Welcome to our collection of quotes by Masanobu Fukuoka. We hope you enjoy pondering them and please share widely.
Wikipedia Summary for Masanobu Fukuoka
Masanobu Fukuoka (Japanese: 福岡 正信, Hepburn: Fukuoka Masanobu, 2 February 1913 – 16 August 2008) was a Japanese farmer and philosopher celebrated for his natural farming and re-vegetation of desertified lands.
He was a proponent of no-till, herbicide and pesticide free cultivation methods from which he created a particular method of agriculture, commonly referred to as "natural farming" or "do-nothing farming".
Fukuoka was the author of several books, scientific papers and other publications, and was featured in television documentaries and interviews from the 1970s onwards. His influences went beyond farming to inspire individuals within the natural food and lifestyle movements. He was an outspoken advocate of the value of observing nature's principles.
Until there is a reversal of the sense of values which cares more for size and appearance than for quality, there will be no solving the problem of food pollution.
Humanity knows nothing at all. There is no intrinsic value in anything, and every action is a futile, meaningless effort.
If you do not try to make food delicious, you will find that nature has made it so.
Unless people can become natural people, there can be neither natural farming nor natural food.
Natural farming is just farming, nothing more. You don't have to be a spiritually oriented person to practice my methods.
Farming is not just for growing crops, it is for the cultivation...o f human beings!
Weeds play an important part in building soil fertility and in balancing the biological community.
Extravagance of desire is the fundamental cause which has led the world into its present predicament. Fast rather than slow, more rather than less--this flashy development is linked directly to society's impending collapse.
Gradually I came to realize that the process of saving the desert of the human heart and revegetating the actual desert is actually the same thing.
My ultimate dream is to sow seeds in the desert. To revegetate the deserts is to sow seed in people's hearts.
As far as my planting program goes, I simply broadcast rye and barley seed on separate fields in the fall ... while the rice in those areas is still standing. A few weeks after that I harvest the rice, and then spread its straw back over the fields as mulch.
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.
Of course, I have made mistakes ... just as every grower does. However, I never really think of them as mistakes!
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.
Modern research divides nature into tiny pieces and conducts tests that conform neither with natural law nor with practical experience. The results are arranged for the convenience of research, not according to the needs of the farmer.
The healing of the land and the purification of the human spirit is the same process.
Why do you have to develop? If economic growth rises from 5% to 10%, is happiness going to double? What's wrong with a growth rate of 0%? Isn't this a rather stable kind of economics? Could there be anything better than living simply and taking it easy?
I wonder how it is that people's philosophies have come to spin faster than the changing seasons.
A farmer does not grow something in the sense that he or she creates it. That human is only a small part of the whole process by which nature expresses its being.
We must find our way back to true nature. We must set ourselves to the task of revitalizing the earth. Regreening the earth, sowing seeds in the desert -- that is the path society must follow.
The greening of the desert means sowing seeds in people's hearts and creating a green paradise of peace on earth.
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!
The increasing desolation of nature, the exhaustion of resources, the uneasiness and disintegration of the human spirit, all have been brought about by humanity's trying to accomplish something.
The only sensible approach to disease and insect control, I think, is to grow sturdy crops in a healthy environment.
The irony is that science has served only to show how small human knowledge is.
We receive our nourishment from the Mother Earth. So we should put our hands together in an attitude of prayer and say please and thank you when dealing with nature.
Before researchers become researches they should become philosophers.
The final principle of natural farming is NO PESTICIDES. Nature is in perfect balance when left alone.
Left alone, the earth maintains its own fertility, in accordance with the orderly cycle of plant and animal life.
Although natural farming -- since it can teach people to cultivate a deep understanding of nature -- may lead to spiritual insight, it's not strictly a spiritual practice.
Giving up your ego is the shortest way to unification with nature.
I believe that even 'returning-to-nature' and anti pollution activities, no matter how commendable, are not moving toward a genuine solution if they are carried out solely in reaction to the over development of the present age.
Life on a small farm might seem primitive, but by living such a life we become able to discover the Great Path. I believe that one who deeply respects his neighborhood and everyday world in which he lives will be shown the greatest of all worlds.
Straw mulch, a ground cover of white clover interplanted with the crops, and temporary flooding all provide effective weed control in my fields.
If we throw mother nature out the window, she comes back in the door with a pitchfork.
When it is understood that one loses joy and happiness in the attempt to possess them, the essence of natural farming will be realized. The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.
The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.
Food and medicine are not two different things: they are the front and back of one body. Chemically grown vegetables may be eaten for food, but they cannot be used as medicine.
One loses joy and happiness in the attempt to possess them.
As we kill nature, we are killing ourselves, and God incarnate as the world as well.
Ignorance, hatred and greed are killing nature.
The simple hearth of the small farm is the true center of our universe.
There is no time in modern agriculture for a farmer to write a poem or compose a song.