"Larry Korn was a 26-year-old farmhand from the United States living and working at a communal farm in rural Kyoto in 1974 when he decided to go and see for himself an enigmatic farmer-philosopher he had been hearing about through the grapevine in Japan. Korn was met at the rice fields of the Fukuoka Shizen Noen (Fukuoka Natural Farm) by the farm's middle-aged proprietor, Masanobu Fukuoka. It was a meeting that would change both of their lives and alter the course of small-scale farming the world over. Fukuoka, by that time, had not plowed his rice fields for a quarter of a century, but was still producing healthy rice crops that could compete with or exceed those of other local farmers in both quality and quantity. Nor did he use any pesticides or artificial composting or do any weeding. "Do-nothing" farming, he called it--following nature's lead and leaving a minimal human imprint on the earth." More in this fascinating interview with Korn.
↧