Masanobu Fukuoka’s “The One Straw Revolution”

WarKitchen Book Review

A food revolution. Started from an ordinary piece of straw. What makes this one so special is not the individual holding it, but how it grows.

Masanobu Fukuoka was a naturalistic farmer living in Japan’s Southern Island of Shikoku. While he was into permaculture and was an agriculturalist, he was a philosopher. You see philosophy reflected in his work with soil and it was what made him so interesting.

The One-Straw Revolution is a manifesto, a little green book even, on reinvigorating the Japanese landscape using wilding techniques of produce production.

No machinery, no artificial fertilizers or chemicals. Just hard work and good practice. While most of it was written with Japan in mind, his philosophy is applicable to the rest of the world.

THE PHILOSOPHY

It was the realization that science and, in a greater sense, human knowledge was fundamentally limited that brought Fukuoka to this line of work. While fancy technology and fertilisers look good to the scientist, to the traditional farmer, they are agents of chaos. Novel solutions brings with them issues that need to be fixed — hopefully without resulting in an ecological disaster.

Fukuoka believes that there is an easier way to farm. One of least resistance. Where you don’t prune a tree, but instead let it grow naturally. Where Nature decides each branch’s path. Where you avoid using insecticides to kill bugs. Instead, you release ducks into your field. The outcome? Less insects and fat ducks. Where you do not fertilise your field, but instead grow a layer of green manure (clover, vetch, alfalfa or your local equivalent) and return unused organic matter to the fields.

“The usual way to go about developing a method,” says Fukuoka, is to ask, “How about trying this” or “How about trying that?”. Instead, Fukuoka would ask, “How about not doing this, how about we not try that”.

Simplifying farming to its ancient state. All plants come from a natural cycle within nature and it is in our best interests to let them cultivate themselves. “It is impossible for specialised research to grasp the role of a single predator at a certain time within the intricacy of inter-insect relationships”. It is this idea of letting nature grow itself that Fukuoka works the land and developed his four principles.

THE FOUR PRINCIPLES

1. NO CULTIVATION

This means no ploughing or turning the soil over. Fukuoka believes the Earth cultivates itself through plant roots penetrating the soil and the activity of animals and microorganisms.

What ploughing does is cause rapid and strong growth of weeds to take place — causing the modern farmer hours of frustration; not to mention their continual re-emergence with each new tilling.

For those looking to Fukuoka-ize their green space; consider spreading straw and sowing clover amongst it to bring nature back into balance over time.

2. NO CHEMICAL FERTILIZER OR PREPARED COMPOST

Just because you interfere with nature, does not mean you can heal its wounds. It is only the modern practice of farming that depletes the land of nutrients.

It makes sense that modern practices deplete the land because of monoculture and improper understanding of the soil. Ask yourself, does nature ever lose its fertility? All you need to keep the soil healthy: Natural cycles of growth for a variety of species happen in the same space. Using green manure. Return organic matter back to where it came from. Poultry manure whenever necessary.

3. NO WEEDING BY TILLAGE OR HERBICIDES

“Weeds play their part in soil fertility and in balancing the biological community”. For Fukuoka, weeds should be controlled, not eliminated. Once you stop cultivating soil, the number of weeds decreases sharply. With straw covering the ground, weeds are stopped short once more.

The important aspect of this practice is timing. For all crops, sowing seeds of the next harvest while the preceding crop is ripening will give the grain an advantage over the weeds. This should be enough to control weed growth.

3. NO DEPENDENCE ON CHEMICALS

Obviously no chemical fertilisers or herbicides, nor any insecticides for that matter. It is only through the extended use of modern practices that weak plants developed, as well as the insect imbalances that kill them.

“Nature, left alone, is in perfect balance. Harmful insect and plant diseases are always present, but do not occur in nature to an extent which requires the use of poisonous chemicals”.

The sensible approach to healthy yields: grow sturdy crops in a healthy environment. Don’t downplay the holistic health of your land

TROUBLES OF MAINSTREAM RECEPTION

Big money, big names, big players. Agriculture & Agribusiness is a massive industry with lots of money riding on the continuation of the existing infrastructure.

I’m sure you can guess what happened when Fukuoka shared his low-cost ideologies.. Fukuoka’s ideas did not make Big Agriculture happy. But that isn’t who he was trying to please. Those few other farmers who slowly introduced his method, one step rescinded at a time, found success similar to his, and his consumers certainly got what they wanted: cheap and delicious produce.

At a conference organized by the Agricultural Management Research Centre and the Nada (Consumer) Cooperative, Agricultural and Industry leaders gathered to discuss: what is to be done with the food pollution problems Japan had been facing. A discussion Fukuoka highlights to illuminate the corruption of the industry and government revolves around mercury levels in tuna.

Scientists had analyzed a sample from a few hundred years ago and found that the sample also had mercury in it. So, the solution offered to the problem was “mercury consumption is necessary for the fish to live”. An audience in disbelief. The whole point of this conference was to talk about ways in which they could manage the pollutants that were already there, as well as mitigate any further pollution. The answer from the head of the Fisheries Bureau: things are fine the way they are, aka, keep the current practice.

When Fukuoka spoke at this conference, he said they should simply address these issues straight forward. The use of chemical fertilizers and machines in modern agriculture, the application of which is causing a cascade of ecological issues. All the leaders were there and ‘willing’ to take action so why not do it? Obviously, it would mean less power to the Co-ops and less money for the policy makers and therefore, the conference was actually powerless to make change.
His ideas were met with “Mr. Fukuoka, you are upsetting the conference with your remarks”. Having his mouth shut for him by the chairman of the conference, Mr. Ichiraku - head of the Japanese Organic Farmers Association. It was quite a brave thing Fukuoka had done. He stood up for what he believed and tried to save his beautiful country from worsening conditions. Thankfully, he never gave up and eventually, The One-Straw Revolution was written.

Fukuoka is a personal hero of mine, as the health of our world and food chain is almost the only thing I care about. It’s in the name. Fukuoka is a man who lived his philosophy and provided great, nutrient dense and flavour rich food to his countrymen. For anyone reading the WarKitchen, for those already aware of the war in your stomach and on our fields of produce, you will not regret reading this book and adapting its principles into your life

This article was written by Earthm'n. You can reach him at earthm.n@proton.me.

This article was originally published in Issue 06 of the WarKitchen magazine. You can read it in its original form here. If you’re on the newsletter, you’ll be the first to know when the next issue drops: warkitchen.net.

Thank you for reading the WARKITCHEN. Till next time 🥂