 | Yobaba is a 57 year old married woman from Portland, Oregon, USA. |
- Masanobu Fukuoka&039;s Natural Farming and Permaculture | Permaculture...
 Apr 24, 10:40pm  (8 reviews) http://www.permaculture.com/drupal/node/... At age 25, Masanobu Fukuoka began to doubt the wisdom of modern agricultural science. He eventually quit his job as a research scientist, and returned to his family's farm on the island of Shikoku in Southern Japan to grow organic mikan(s) [Japanese 'tangerines']. From that point on he devoted his life to developing a unique small scale organic farming system that does not require weeding, pesticide or fertilizer applications, or tilling.
The timing and circumstances of Fukuoka's conversion from Western agricultural science, paralleled the new movement in the 1940s to organic farming and gardening in Europe and the US, led by pioneers like Lady Eve Balfour, Sir Albert Howard, and J.I. Rodale (founder of Rodale Press). However Fukuoka himself believed that he was going a step further than organic farming:
"The problem, however, is that most people do not yet understand the distinction between organic gardening and natural farming. Both scientific agriculture and organic farming are basically scientific in their approach. The boundary between the two is not clear." (The Road Back to Nature page 363)
At age 94, Fukuoka still manages to lecture when he can, such as at the Expo 2005 in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. [photo circa 1985]
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