Thursday, March 30, 2006

Masanobu Fukuoka

Masanobu is a hero/guru/teacher. I've enjoyed learning about him and his work with natural farming. Here is an excerpt from a great interview.


"Robert: What have you learned in your 50 years of work about what people could do with their agriculture?

Masanobu: I am a small man, as you can see, but I came to the States with a very big intention. This small man becomes smaller and smaller, and won't last very long, so I'd like to share my idea from 50 years ago. My dream is just like a balloon. It could get smaller and smaller, or it could get bigger and bigger. If it could be said in a brief way, it could be said as the word "nothingness." In a larger way it could wrap the entire earth.

I live on a small mountain doing farming. I don't have any knowledge, I don't do anything. My way of farming is no cultivation, no fertilizer, no chemicals. Ten years ago my book, One Straw Revolution, was published by Rodale Press in the United States. From that point I couldn't just sleep in the mountains. Seven years ago I took an airplane for the first time in my life and went to California, Boston, New York City. I was surprised because I thought the United States was full of green everywhere, but it looked like death land to me."

more info here:

http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC14/Fukuoka.htm

http://larryhaftl.com/ffo/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masanobu_Fukuoka

1 comment:

Cosmic Monkey said...

The ego loves itself. Do you think a person living in the western world would say anything like "I am small, I do nothing"? No, because we're conditioned to strive for wealth, success, and stature, and smallness is considered weak. Let it be known that the universe is made up of an infinity of small things that do nothing!

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