I recently acquired and read a famous permaculture book I have been trying for about a year to get my hands on, One Straw Revolution, by Masanobu Fukuoka. Though not directly about permaculture, a concept that was developed around the same time by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, this book follows a similar type of ideology, one that Fukuoka terms “natural farming.” Both permaculture and natural farming are agricultural methods that seek to mimic nature, with minimal or no cultivation, tilling, pruning, etc. It is a way to develop a harmonious and sustainable system of plants and animals, with the eventual goal of creating a self-perpetuating cycle, just as nature itself exists as a continuous cycle.
In the first section of the book, Fukuoka writes of his specific methods used on his fields, as well as his personal journey that brought him to the realizations of such methods. All agriculture is an art, not a science, and he readily points out his own process of trial and error.
He outlines his four principles of natural farming, which include: 1) no cultivation 2) no chemical fertilizers or prepared compost 3) no weeding by tillage or herbicides and 4) no dependence on chemicals (Fukuoka 34). He discusses the use and importance of green manure, ground cover crops that enrich the soil, as well as utilizing manure of animals such as chickens and ducks. Proper timing of seed broadcasting controls the weeds. The seeds are broadcasted in a rotating year long cycle. By using the straw of the plants which are harvested as a ground cover, the new seeds have a chance to begin growing before the weeds take over and the discarded straw also aids in fertilizing the soil, while the straw and animal manure break down, adding necessary nutrients back to the earth. In this way, he manages weed control and soil fertility without additional applications.
The second half of the book moves towards a more philosophical discussion of natural farming as a way of life. Applying a Buddhist approach to farming and nutrition, Fukuoka successfully challenges the scientific, or discriminating knowledge, approach to agriculture and diet. “Just to live in the here and now- this is the true basis of human life. When a naïve scientific knowledge becomes the basis of living, people come to live as if they are dependent only on starch, fats, and protein, and plants on nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash. And the scientists, no matter how much they investigate nature, no matter how far they research, they only come to realize in the end how perfect and mysterious nature really is” (Fukuoka 113). Despite his career in the laboratory and scientific education, investigating plants for disease pathogens among other tasks, he eventually came to see the true nature of plants and life on earth as far beyond the limitations of the laboratory.
Furthering the conceptual difference between living in the here and now and living in the realm of scientific knowledge, Fukuoka references a common oriental distinction of discriminating knowledge versus non-discriminating knowledge. Discriminating knowledge he describes as knowledge that is gained using analytical, willful intellect, using organized, logical frameworks and so on. Non-discriminating knowledge is without conscious effort, experience as accepted as is, without interpretation of intellect (Fukuoka 124). He is certain to point out that both are necessary parts of life and the human experience. It is not to say that discriminating knowledge is bad in any way, but only that it, on it’s own, is necessary, but narrow and far from the highest achievement (Fukuoka 124). Non-discriminating knowledge comes from direct experience and should not be confused with instinct, but would better be deemed direct intuition or direct experience (Fukuoka 125).
Applying this philosophical distinction, he explains his concepts of eating and farming with non-intention and non-method, i.e. using the non-discriminating knowledge which the western and scientific world has all but abandoned. In relation to eating, he states this idea plainly, “people nowadays eat with their minds, not with their bodies” (Fukuoka 137). Instead of thinking of food as numbers, calories, protein, fat, percent daily value and so on, the best way to eat is actually the most simple and yet for some reason, in this day and age, the most difficult for society to grasp. “The foods that are nearby are best for human beings, and things that he has to struggle to obtain turn out to be the least beneficial of all” (Fukuoka 103). Fukuoka develops his own food mandalas, using two principles: 1) which foods are easiest to obtain and 2) in which months of the year the foods are accessible and ripe (Fukuoka 127). To eat properly, one need not think so hard, but rather, simply open the intuitive mind enough to realize that eating locally, seasonally, organically, and so on are the best ways for the body as well as the earth. “The world exists in such a way that if people will set aside their human will and be guided instead by nature there is no reason to expect to starve” (Fukuoka 113).
In relation to modern developments in food and diet, Fukuoka points to the cyclical nature of sickness and unbalance. “Foods that have departed from their wild state and those raised chemically or in a completely contrived environment unbalance the body chemistry. The more out of balance one’s body becomes, the more one comes to desire unnatural foods” (Fukuoka 102). It is becoming more understood, although still largely misunderstood, that the more processed a food product is, the more negative consequences it will have on the body. Processed foods create an acidic pH in the body, a circumstance that encourages cancerous development. Processed sugar spikes blood sugar, leads to diabetes and obesity. It has been shown that processed foods have an addictive affect, whether high fructose corn syrup, simplified carbohydrates, or chemical additives are the substance in question. This is the cyclical nature of unbalance that Fukuoka is pointing out, the cyclical nature that has created a society simultaneously obsessed with nutrition and unhealthier than ever before. “Sickness comes when people draw apart from nature. The severity of the disease is directly proportional to the degree of separation” (Fukuoka 144). Fukuoka proposes this idea, which is common also to the philosophy of Chinese medicine. Remedy can only be found through looking past our false conception of nature created using discriminating knowledge to recognize a greater intuitive truth of the earth, and the land, plants, food and humans it contains.
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