Masanobu Fukuoka
Masanobu Fukuoka
Masanobu Fukuokawas a Japanese farmer and philosopher celebrated for his natural farming and re-vegetation of desertified lands. He was a proponent of no-till, no-herbicide grain cultivation farming methods traditional to many indigenous cultures, from which he created a particular method of farming, commonly referred to as "Natural Farming" or "Do-nothing Farming"...
NationalityJapanese
ProfessionCelebrity
Date of Birth2 February 1913
CountryJapan
philosophy people wonder
I wonder how it is that people's philosophies have come to spin faster than the changing seasons.
vegetables orange meditation
Speaking biologically, fruit in a slightly shriveled state is holding its respiration and energy consumption down to the lowest possible level. It is like a person in meditation: his metabolism, respiration, and calorie consumption reach an extremely low level. Even if he fasts, the energy within the body will be conserved. In the same way, when mandarin oranges grow wrinkled, when fruit shrivels, when vegetables wilt, they are in the state that will preserve their food value for the longest possible time.
fall decision plowing
One thing is all things. To resolve one matter, one must resolve all matters. Changing one thing changes all things. Once I made the decision to sow rice in the fall, I found that I could also stop transplanting, and plowing, and applying chemical fertilizers, and preparing compost, and spraying pesticides.
people farming natural
Unless people can become natural people, there can be neither natural farming nor natural food.
weed white fields
Straw mulch, a ground cover of white clover interplanted with the crops, and temporary flooding all provide effective weed control in my fields.
perfect balance finals
The final principle of natural farming is NO PESTICIDES. Nature is in perfect balance when left alone.
disease fields problem
Since I turned the fields back to their natural state, I can't say I've had any really difficult problems with insects or disease.
thinking healthy disease
The only sensible approach to disease and insect control, I think, is to grow sturdy crops in a healthy environment.
war caring hands
I started natural farming after the war with just one small plot, but gradually I acquired additional acreage by taking over surrounding pieces of abandoned land and caring for them by hand.
tree green way
By raising tall trees for windbreaks, citrus underneath, and a green manure cover down on the surface, I have found a way to take it easy and let the orchard manage itself!
mistake thinking doe
Of course, I have made mistakes . . . just as every grower does. However, I never really think of them as mistakes!
practice farming natural
Natural farming is just farming, nothing more. You don't have to be a spiritually oriented person to practice my methods.
running grateful humble
People should relate to nature as birds do. Birds don't run around carefully preparing fields, planting seeds, and harvesting food. They don't create anything . . . they just receive what is there for them with a humble and grateful heart.
mistake fields doe
If a farmer does abandon his or her "tame" fields completely to nature, mistakes and destruction are inevitable.