[PDF]Permaculture: The Road Back To Nature-Masanobu Fukuoka

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©1987 by Masanobu Fukuoka

Translated by Frederic P. Metreaud



All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions
thereof in any form without the written permission of the publisher.



Published by Japan Publications, Inc., Tokyo and New York
Distributors:

United States: Kodansha International! USA, Ltd., through Farrar,
Straus & Giroux, 19 Union Square West, New York, 10003, Canada:
Fitzhemv & Whiteside Ltd., 195 Allstate Parkway, Markham, Ontario,
L3R 4T8. British Isles: Premier Book Marketing ltd,, 1 Gower Street,
London WC1E 6 HA . European Continent: European Book Service
PBD Strijkviertel 63, 3454 PK Be Meern, The Netherlands, Australia
,nd New' Zealand: Bookwise International. 54 Crittenden Road, Findon,
'south Australia 5007. The Far East and Japan Japan Publications
Trading Co,, Ltd,, l-2~], Sarugaku-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101.



First edition: August 1987
Second printing: December 1989

LCCC No, 86-31325
ISBN 0-87040-673-6



Printed in Japan



Contents



Preface to English Edition, 13
Preface to Japanese Edition, 17

Introduction: Man Doesn't Live by Bread Alone, 21
All One Has to Do is to Live, 25



1, America— Land of Plenty?, 29



Why has California Turned to Desert ?, 31

Up Above the Clouds, 31
The Spaniards Brought Bad Grasses, 35
The Rain Falls from Below, 38
Deficit Farming, 39

Agriculture Run Amok, 42

America's Pine Trees Are Dying Too, 44

America Is Drying Up, 45

The East Coast Forests, 47

The Bogus Nature, 48

Can American Agriculture Be Revived ?, 51

The Machine Culture Is Doomed, 56

Food as a Strategic Weapon, 58



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The Natural Foods Boom, 63

Natural Diet Takes Hold in the U.S., 63
A Change Has Come Over Westerners, 68
The Specter of Food Scarcity, 72



2. Europe As 1 Saw It, 75



Touring Europe in Geta and Monpe, 77

The Sound of My Footsteps, 77
The Culture of Clothing, 82
The Roots of Clothing, 82

The Culture of Meat and Wine, 86

Farming for the Kings and Clergy, 86
First Leg: Switzerland, 88

Natural Farming Takes Root in Italy, 91

Summer Camp at Giannozzo's, 91

Milan Rice, 95
On to Austria, 97

Lecturing in Vienna, 99

The Old Man and the Mill 103

North to Holland, 103

The Nelissen Farm, 105

The Old Man and the Windmill, 110

European Civilization at a Standstill, 113



7

The European Culture of Food, 1 1 3
Flowers and Beauty, 117
Churches and God, 120

A Green Peace, 123

The International Nature University, 123
The Paris Peace March, 125
Weapons . . . for Defense?, 127

Reflections on the Japanese, 130

A Message for Peace, 133



3. Food and the Ecosystem, 143



The Japanese Diet Takes a Turn for the Worse, 145

Too Few Vegetables in the West, 146

Japanese Diet and Cooking Are Disappearing, 149

Diet and Thought, 151

The Seed War Is On, 154

America's Food Strategy, 154
Rice Seed as a Weapon, 155
Japan VS. Vie in Development of the High- Yielding Rice

Seed, 156

Beyond Science, 165

Insects Also Create New Varieties of Rice, 165
Reviving Ancestral Strains, 166
Problems with Darwin's Theory of Evolution, 168
Scientists Abuse Their Authority, 172



Pine Blight: A Case Study of Nature under Attack, 175

Pine Rot: Portent of Desertification, 176

The Natural Environment Must Be Preserved, 179

Artificial Cultivation of the Matsutake, 119

Keeping Out the Medfly, 183

Fruit from Australia, 183

Keeping the Medfly Out of Japan, 183
Fruit Flies from. Australia, 187

Fruit Fly Maggots Discovered in Shikoku, 187
Japan — A Country Without Fruit Flies, 190



4. Natural Farming : A Personal Testimony, 201



The Principles and Practice of Natural Farming, 203

Is "Do-Nothing" Farming Possible ?, 204
The Paradoxes of Scientific Farming, 207
Naturally Farmed Rice, 209
The Pit of Knowledge, 21 1
Ignorant Agriculture, Misguided Medicine, 213
Is Natural Farming Catching On?, 216
My Method of Natural Farming, 217
Nature as Teacher, 222

What is Nature ?, 225

Nature is Unknowable, 225

dossing Mountains and Valleys Gets You Nowhere, 227
The Innocence of Children, 228
Washing the Naked Body, 233
The Natural Body, 235



