Natural Way of Farming: The Theory and Practice of Green Philosophy

by Masanobu Fukuoka

Examines the state of modern agriculture and describes organic no-tillage agricultural techniques based on the inter-relatedness of all nature.

Genres: Gardening, Agriculture, Nonfiction, Environment, Nature, Ecology, Philosophy

284 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1985

About the author

Masanobu Fukuoka was born in 1914 in a small farming village on the island of Shikoku in Southern Japan. He was educated in microbiology and worked as a soil scientist specializing in plant pathology, but at the age of twenty-five he began to have doubts about the "wonders of modern agriculture science."

While recovering from a severe attack of pneumonia, Fukuoka experienced a moment of satori or personal enlightenment. He had a vision in which something one might call true nature was revealed to him. He saw that all the "accomplishments" of human civilization are meaningless before the totality of nature. He saw that humans had become separated from nature and that our attempts to control or even understand all the complexities of life were not only futile, they were self-destructive. From that moment on, he has spent his life trying to return to the state of being one with nature.

At the time of his revelation, Fukuoka was living in a Japan that was abandoning its traditional farming methods and adopting Western agriculture, economic and industrial models. He saw how this trend was driving the Japanese even further from a oneness with nature, and how destructive and polluting those practices were. As a result, he resigned his job as a research scientist and returned to his father's farm on Shikoku determined to demonstrate the practical value of his vision by restoring the land to a condition that would enable nature's original harmony to prevail.

Through 30 years of refinement he was able to develop a "do-nothing" method of farming. Without soil cultivation such as plowing or tilling, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, weeding, pruning, machinery or compost, Fukuoka was able to produce high-quality fruit, vegetables and grains with yields equal to or greater than those of any neighboring farm.

In his 60's, Fukuoka sat down to document what he had seen and done. In 1975 his first book "One Straw Revolution" was released and has had a profound impact on agriculture and human consciousness all over the world. "One Straw Revolution" was followed by "The Natural Way of Farming" and then by "The Road Back To Nature."

Since 1979, Fukuoka has been touring, giving lectures and sowing the seeds of natural farming all over the world. In 1988 he was given Deshikottan Award, and the Ramon Magsaysay Award. In 1997 he received the Earth Council Award.

from http://fukuokafarmingol.info/fintro.html

Reviews

[Paul Jennings · Rating 5 out of 5]

I believe that taking Fukuoka's ideas about natural farming and adapting them to other parts of the world may, in the long run, offer the only way forward for both agriculture, nature, and by extension, the human race.

[Sertac Inceler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Teknik olarak tarımın doğal yapılması gerektiğini, doğanın bir çok parametresini yonlendiremeyecegimizi anlatmaktadır.
Muhendislikteki ders kitaplarına benzettim, bir gün ihtiyacım olduğunda donup nereye bakacağını biliyorum.
Ancak kitabın felsefesi onemli olan. Doğayı ya da tarlayı insanin kendisine benzetiyorum. Insan kendisi ile ne kadar uğraşırsa, ekstra kimyasallar gübreler kullanırsa, kendi metabolizmasında zararlı sandığı şeyleri yok etmeye çalışırsa, kendini nadasa birakmazsa o kadar kendi benliğini bozar.
Tarlayı kendiniz olarak düşünün ve okuyun, o zaman siz de kendinizi hayatın ritmine bırakmaya ve çok müdahale etmemeye başlama eğilimine gireceksiniz.

[An Te · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, this book is based on organic and natural farming strategies in Japan, not anywhere else. I am convinced by Fukuoka's general philosophic position that man does not know nature, but at times he goes too far in undermining that we can know anything at all. For instance, he lambasts scientific culture which fragments nature; it truly does fragment but man must not be self-seeking but seek God and His order in the things he has made. His buddhist position is a non-interventionist, minimalist approach that is refreshing but I think untenable, as far as I can see. I cannot refute him only being a neophyte garden and ecologist, but his philosophy is too hands off and innocent to accept that nature has itself not been tarnished or corrupted by our influence. In short, all that is natural and unfettered is not always good. This is the maxim which the author would disagree with.

Though my argument tends to disagreement, I agree that more crop rotation is needed, the intelligent use of strategies that we do know about and the natural cycles in nature (rice-barley harvest in Japan for instance) need an observant and reverent farmer.

It is a useful repository of strategies, even if one does not agree with his outlook or optimism of nature's goodness. Indeed it is good, but it is not to be worshipped as being perfect. I wonder how it has been received since its publication. It's uber green philosophy, is it tenable today?

