The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming
by Masanobu Fukuoka
Review by Jennifer (mywolfalways)
Masanobu Fukuoka left his job as a customs inspector at the age of 25 to become a farmer. Making plenty of mistakes along the way, including killing an entire grove of his father’s citrus trees, Fukuoka found a life of self-sufficiency possible. Even more astounding is the fact that he managed to remain self-sufficient and still have food leftover to sell at markets without the use of pesticides, herbicides, and many of the other modern conveniences most farmers use. But how did he do it?
Through careful analysis and deconstruction of both traditional and modern technique, he learned what was necessary. He found that many of the traditional techniques only caused more damage to crops, as did many things that are so popular in modern technique. He discovered that the many insects, plants, and animals that are commonly considered as pests can actually be utilized to encourage growth. Many times when his neighbors’ crops were devastated by swarms of insects, despite having used insecticides, his crops were saved by natural predators, like swarms of spiders or large infestations of reptiles. Oddly enough, Fukuoka found that nature takes care of itself.
Fukuoka was generous with his knowledge. In fact, until a few years before his death, Fukuoka let others join him at his farm. While many visitors were only tourists with a passing curiosity, many of them came to live alongside him and follow in his footsteps of self-sufficiency. He would teach them his way of living. His way of teaching was not through the traditional means of a step by step process, but instead by total immersion. He believed this was the best way to illustrate his beliefs and practices, while at the same time helping to free the minds of his visitors from the common misconceptions of farming taught by modern agriculture.
Like the buds of life that peek through last year’s straw, seeds of Fukuoka’s wisdom reveal themselves in the most unlikely places. While reading, I found that many of the simple techniques he applied to his fields could also be applied to keeping my mind and spirit healthy. Perhaps the most important lesson that can be gleaned from this text is that nature must be observed and studied as a whole being, rather than just focusing on select parts. We must focus on how all of its parts interconnect and work together and in doing so, we can do the same for our whole being as well.
First published in 1978, this book on self-sufficiency has proven it’s worth even today. The latest publication date for this book is listed as 2009. Masanobu Fukuoka’s 
wisdom is so treasured that another book is being published postmortem entitled “Sowing Seeds in the Desert” (ISBN: 1603584188). There is even a website kept by Larry Korn to share the ideals of Fukuoka at http://www.onestrawrevolution.net . I hope that many others will read “The One-Straw Revolution” and find it useful to their own goals of self-sufficiency and mindful action.