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Natural Farming Today, 238

Some Are Returning to Nature, 238

Why Doesn't Natural Farming Catch On in Japan?, 242

Changing Attitudes Toward Nature, 248

Reviving the Soul of the Thousand Fields, 250

The World of the Bushman, 252

Nature Farming and the Bushman's Way of Life, 252
Touching the Great Spirit, 256

Agriculture for Tomorrow, 258

Natural Farming Offers a New Future, 258
Foreigners Are a Determined Lot, 260
Utopia-Building, 263



5. Nature, God, and Man, 271



The Wandering God, 273

Do Not Name the Nameless God, 273
Understanding That Goes Only Three-Quarters of the

Way, 275
There Is Only One God, 277
Where Then Is God?, 279
God Is All Alone, 282

God and Nature Are One, 286



God, Nature, and Man as One, 287

Learning about Nature Distances One from Nature, 288



The Death of God, 289

Finding the World of Nothing, 297

Children, God, and Nature, 299

Nature Creates God, 302

A Humanity Forsaken by God, 303

God Knows Neither Space Nor Time, 306

Misconceptions over Space and Time, 306
The Last Road Left for Humanity, 308

A Farmers Ode, 312



6. Seeding a Real Green Revolution, 315



We Must Stop the Advance of the Deserts, 317

Everything Begins by Sowing Seed, 323

Can Natural Farming Stop the Deserts ?, 325

What Will Grow in the Desert?, 328

Organic Farming and Ecology Are Self- Defeating, 330

Forty Days in Africa, 333

Why the Tragedy in Africa ?, 340

America Revisited, 343

American Agriculture Seven Years Later, 344

The Outdoor Food Markets, 347

The Growing Popularity of Japanese Cuisine, 350



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Natural Home Gardens, 351
A Natural Garden in the Backyard, 354
What is This "Lawn Culture" ?, 356
Lundberg's Natural Rice, 357

Sowing Seed in the Desert, 360

Making the Change from Organic to Natural Farming, 362
Three Don Quixotes, 367

A Statement, 373

Reclaiming the Desert at the Zen Center, 375



Preface to English Edition



1 have chosen to call, this book The Road Back to Nature,
But because there may be some uncertainty as to precisely
what I mean by this, I would like to begin by clarifying the
notion of "returning to nature" that I have in mind. To me,
this represents the effort to reunify God, nature, and man—
which have been split apart by mankind. Unfortunately, man
cannot be successful in his attempts to return to nature unless
he knows what true nature and God are.

Some people say that nature ravaged by man is still nature,
that the wasted desert lands left in the wake of human civili-
zation are nature nonetheless. Yet, however far he may wan-
der through such fields and mountains and however long he
may live in a secluded glen from which issues a mountain
brook, man can only gaze upon nature's outer shell ; he will
never have access to its true inner heart and soul.

The soul of nature is also the will of God who dwells in
nature. This is not something that scientists can find by dis-
secting nature. Indeed, scientists are incapable even of know-
ing that they are in no position to understand the soul of a
flower in the meadow.

In the belief that they are exploring the root of life, genet-
icists extract and synthesize the genes present in the cells of
living things. But nature's soul does not lie hidden within
DNA. Nor is this where God resides.

Recently, physicists claim that the mental attitude embodied
by the Eastern concept of nothingness (Mu) appears close to
resolution within the realm of the quantum theory, and Pve
heard it said that astronauts floating in space are able to sense
God's presence while in a weightless state. But God and
nature lie beyond the grasp of the human intellect. No matter
how much he dissects nature or with his own mind denies



14



the existence of human intelligence and calls everything "Mm,"
far from being able to observe the real state of nature and
grasp the essence of God, man only moves further and fur-
ther away from both nature and God.

The fragmented and diffusive development of knowledge
which expands outward without aim or direction has brought
human thought to the extremes of confusion, recklessly split-
ting apart God, nature, and man— originally one indivisible —
and leaving only a legacy of incoherent chaos. Science has
gone on a wild rampage, and the global disruption this has
caused is only now becoming clear. Quite frankly, there no
longer seems any hope that man will succeed in returning to
nature and reuniting with God.

1, who received a revelation of God one moment fifty years
ago, was so taken aback by the vision I saw that I failed to
advance along the road I should have. Instead, I turned my
back on God and tried to follow quietly the path of a solitary
farmer. In time, I came to call the road I had passed over
"the road back to nature" and, growing arrogant, professed
to practice natural farming.

Although I claim to practice natural farming, all I have
really done is to haphazardly conceive of a form closest to the
image of nature and grow crops in accordance with that
form. Of course, while I felt that the purpose of this should
always be the revival of nature and the manifestation and
concrete expression of the God that lies hidden deep within
nature, there was little hope that I, having once ignored the
will of God, should find a proper way.

