The One-Straw Revolution (New York Review Books Classics)

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So, if I may debase his great ideas with my little summary, the idea of the book is that People Mess Up Nature. Even good farming practices, like pruning, mulching, weeding, flooding, and composting have only become necessary because we've messed up the way nature thrives on its own. The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.” So if you crossed Yoda with Joel Salatin and made him a laboratory scientist with a Japanese rice-grain-vegetables-citrus farm, you'd get a rough and awkward parody of Fukuoka Sensei. Ideally, Fukuoka argued that the best approach to revegetation was to broadcast a diverse variety of seeds across the desert in clay pellets. The pellets would provide the seeds protection, moisture and sustenance and allow them to remain dormant for long periods. From there, one could leave the process up to nature. When rain finally came, suitable seeds would germinate and begin a process of rebuilding a natural ecosystem. Though most of the plants would not survive the desert conditions, even those that died might remain in the soil as mulch, nourishing other plants and cooling the soil. Trees would take root and bring up water from beneath the ground, simultaneously hydrating and cooling. Soon enough, animals would return, and a chain reaction of greening would be initiated. Image from Wikimedia under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Pruning the past, shaping the future: David Mas Masumoto and organic nothingness Chou, Shiuh-huah Serena. MELUS, June 22, 2009

Masanobu Fukuoka - Wikipedia

Mu 3: Shizen Nōhō ( 無３　自然農法), self-published; republished by Shunjūsha, 1985. ISBN 978-4-393-74113-9 Save, B. (2008). The Great Agricultural Challenge (transcribed by Bharat Mansata). Kolkata: Earthcare Books. Children have an innate interest in nature and the method of creating clay seed balls and scattering them in desertified and damaged lands could be seen as great fun. Sowing seeds in the desert could easily be embedded in school science programs, as a kind of experiment. Revegetation could be seen not as ‘work’ but as ‘play’ and also ‘research.’ Such a project could be an opportunity for learning for students on a wide array of subjects: from biodiversity and ecological inter-connectedness to plant biology. And ultimately the seeds that such projects would sow within the children’s hearts might be the most fruitful of all.

Shizen Nōhō: Wara Ippon no Kakumei ( 自然農法-わら一本の革命, 1975, in Japanese). Translated and reinterpretated in 1978 under the title The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming. With knowledge, skill, and patience, seedballs can be as effective a way of establishing plants as plow-seeding or drilling, and they can be made by anyone anywhere in the world that has access to clay, soil, and seed — for no money. a b c Scheewe W. (2000) Nurturing the Soil, Feeding the People: An Introduction to Sustainable Agriculture, rev ed. Rex Bookstore, Inc. ISBN 9789712328954 In 1975 he wrote The One-Straw Revolution, a best-selling book that described his life’s journey, his philosophy, and farming techniques. This book has been translated into more than 25 languages and has helped make Mr. Fukuoka a leader in the worldwide sustainable agriculture movement. He continued farming until shortly before his death in 2008, at the age of 95.

The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka | Goodreads

The documentary is also revealing in showing the kind of advice Fukuoka-sensei attempted to bestow on Indian farmers. During his visit to India in 1997, Fukuoka-sensei met with a number of practicing natural farmers, many of whom were struggling and in need of advice. Interestingly, the documentary shows that he was equally philosophical in his dialogues with farmers as he was in his books – speaking of the futility of human knowledge and the value in leaving things to nature. He was purist in his adherence to principle, reprimanding farmers for even slight tillage of the soil or having fixed ideas of how nature ought to behave. He holds to the value of scattering seed, and makes the point that in desertified lands, one need only be more rigorous, scattering seed balls continually until they take root. Kenyataanya ilmu diet barat menciptakan masalah-masalah yang jauh lebih banyak daripada memecahkannya” Toyoda, Natsuko (January–February 2010). "The Key to Success" (PDF). Japan Spotlight. Tokyo: Japan Economic Foundation. 169. ISSN 1348-9216. From 1938, Fukuoka began to practice and experiment with new techniques on organic citrus orchards and used the observations gained to develop the idea of "Natural Farming". Among other practices, he abandoned pruning an area of citrus trees, which caused the trees to become affected by insects and the branches to become entangled. He stated that the experience taught him the difference between nature and non-intervention. [12] [13] His efforts were interrupted by World War II, during which he worked at the Kōchi Prefecture agricultural experiment station on subjects including farming research and food production. Fukuoka called his agricultural philosophy shizen nōhō ( 自然農法), most commonly translated into English as " natural farming". [18] It is also referred to as "the Fukuoka Method", "the natural way of farming" or "Do-Nothing Farming".

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Fukuoka, M. (1978/2009). The One-Straw Revolution (L. Korn, C. Pearce & T. Kurosawa, Trans.). New York Review Books: New York.