The One-Straw Revolution, Masanobu Fukuoka, Rodale Press, 1978 The One-Straw Revolution is a collection of essays written by the author over a period of years, detailing both his methods of natural farming and his ideas of healthful living and land stewardship. These essays were translated, compiled, and edited by Larry Korn (1948-2019) after a two-year internship with Fukuoka. (Korn’s story of his time with Fukuoka, in his own words, is available with the link below courtesy of Midwest Permaculture).
A Preface by Wendell Berry and Korn’s Introduction tells the story of Fukuoka’s revolutionary methods in no-till natural farming, developed over several decades, to grow rice, barley, citrus and both wild and cultivated vegetables. The bulk of the 181-page book consists of forty short essays divided into five sections.
As Larry Korn states, Fukuoka’s farm exemplified permaculture, though it was developed long before permaculture originated. Masanobu Fukuoka (1913-2008) began his career in agriculture as a plant inspector and research scientist in the 1930s. Around 1938, Fukuoka had a pivotal realization of the limits of scientific knowledge and its role in modern life. He describes seeing a healthy rice plant growing alongside the road and began to doubt the need for intensive commercial agricultural practices. He soon resigned from his job and returned to his home farm to unlearn all he had understood about modern methods of growing grains and citrus.
Over the following decades, by trial and error, he developed a system of natural farming based on four principles: No Cultivation of the soil, No Prepared Compost, No Weeding by Tillage or Herbicides, and No Chemical fertilizers. His system on growing grain involves overseeding a winter crop of barley into his rice fields before harvesting the rice, replacing straw as mulch after threshing the grain, then in the spring seeding rice into the maturing barley crop prior to harvest. Grain seeds are pelletized by coating them with clay to protect them from pests and to get them off to a good start. A permanent living mulch of white clover helps suppress weeds and contributes nitrogen.
This description is, of course, a simplified review of the annual cycles of Fukuoka’s natural farming. His orchard management practices include allowing trees to have a natural form with little or no pruning, interplanting nitrogen-fixing Acacia trees and various fruits in a woodland pattern, promoting natural pest controls, and maintaining soil-building understory of useful weeds, clover, and semi-wild vegetables. As his orchard system evolved, he developed some clear practices that provided high yields with minimal input. Newly planted trees are grown with minimal pruning. Trees are allowed to find their natural form.
Fukuoka produced commercial yields for a variety of crops, including Mandarin oranges, grapefruits, lime, avocado, mangos, and ginkgo nuts. The orchard is interplanted with a variety of leguminous trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, such as alfalfa and white clover to provide nitrogen. Perennial and annual vegetables are interplanted with the fruit trees. Fukuoka did not make compost. He practiced what we often call chop and drop, cutting back cover crops and letting leaves and other crop residue break down and return to the soil naturally.
Over a couple of decades of trial and error, This orchard became highly productive while building soil and promoting a diversity of spiders, insects, frogs, and birds to provide pest control. Much of The One-Straw Revolution expounds upon a very valid critique of science, 20th-century societies, and modern diets.
The philosophy of Masanobu Fukuoka is that by living close to nature and learning to interact with humility and respect for her complexity we can find a bountiful, fulfilling, and healthful life.
For students of permaculture, this book, and Fukuoka’s subsequent book, The Natural Way of Farming: The Theory and Practice of Green Philosophy (1985) remain essential reading. References: https://midwestpermaculture.com/tribute-to-larry-korn/