My GARDEN GURUS
Archive MY Garden Gurus
April 2010
Masanobu Fukuoka
In 1979, shortly after I purchased my first home and created my first vegetable garden, I bought a book called “The One-Straw Revolution – An Introduction to Natural Farming,” by a Japanese farmer named Masanobu Fukuoka. It was published the year before by Rodale Press.
Masanobu Fukuoka
The book sat on my nightstand for several weeks, along with a dozen others, waiting its turn for my attention. Then one night I opened it, read the first paragraph, and continued to read uninterrupted for the next three hours until I finished the last paragraph. It was that good. It was, in fact, mind blowing.
Before discovering Mr. Fukuoka, I’d read several books about natural farming by J.I. and Robert Rodale, Ruth Stout, and others who were in the forefront of the natural farming movement, but none of them moved me in the way Masanobu did. His approach to farming was so pure, so simple, and so logical that I knew he had to be right.
The One-Straw Revolution
In the 30 years since, I’ve mimicked that humble man’s approach in my own gardens. And along the way, I’ve thought of him often. Sadly, I never got the chance to actually meet him, but I know what I would have said to him if I had: Thank you.
“The One-Straw Revolution” is no longer in print, but you can buy copies online. I suggest you do just that.
