Last week, Arley (spouse), Mana (sister), and I completed a short internship at Masanobu Fukuoka Natural Farm in Ehime Prefecture (located in south Japan on an island off the mainland). We were excited to spot a Blue Rock-Thrush when we went for a walk around the neighborhood.
English Name: Blue Rock-Thrush | Latin Name: Monticola solitarius | Japanese Name: イソヒヨドリ (isohiyodori)
Size: 20–23 cm
Song: I love the gentle trill at the end of its call
I first heard of Masanobu Fukuoka Natural Farm in college when I read the book The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu-san. This book helped spark the global alternative food movement in the 1970s. Even though 50 years have passed since it was first published, it prompted me to think differently about my relationship with food and the health of both humans and the earth.
Masanobu-san was a Japanese farmer and philosopher who questioned the common wisdom of profit-driven innovations in agriculture. He pioneered “natural farming” that encourages people to mimic nature and collaborate with her for food cultivation. In practice, this means reducing soil disturbance (no plowing, tilling, or weeding) and no dependence on chemicals (no fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides). The Fukuoka family continues to carry on Masanobu-san’s legacy by combining natural farming with organic farming practices to grow a variety of fruit trees and other annual crops such as rice, barley, and vegetables.
During our brief internship, we were hospitably welcomed by the Fukuokas and their farm’s staff and interns. They are warm and humble people who love caring for the land and for each other. They taught us how to protect citrus trees from the damage of Citrus Longhorn Beetles without the use of pesticides. They showed us how to grow herbs and vegetables without weeding by simply stepping on the undesired plants to give the desired plants an advantage, and to avoid disturbing the soil microbiome. For meals, they shared rice, summer fruit, and veggies out of the abundance of their organic harvest. On our day off, Masanobu-san’s oldest granddaughter led us in a yoga session that helped relax our tired bodies. Some staff members also invited us to go paddle-boarding at the nearby beach.
Hiroki-san, Masanobu-san’s grandson and current farm manager, drove us to the mountain where his grandfather began his natural farming journey. This mountain was deforested during the Second World War for fuel, and the topsoil had eroded, making it hard to successfully grow most plants. However, through scattering nendo-dango (a variety of seeds wrapped in clay), Masanobu-san let nature choose which seeds to germinate and, in the process, helped the mountain rebuild its soil health. Human collaboration with nature helped speed up the healing process that would’ve taken the mountain many more years if it had been left abandoned. As we walked through the forest, we felt inspired by this beautiful example of a positive human footprint.
I look forward to sharing in the next couple of weeks some more reflections on natural and organic food culture and how to practice small-scale natural farming in your own backyard or balcony.
Glad to hear the Fukuoka family farm is so welcoming these days! My wife and I were first turned onto Fukuoka san's work by a Korean farmer who had been inspired by him, and then became the translator for some of his books published in Korea. That encounter led us to spend some years producing a film about these farmers here and in Japan and USA. Meeting natural farming completely changed our lives in a beautiful way.
At any rate, your review of Fukuoka san's farm give me a really big smile ... and the blue rock thrush is cute!
so thoughtful and inspiring! sounds like it was such a lovely and precious learning/experiential opportunity ❤️