One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka

This was written in the 70's in Japan it is about natural farming and the author's philosophy of life. Masanobu Fukuoka was trained and worked for a while as plant scientist but decided to quit a go back to the land. It's very hippy that way. Anyways by trail and error he develops this awesome farming method. It's no-till, no chemicals (he doesn't even use compost) but there is a lot of hand labor (he only uses traditional tools). He plans his winter grain and rice at the same time with clover to act as N-fixer. He says his yields are comparable to both traditional Japanese rice farming and mechanized farming. One that that irritated me a bit is that he kept saying how easy his method was -- but he has all these students who are basically free labor. They get room and board and training. I think this would be a huge advantage but he doesn't mention them in that context. Still I think his farming method is clever.

After talking about his farming method he talks about his ideas about natural food and philosophy. These sections made less sense to me. Especially the philosophy. It is all "their is no difference between red and green and if you see a difference you are being mislead by the discerning mind" which is just confusing and I like things being different then each other.

Anyways I really liked the bits in this book about farming but the bits about philosophy just left me a bit confused.