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. 

What is it about this slim green book that has touched so many people? 

Part I tells the “origin story” of Masanobu Fukuoka, and how his ideas spread far beyond his home on the Japanese island of Shikoku. 

In Part II, we journey to that corner of southern Japan, and the mountain where Masanobu Fukuoka once lived and farmed, to see shizen noho in action today.

Featuring Takeshi Watanabe, Robin Calderon, and Hiroki Fukuoka.

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LINKS + FURTHER READING 

masanobu.jp/en/?pjax=true">Masanobu Fukuoka Natural Farm

Fukuoka’s discussion with Bill Mollison and Wes Jackson for Mother Earth News, which took place in 1986 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 Blue Dot Sessions and Patrick Patrikios