one straw revolution

many moons ago, dvr gave me a slender paperpack called the one straw revolution to read on the flight from chennai to chicago. i read it cover to cover and then re-read it before the plane landed. little did i know then that the book is not just about farming but a non-dualistic approach to life and farming, in particular- a zen approach to farming long before zen become a marketable buzzword. little did i know that i would meet the writer of the introduction to the book, partapji, one day at navadarshanam . i can remember few books which have had that spellbinding effect. i have reread the book a few times since the first dual reading and each time its simplicity and power never ceases to amaze me. over the years, i have noticed that it is also the bible for back-to-the-landers; paperback indian editions were still relatively easily available in bangalore at bookworm books on mg road among other places long after rodale press in the us stopped publishing it. fukukoka's later book the road back to nature is also interesting but it is more about his critique of what has gone wrong than a subjective account of his life-changing experiential approach life-farming.

today, i got this email from partap-ji which sent me down memory lane. it is his introduction to the forthcoming new kannada translation of the book (in english)-

Most people think of One Straw Revolution as a book on natural farming. Of course it has several chapters describing the way Fukuoka farmed without plowing, or weeding, and by broadcasting the seeds by hand over the land. But this is only a small part of the message of the book; its core is far deeper.

As a young man Fukuoka was a customs official specializing in plant quarantine. His expertise was in plant pathology and he studied fungi, viruses, and pests. He spent long hours working in labs and often got fatigued to the point of exhaustion. Many times he fell unconscious and remained in that condition for hours. During one of these spells he experienced "a shock, a flash" that changed his life. He woke up into a completely new world that wouldn't fit into words. Many years later he talked of it as a realization that "Humanity knows nothing at all. There is no intrinsic value in anything, and every action is futile, meaningless effort." For months he walked like a mad man, or like one with a fishbone stuck in his throat that he was neither able to swallow nor throw out. Finally he felt led to return to his village and work on the family's land.

He instinctively practiced what nature does in the forest. He called it do-nothing faming; for he grew grains, vegetables and fruit, without doing anything that farmers normally do. His yields were on par with his neighbors, and his input cost close to zero. Condition of his soil improved each year as it happens on the forest floor. The very opposite of this happens on all cultivated lands. By doing this he was able to demonstrate his insight that humans know nothing about agriculture. He proved that the agricultural 'scientists' were not only ignorant, but their ideas and techniques were harmful.

Fukuoka farmed his family's land for nearly 40 years. In the process, he not only gained control of his mind and body but also got a new vision of the universe and his own place in it. Many Japanese and American young men and women were attracted to Fukuoka's vision and came to spend extended periods on his farm. Together they learned more and made Fukuoka's original insights clearer.

To the 'scientists' who came to his farm he said, "since you are researching spiders, you are interested in only one among the many predators of the leaf-hopper. This year spiders appeared in great numbers, but last year it was toads. Besides that, it was frogs that predominated. There is countless variation." Nature cannot be understood in parts. For it is a seamless unity and must be felt as a whole with the heart.

Fukuoka insisted that understanding of nature lies beyond the reach of human intellect. He further pointed out that agriculture is the root of all our problems. Today our civilization is the most violent in all human history. This attitude flows from our violence to soil, plants and animals. By digging we kill the soil and turn it into sand. By clear-cutting the forest we destroy the plants. By growing only human food on the land we increase our own numbers by leaps and starve all other animal species to death. We have the preposterous idea that we can own the land when in fact it's the other way round. We are virtually at war with nature.

Fukuoka says, "Unless people become natural people, there can be neither natural farming nor natural food." "Right food, Right action, Right awareness." Progress cannot come out of turmoil and confusion. Purposeless development invites nothing less than degradation and collapse of human kind.

Obviously, knowing Fukuoka does not end with natural farming. It only begins there and takes us on and on toward the truth of the universe. It leads us to self-awareness, knowing our place in the community of life, living with full consciousness of our oneness with all life.

I must stop, for it is not my job to anticipate the book for you. You must read it yourself and find out what it says to you. I am trying only to point to the riches this book offers. You must read the whole of it very carefully. If you read only bits and parts, you will miss the core idea, for it is in the whole of it.

Partap Aggarwal
January 13, 2008

as one of my friends put it, i cannot wait until spring to sow again- to feel the earth and watch life sprout out of small sere seeds.

to be continued.