Science and nature - Fukuoka’s views

“All I could give them was one straw”….

Very recently I read the book “The One Straw Revolution”. I was raving about it to my colleagues, more so on the evening of the 17th of August. On the morning of the 18th, I got the news of the death of Masanobu Fukuoka, the author of the book. Earlier this year, I had the fortune of meeting the person who wrote the preface for this book - Pratap Agarwal. He too, like Fukuoka, practiced ’rishi kheti’, a form of farming similar to natural farming.

Fukuoka was a microbiologist during his youth in Japan. In his book he describes his journey of why and how he gave up his job and his initial way of life, to eventually become a farmer, learning the technique of ‘natural farming’ ( an improvisation made by him of a very ancient farming methodology) and how he links it to his philosophy of life and everything. According to me, this book is a must read.

The book looks to on-lookers as a manual on the technique of natural farming, but actually it is a book of experience and philosophy. Though you may not agree to some or most of his philosophy, it still presents to you a new perspective. The appreciation of this perspective may come with time.

Science, according to Fukuoka, is an attempt by man to understand nature. And by doing so, man wishes to make something better than nature. For understanding nature, man studies it in parts - physics, chemistry, biology etc. So he segregates the processes and components of nature into different subjects. But the problem is that nature cannot studied in parts because nature exists as a whole. When this ‘whole’ is segregated, it ceases to be nature, it becomes something else. Secondly, an attempt to make something better than nature itself is futile because it is impossible to comprehend what nature is in the first place. When a person tries to understand nature, that is when the first mistake happens. Nature is not something that can be understood, it can only be loved and be amazed about. Thirdly, in the process to make something better than nature, man has created problems, a lot of them.

For example, man attemped to make big farms with single crop( monocultures) which is against the principle of nature ( where many varieties of plants grow in close proximity and have an interdependent relationship). Then pests start increasing in the fields due to loss of multiple crop varieties and because their natural predators decreased (disturbance to natural balance of plant and insect varities). Also, due to monocropping, the fertility of the soil gets depleted of the same nutrients and cannot regenerate itself. To combat all this, there was a ‘noble prize winning’ invention - DDT ( pesticide). Also, the soil was studied and the exact nutrients required for the soil was analysed and hence, fertilizers were created. It initially proved to be a savior for the people. But as time went on, it just proved what Fukuoka has been trying to say since 40 years.

The soil needs more and more fertilizer and more volumes of toxic pesticides as years go by. These pesticides persists in the soil and destroy all the life it holds. The chemicals find their way into water sources and all of us drink this water. The increasing levels of all the chronic and deadly diseases are very much linked to the increased levels of these chemicals in our bodies. I have studied the reports myself. Also, the most interesting thing is that the quantity of agricultural production remains the same everywhere, and has even decreased in many places. Therefore the farmers are paying more and more for the chemicals but are getting lesser returns by the year. Hence the increased suicides amongst them. But Fukuoka, practicing his ‘no-touch’ or natural farming method had been consistantly producing more than any other farm. His field’s fertility increased by the year.

Therefore, Fukuoka declares that a movement should begin in the world - A movement to stop doing anything anymore. Because whenever we do something, we create new problems. Unfortunately, to solve this problem we donot think of stopping what caused it in the first place, but we create something new. And this gives rise to a new set of problems; and the cycle continues.

Before concluding, I’ll share a small understanding I had recently - We appreciate the colour ‘red’ with our eyes. It cannot be explained or understood as a particular wavelength. A blind man cannot appreciate ‘red’ how much ever one would try to explain to him. It can only be experienced.

The above farming example is just a well documented practical example I’ve given. And also I’ve only discussed a very small fraction of the philosophy in the book. Hope the above reflection will tempt you to read it.