The One-Straw Revolution

I appreciated the author’s voice as a farmer speaking from experience and from the heart. Writing from his tiny farm, Fukuoka pushes back with flair against emerging agro-food paradigms.

I also found this book to be a window into mid-20th century Japan, a culture and period I simply did not know much about. Perhaps the best part of the book is the author's withering rants against industrial, modern agriculture. 

This is more than a book about natural farming from one of the fathers of the modern-day sustainable farming movement; it’s a memoir about a spiritual awakening, a manifesto on the futility and short-sightedness of industrial agriculture and society, a work by a Japanese philosopher so simple and pure in its truth-telling that it makes my heart hurt to even think about it.

And yet, every time I pick it up to re-read one of its spare, stirring chapters, I’m simultaneously filled with so much hope: The world could be such a different place if we would only just follow… show more.

This is an introduction to natural farming. This Japanese farmer was a spearhead for how to work with natural pathways and create a system that flows with the land. He was an inspiration for the Permaculture design for Bill Mollinson. He adapted a design that worked with animals, insects, native plants, and water to form a biological series of self-reliance.

This book is inspirational and lays the groundwork for growing with nature. This book opened me up to using biomimicry in my design.