The One-Straw Revolution

“There is no time in modern agriculture for a farmer to write a poem or compose a song.”
Masanobu Fukuoka

Tom Kisaichi, our Japanese-born enologist and my good friend, just poked his head into my office and told me the news — Masanobu Fukuoka has passed away at the ripe age of 95.  For those of you who have not had the pleasure, Mr. Fukuoka is a farmer in Japan and the author of The One-Straw Revolution, one of my all time favorite books.  In the midst of this ever-modernizing world of conventional agriculture, he taught the concept of “do-nothing” farming – a return to the old days when farmers had a real connection to the land and to the crops they grew.  He believed the reason that man’s modern farming techniques (e.g., tilling, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides) seem to be necessary is that the natural balance has been so badly upset beforehand by those same techniques that the land has become dependent on them.

But its not too late.  Getting back to a healthy, sustainable system of farming is simply a matter of perspective.  The aim of natural farming is to trust Nature to do her work with minimal interference from us big-headed humans.  Rather than asking ourselves “How about trying this?” or “How about trying that?”  Mr. Masanobu encourages farmers to consider the questions “How about not doing this?  How about not doing that?”

The One-Straw Revolution is a beautifully written text on farming, eating, thinking and loving.  I highly recommend it to any of you who eat food.

Tagged as: Dry Creek Valley, Healdsburg, Masanobu Fukuoka, organic, organic farming, sustainable farming