The One-Straw Revolution - (New York Review Books Classics) by Masanobu Fukuoka (Paperback)

About the Book

Originally published: Emmaus, Pa.: Rodale Press, 1978.

Book Synopsis

Call it "Zen and the Art of Farming" or a "Little Green Book," Masanobu Fukuoka's manifesto about farming, eating, and the limits of human knowledge presents a radical challenge to the global systems we rely on for our food. At the same time, it is a spiritual memoir of a man whose innovative system of cultivating the earth reflects a deep faith in the wholeness and balance of the natural world. As Wendell Berry writes in his preface, the book "is valuable to us because it is at once practical and philosophical. It is an inspiring, necessary book about agriculture because it is not just about agriculture."

Trained as a scientist, Fukuoka rejected both modern agribusiness and centuries of agricultural practice, deciding instead that the best forms of cultivation mirror nature's own laws. Over the next three decades he perfected his so-called "do-nothing" technique: commonsense, sustainable practices that all but eliminate the use of pesticides, fertilizer, tillage, and perhaps most significantly, wasteful effort.

Whether you're a guerrilla gardener or a kitchen gardener, dedicated to slow food or simply looking to live a healthier life, you will find something here--you may even be moved to start a revolution of your own.

Review Quotes

"The One-Straw Revolution is one of the founding documents of the alternative food movement, and indispensable to anyone hoping to understand the future of food and agriculture."--Michael Pollan

"Only the ignorant could write off Fukuoka, who died two years ago at the age of 95, as a deluded or nostalgic dreamer...Fukuoka developed ideas that went against the conventional grain....Long before the American Michael Pollan, he was making the connections between intensive agriculture, unhealthy eating habits and a whole destructive economy based on oil." --Harry Eyres, The Financial Times

"Fukuoka's do-nothing approach to farming is not only revolutionary in terms of growing food, but it is also applicable to other aspects of living, (creativity, child-rearing, activism, career, etc.) His holistic message is needed now more than ever as we search for new ways of approaching the environment, our community and life. It is time for us all to join his 'non-movement.'"--Keri Smith author of How to be an Explorer of the World

"Japan's most celebrated alternative farmer...Fukuoka's vision offers a beacon, a goal, an ideal to strive for." --Tom Philpott, Grist

"The One-Straw Revolution shows the critical role of locally based agroecological knowledge in developing sustainable farming systems." --Sustainable Architecture

"With no ploughing, weeding, fertilizers, external compost, pruning or chemicals, his minimalist approach reduces labour time to a fifth of more conventional practices. Yet his success in yields is comparable to more resource-intensive methods...The method is now being widely adopted to vegetate arid areas. His books, such as The One-Straw Revolution, have been inspirational to cultivators the world over." --New Internationalist

"Every now and then you read a book which is so inspiring and such a pleasure that you feel impelled to stride down the street shouting 'read this!' Well, I've just read The One-Straw Revolution and I urge everyone to buy or borrow a copy without delay." --Tom Hodgkinson, The Idler

"[The One-Straw Revolution is] about going with the flow. . . . What could happen if we stopped forcing everything to be perfect?" --Kristin Wong, Forge

About the Author

Masanobu Fukuoka (1913-2008) was born and raised on the Japanese island of Shikoku. He was the oldest son of a rice farmer who was also the local mayor. Fukuoka studied plant pathology and worked for number of years as a produce inspector in the customs office in Yokohama. But in 1938 he returned to his village home determined to put his ideas about natural farming into practice. During World War II, he worked for the Japanese government as a researcher on food production, managing to avoid military service until the final few months of the war. After the war, he returned to Shikoku to devote himself wholeheartedly to farming. And in 1975, distressed by the effects of Japan's post-war modernization, Fukuoka wrote The One-Straw Revolution. In his later years, Fukuoka was involved with several projects to reduce desertification throughout the world. He remained an active farmer until well into his eighties, and continued to give lectures until only a few years before his death at the age of ninety-five. Fukuoka is also the author of The Natural Way of Farming and The Road Back to Nature. In 1988 he received the Magsaysay Award for Public Service.

Frances Moore Lappé is author or co-author of sixteen books, including Diet for a Small Planet and Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity, and Courage in a World Gone Mad. She has co-founded three organizations, including the Institute for Food and Development Policy and, more recently, the Small Planet Institute, which she leads with her daughter Anna Lappé. In 1987, she received the Right Livelihood Award, also called the "Alternative Nobel." She has received seventeen honorary doctorates and has been a visiting scholar at MIT.

Larry Korn is an editor, author, and agricultural educator. He lived and worked on Masanobu Fukuoka's farm for more than two years in the early 1970s. He currently resides in Ashland, Oregon.

Wendell Berry is an environmental activist and farmer, and the author of more than 40 works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. He lives and works with his wife, Tanya Berry, on their farm in Port Royal, Kentucky.