Hi Eric (and Everybody else too)
I doubt if I can say anything more about Natural Farming than you know if
you've read Fukuoka-sensei's books. There are a few web sites that give
overviews of the theory, but the only site that talks about current
projects is Jim Bone's site at www.seedballs.com This site talks about using
Fukuoka's balls of clay and seeds, only made with native plant seeds. It's
being used in a couple of very large reforestation projects.
For those who don't know about Fukuoka's work:
He was a plant scientist for the Japanese government but became
disillusioned with modern farming shortly after modern farming started in
Japan. He began a long-term effort to see just how little was really
needed to grow abundant crops. His main two ideas were his way of farming
grains and his wild gardens.
To farm grain, he would plant barley or wheat in the fall, but seeded with
it would be white clover and clay balls of rice seed. The pelletized rice
seeds would lay dormant all winter and sprout in the spring just before the
winter grain was harvested. After harvesting the barely or wheat, the
straw would be spread back on the land and the fields flooded. The
flooding kills any weeds and the clover. It also kills any pests hidden in
the straw. After the rice is harvested in the fall, the whole cycle is
started again. The only fertilizer used is chicken (and maybe other)
manure and all of the crop residue. Fukuoka talked in great length about
the number of toads, frogs and spiders that kept the harmful insects in check.
His second idea, the wild garden, is the one that interests me the most.
He made balls of seeds, clay and active compost. He would mix seeds from a
wide variety of vegetables and other useful plants together to make the
balls. He said each ball should contain 100's of seeds from 100's of types
of plants. The seed balls are then tossed at random onto the area to be
planted. His theory is that at least one plant in the ball would be at
home' where it landed and do well. The pictures of his garden are amazing.
This leads naturally to areas being productive at many levels. Orange
trees with kiwi vines growing on them and vegetables growing below, for
example.
His books "The One Straw Revolution""Natural Farming" and one I forget the
name of were published in the 70's. Most of the places that mention his
ideas include a line or two along the lines of "His ideas were briefly
practice in the USA and elsewhere, but nobody succeeded in replicating his
success." The only details of failures I've heard mention were people who
tried to repeat his rice/grain/clover cycle exactly in places with the
wrong climate and/or wrong soil. As mentioned above, there have been
successes with using seed balls to reintroduce native plants.
One of Fukuoka's dreams was to use airplanes to seed deserts with seedballs
that would lay dormant until the rains came. He believed that if large
areas of desert could be made green, the climate would change and rains
would come. His main hope was that this could be tried in places like
Northern Africa that were once green farms before being ruined by over
farming.
The last I knew for sure, Fukuoka was still alive and working, but somebody
else told me they heard he had died a few years ago.
==>paul
At 11:29 AM 2/25/2000 -0800, you wrote:
>Thanks, Paul. I enjoyed it.
>
>It parallels much of my own thinking on the subject. In fact I could see
>myself writing the very same thing. (see my 6/18/99 post to the list) I'd
>be curious (on or off the list depending on other's interest level) to hear
>what you know of Natural Farming. I have read a few of Fukuoka's books and
>looked at a few web sites. I am particularly interested to know if anyone
>is really using the ideas (especially more than three or five years)
>besides Fukuoka's place in Japan. It seems like the principles of
>Permaculture with a greater trust and belief that Nature can make it work
>at levels of efficiency and vitality far beyond our own attempts. It makes
>sense to me on a gut level and on a logical level.
>
>Eric Storm
>
