Decades before the first international permaculture conference or certified organic tomato, a farmer on an island in southern Japan turned his back on industrial agriculture and devoted his life to finding a different way of farming.

Masanobu Fukuoka was working as a plant pathologist when he experienced a revelation – and promptly quit his job and returned home to his family farm. Eventually, he wrote The One-Straw Revolution, a manifesto on his method, shizen noho, and the philosophy of “do-nothing farming.” 

Published in 1978, the book has been described by writer Michael Pollan as “one of the founding documents of the alternative food movement.” But its reach goes far beyond farming: The One Straw Revolution has been translated into 25 languages and is admired by artists, writers, and philosophers. 

Fukuoka passed away in 2008, but his grandson, Hiroki Fukuoka, is still living and farming there today. In the second part of the story of Fukuoka and “do-nothing” farming, writer Hannah Kirshner journeys to the place where he lived and farmed, to see shizen noho, as it is today. 

Featuring Hiroki Fukuoka, with appearances by Akiko Fukuoka, Taro Nakamura, and Atsushi Tada.

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LINKS + FURTHER READING 

Masanobu Fukuoka Natural Farm

Hannah Kirshner, author of Water, Wood, and Wild Things: Learning Craft and Cultivation in a Japanese Mountain Town

Fukuoka in discussion with Bill Mollison and Wes Jackson for Mother Earth News, which took place at the Second International Permaculture Conference in Washington state.

Many of those practicing natural farming in Japan learned about it from Yoshikazu Kawaguchi, who adapted Fukuoka’s practice and started a natural farming school called Akame Shizennou Jyuku.

The 1978 review of The One Straw Revolution in Akwesasne Notes, a newspaper published by the Mohawk Nation

For more on the story behind the book’s publication and Fukuoka’s travels in the United States: The One Straw Revolutionary: The Philosophy and Work of Masanobu Fukuoka by Larry Korn

CREDITS

Special thanks to Tim Crews and the Land Institute, ethnobotanist Justin Robinson, Jeffrey Gray of Fenlake Farm, Paul Quirk of Ishiharaya farm, Bill Vitek, and Atsushi Tada and Taro Nakamura, who work with the Masanobu Fukuoka Natural Farm. 

Reported and written by Justine Paradis and Hannah Kirshner

Produced and mixed by Justine Paradis

Executive producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Edited by Taylor Quimby

Additional editing: Rebecca Lavoie and Felix Poon

Translation help from Michael Thornton

Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder

Additional music by Patrick Patrikios and Blue Dot Sessions