[Harini Gopalswami Srinivasan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intriguing and interesting! Intriguing because I hadn't read One Straw Revolution first -- my local bookshops didn't have it. So this was my first exposure to Fukuoka. And interesting because it is! An eye opener, and more thrilling than any thriller!

[Deni Jegeni · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always saw farmers using nitrates and pruning trees heavily, and all that stuff. I thought that they might be wrong. I saw the trees suffering and getting deformed from pruning and the land in my own garden, for example, getting desertified from removing weeds.
They were telling me that I am lazy or nuts to not remove the weeds. Well, I didn't last year, and my garden was full of flowers and new colors each week. I had butterflies and rare insects and birds in my garden that I had never seen before. I did many things wrong, but my tomatos evenetially made it even if badly managed. My land did not show signs of desertification for the first time in years (and we had 3 months of dry weather with 38°C average during the day). I had some first successes with my livestock and creating an independent ecosystem. I tried with some failures, but I didn't have a real guide. This guy is a scientist with a daoist approach, which makes him unique, and he has statistical data collected from 30+ years of experimenting, I am eager to try this new method.

[Siddiq Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gives all the practical details about what he talks about philosophically in One Straw Revolution, together with a healthy dose of further philosophical reflections and many mind-expanding detailed diagrams/mandalas.

[Cemalettin Kara · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's good book for getting information about 'natural' farming. But, first and second part is so boring if you already accepted conventional farming is wrong. Because first chapter trying to convience you conventional farming is wrong and dangerous. So, if you just want to learn natural farming techniques like me, just skip the first and second part.

[Missy LeBlanc Ivey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally published in December 1975.
This was a very hard book to get through, and not as easy to read as "The Road Back to Nature", but it was one I had to finish because his beliefs are so similar to mine. He put into words, in a way that I never have been able to, exactly why I have always felt closer to God while out there digging in the dirt. Nature is a part of God! When originally designed, it was perfect. On page 214, author writes:

"A human environment cannot exist apart from nature, and so agriculture must be made the foundation for living…The earth is not merely soil, and the blue sky is more than just empty space. The earth is the garden of God, and the sky is where he sits. The farmer who, chewing well the grain harvested from the Lord's garden, raises his face to the heavens in gratitude, lives the best and most perfect life possible."

Fukuoka's vision is for all people to return to the garden of God to farm. It would be a way of life in which one constantly reaffirms the source of life ('life' being another name for God). This is so important because humans really have forgotten where life comes from. Young people today believe food comes from the grocery store without another thought about it.

He does explain the “natural” way to farm, but, also the fallacies of science technology: growing expenses for larger farming equipment placed on farmers and the damages it really places on their land, synthetic fertilizers, chemical herbicides and pesticides, GMO crops, etc... We are removing ourselves further from nature by destroying our lands, and removing ourselves from God! But there is hope! It is proven that land can be rehabilitated, but man has to be willing to return to the natural way of farming again.

Most of the lessons on the natural way to farm is on growing rice and barley in Japan, but one can still use the same principals to farm, or garden, or to naturally raise farm animals here in the U.S. I’m left very encouraged and motivated to get started in trying out a few ideas from this book.

[Basak Yarar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doğal tatım ve bilimsel tarım arasındaki farklar, doğal tarımın elemanları ve aşamaları gayet iyi anlatılmış. Ayrıca çok açıklayıcı ve anlaşılır şemalar/tablolar hazırlanmış. Özünde 4 ana koşul ve o koşulları destekleyen küçük detaylar anlatılmış. Not alınıp ilerlenebilir. Ama yetiştiricilikle ilgili daha detaylı bir kaynağa ihtiyaç var.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really love Masanobu's philosophy. He also appears to be quite brilliant.
That being said, this book didn't give enough actionable advice for me and I will see if I can find another of his books at the library

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains some useful diagrams that I will revisit. The second half, featuring the practical application of natural farming, was enlightening. The first half went on a little too long.

[Gökhan Ayalp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Modern tarım yöntemleri üzerine eleştirel bir yaklaşım..

Israrla tavsiye edilir..

[Kubra Unlu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Japonya da ziraat mühendisi çiftçinin bir ömürlük doğal tarım tecrübesi. Çok değerli bir kitap.
Tahıl/pirinç ekecekler, meyve/sebze bahçesi kuracaklar muhakkak okumalı.

[Coalbanks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Made me think about low impact food production, a smaller footprint etc.

[Bettina Gies · Rating 5 out of 5]

Basic read on awareness in agriculture and gardening.

[Özgür Takmaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let it be!