The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka

The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka

Call it "Zen and the Art of Farming" or a "Little Green Book," Masanobu Fukuoka's manifesto about farming, eating, and the limits of human knowledge presents a radical challenge to the global systems we rely on for our food. At the same time, it is a spiritual memoir of a man whose innovative system of cultivating the earth reflects a deep faith in the wholeness and balance of the natural world. As Wendell Berry writes in his preface, the book "is valuable to us because it is at once practical and philosophical. It is an inspiring, necessary book about agriculture because it is not just about agriculture."

Trained as a scientist, Fukuoka rejected both modern agribusiness and centuries of agricultural practice, deciding instead that the best forms of cultivation mirror nature's own laws. Over the next three decades he perfected his so-called "do-nothing" technique- commonsense, sustainable practices that all but eliminate the use of pesticides, fertilizer, tillage, and perhaps most significantly, wasteful effort.

Whether you're a guerrilla gardener or a kitchen gardener, dedicated to slow food or simply looking to live a healthier life, you will find something here-you may even be moved to start a revolution of your own.

Masanobu Fukuoka (1913-2008) was a Japanese farmer and philosopher who grew up on the island of Shikoku. He studied plant pathology and worked as a customs inspector in Yokohama for numerous years. At the age of twenty-five, he had an epiphany while working there that altered his life. He made the decision to leave his work, return to his hometown, and put his ideals into practice through agriculture. He toiled for the following 65 years to establish a natural farming system that proved the knowledge he was given as a young man, believing it might be of enormous use to the world.

Despite the fact that he did not plow his fields, use no agricultural chemicals or prepared fertilizers, or flood his rice fields as farmers have done in Asia for millennia, his yields were equivalent to or exceeded those of Japan's most productive farms. In 1975, he published The One-Straw Revolution, a best-selling book about his life, philosophy, and agricultural methods. This book has been translated into over twenty-five languages, and it has aided Fukuoka in becoming a global leader in the sustainable agricultural movement. He stayed in the farming business until he died in 2008, at the age of 95.

Fukuoka traveled to Africa, India, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the United States after The One-Straw Revolution was published in English. His focus shifted to employing natural agricultural techniques to rehabilitate the world's deserts. The Natural Way of Farming and The Path Back to Nature are also by Fukuoka. In 1988, he earned the Magsaysay Award for Public Service, sometimes known as the Nobel Prize of Asia.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781590173138
ISBN 10	1590173139
Title	The One-Straw Revolution
Author	Masanobu Fukuoka
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	The New York Review of Books, Inc
Year published	2009-06-02
Number of pages	200
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.