Sowing Seeds in the Desert: Natural Farming, Global Restoration, and Ultimate Food Security

Renowned Japanese agriculturist and philosopher Fukuoka’s (The One-Straw Revolution) final work calls on modern-day farmers to reconsider their methods and heed the needs of the land. Navigating work with international organizations—particularly in Africa, South Asia, and the United States—he illuminates regional disparities in environmental and agricultural thought and practice. Through trial-and-error and years of acute observation, Fukuoka developed a pioneering vision to “avoid unnecessary work, especially work that was created as an adverse side effect of previous actions.” He describes these misguided experiments and failures, such as leaving an orchard completely on its own, as “not natural farming; it was abandonment.” In clarifying popular misconceptions about organic and natural farming, he advises that we must not focus on cash crops, because “there is no good or bad among life-forms on earth.” Only by the co-existence of myriad micro-organisms and vegetation will we be able to preserve and maintain our land. More important, the best farming was simple, “rather than the modern approach of applying increasingly complex techniques to remake nature entirely for the benefit of human beings.” Though elimination of mechanization might be tough for modern agriculturalists to swallow, Fukuoka’s last message provides a spiritually and environmentally enriching alternative to the farming conditions we know today. (June)