomer expects "natural farming" to mean that nature farms while he sits and watches, Mr. Fukuoka soon teaches him that there is a great deal he must know and do. Strictly speaking, no farming is "natural". Agriculture is a cultural innovation that requires knowledge and persistent effort.

The fundamental difference between Mr. Fukuoka's method of farming and conventional agriculture is that he cooperates with nature rather than attempting to "improve" or conquer her. Once he has seen to it that conditions have been tilted in favor of his crops, in other words, Mr. Fukuoka interferes as little as possible with the plant and animal communities in his fields. I believe there is much we all can learn from that approach.