Even so, I am grateful that when, spring arrives at my free-
spirited farm, for a space of several days the cherry, plum,
peach, and pear trees in my orchard, and the semi-wild vege-
tables growing beneath them, all. break out into bloom,
mixing with the green of the foliage. As I look out upon my
orchard now, it is truly a sight to behold. The flowers of
nature bloom of their own accord and scatter without care or
concern,



15



Looking at the plum blossoms radiant in the morning light
and the whiteness and blueness of the daikon (Japanese rad-
ish) flowers, and noting the beauty of the iridescent shower
of falling petals, visitors to my orchard call this an Eden, a
paradise on Earth. But as soon as they finish clicking the
shutters on their cameras, they hurry off home to the towns
and cities. Even though they call this place beautiful, people
today no longer have the time or ease of mind to immerse
themselves in such sensibility. Rather than indulging directly
in the raw, unrefined beauty of nature, they return, home with
their rolls of exposed film and are content to enjoy the natu-
ral beauty captured in their photographs. They don't call
upon their innate sense of beauty, finding instead a greater
attraction in nature as an object for self-expression. Nature
remains only as a means for cleansing ignoble man.

People bring home flowers and display them in vases, vying
with each other in the art of flower arrangement Caught up
as he is with the image of himself represented therein, civi-
lized man today is no longer able to see the flowers (God) in
the fields.

Modern man, who drops the flowers in the fields to em-
brace the wildly and falsely blooming flowers of vast civiliza-
tions, no longer understands what it means to return to
nature. Where is the key that will open up the road back to
nature ?

Man has persistently believed that by amassing knowledge,
sharpening his judgment, and deepening his ability to reason,
he is able to exploit natural resources, advance human cul-
ture, and bring happiness to himself. But intelligence and
reason were nothing more than perverse pranks. The greatest,
enemies responsible for man's loss of his native aesthetic sense
and of the understanding inherent to man (transcendentally
perceived knowledge that is the basis of good sense) are the
human intellect and what we call reason.

Reason and understanding are mutually antagonistic. They
play opposing roles. The intellect attempts to open up nature,



16



but succeeds only in closing it down because human knowl-
edge is in fact nothing more than a cumulat ion of judgment
by the human intellect. At first, reason appeared capable of
becoming the means necessary for conversing with God, but
instead it turned out to be a dangerous weapon that strips
man of wisdom and brutalizes God.

The flower perceived innocently is itself divine nature, but
wrfen examined with the intellect, this is transformed into the
cold flower of reason, the heart of which nature shuts out.

What I want to say is that God did not create heaven,
earth, and the cosmos. Rather, when the Earth was born and
the meadow flowers bloomed, the butterflies fluttered about,
and the birds sang, God came of his own choosing to dwell
there.

Instead of praying to God as a mighty power that reigns
over the heavens, man should have frolicked innocently with
this wonderful sprite, this angel, inhabiting the fields. That
was the shortest road back to nature and at once the Great
Way back to the side of God.

Look how beautiful, the flowers of the earth !
This is the land where live the gods;
A perfect, faultless, natural paradise.

Now in the deep slumber of spring in my Eden,
I dream a private dream of returning to nature.
Here there is nothing that must be done;
No effort is required, not even courage.

But no one even bothers to look back.
Will the road to nature fade again
Into the mists?



April 1986



Preface to Japanese Edition



This book is an attempt to paint a true picture of God,
nature, and man. Such an ambitious venture is beyond the
powers of a slow-witted farmer. Yet, well aware as I am of
this, there is a reason why I have chosen to write this juvenile
book. One day, while still a young man, I saw suddenly the
totality of God.

I have never revealed this before. Why do 1 here spit out
these words which for almost fifty years I have kept hidden in
the depths of my heart ? There is more to my reluctance than,
mere hesitation. No, I have ordinarily sought at all costs to
avoid uttering the word God. This is because I knew that man
is incapable of speaking about God, or of understanding or
believing in. God. Yet now, I deliberately break this personal
taboo as, with intense remorse, I dare to say "God" and await
divine judgment.

Of course, on that day in my far-off youth when I knew
God— from that, day forth, I should have followed His divine
will. I should have walked the proper road for man that
had been pointed out to me. But at the time, I was just a
stupid, good-for-nothing youth hopelessly corrupted by the
secular world. Overwhelmed with awe and amazement at the
indescribably glorious sight of God, I shirked my duty.
Whether it was cowardice or arrogance I do not know, but
taking advantage of the fact that God gives man no instruc-
tions, I turned my back upon Him and began to walk the
road back to my own egoistic self.

Proud as I was then, 1 thought that I did not need to know
anything, that I needed nothing at all. There was absolutely
nothing that I had to acquire through effort. I had not the
slightest qualms in declaring openly that time and space had
nothing whatever to do with me.



18



Even as I saw people racking their brains and laboring
away at the production of goods in order to secure a bit of
space and time, I thought, "Let those who wish to advance do
so. As for me, I have nowhere to search for. All that remains
is to turn, back and slowly make my way home. No, even the
road back home exists no more. All I should do is live and
enjoy this day,"

i lcnew very well that at heart I was a fool Well, let a fool
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