Masanobu Fukuoka

Masonobu Fukuoka (1913 – 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” – shizen nōhō (自然農法) and is also referred to as the Fukuoka Method. In the international development of the organic farming movement, Fukuoka is considered to be amongst the “five giant personalities who inspired the movement” along with Austrian Rudolf Steiner, German-Swiss Hans Müller, Lady Eve Balfour in the United Kingdom and J.I. Rodale in the United States.

Fukuoka re-invented and advanced the use of clay seed balls. Clay seed balls were originally an ancient practice in which seeds for the next season’s crops are mixed together, sometimes with humus or compost for microbial inoculants, and then are rolled within clay to form into small balls. This method is now commonly used in guerilla gardening to rapidly seed restricted or private areas. 

Fukuoka saw farming not just as a means of producing food but as an aesthetic and spiritual approach to life, the ultimate goal of which was the cultivation and perfection of human beings.

“The healing of the land and the purification of the human spirit is the same process.”

Books: Fukuoka was the author of several books including The One Straw Revolution, scientific papers and other publications, and was featured in television documentaries and interviews from the 1970s onwards. 

Website: https://f-masanobu.jp/en/

Video 1: The Natural Mind
Video 2: Documentary on One Straw Revolution