In Japan, as in other developed societies, industrialization has transformed farming. Japan is today among the world's most prolific users of insecticides and herbicides. Although its high-technology agriculture feeds millions with apparent efficiency, MASANOBU FUKUOKA warns that by disturbing the self-balancing processes of nature, it is also creating weak, chemical-dependent plants and poisoning the land, water, and air.

Trained in plant pathology, FUKUOKA spent his early years as a plant inspector for the Yokohama Customs. On the side, he conducted his own scientific research but concluded ultimately that "an understanding of nature lies beyond the reach of human intelligence."

At the age of twenty-five, following a life-changing spiritual awakening, he abandoned his job and drifted home to his father's orange groves. There, in the town of Iyo on the southern island of Shikoku, he began living out his newfound insight that "in the world there is nothing at all." As a simple farmer for fifty years he has pursued a near effortless concord between himself and the land.

"When you get right down to it, there are few agricultural practices that are really necessary," says FUKUOKA. He does not plow his fields, nor weed them by tillage or herbicides. He does not plant seeds in tidy rows but casts them randomly upon the ground. He uses no machines, no insecticides, and no chemical fertilizers or prepared compost; he strews his rice and barley fields with straw instead.

In FUKUOKA's rice and barley fields, sturdy grains share their habitat with white clover, insects, birds, and small animals. In his orchards, unpruned orange trees rise prolifically above a profusion of grasses, herbs, and vegetables. They all thrive together naturally.

FUKUOKA points out that his "do nothing" farming completely contradicts modern agricultural techniques. Yet his untidy farm yields grain and fruits just as abundantly as high-technology farms, often more so, and a rich mix of hearty vegetables besides. His method offers farmers extra leisure. It requires no expensive inputs. It creates no pollution. Moreover, it is profitable: FUKUOKA's chemical-free produce is highly prized by health-conscious consumers.

Despite his publicized success and several books, seventy-five-year-old FUKUOKA's philosophy has been slow to catch on in Japan. But the 1978 English edition of his The One-Straw Revolution awakened interest elsewhere. Students, scientists, and agricultural workers from around the world now beat a path to his farm. He has spread his message personally to North America, Europe, and Africa. India received him as a prophet. His low-technology, nature-sensitive practices offer hope to India's poorest farmers and, as FUKUOKA feels strongly, are in harmony with its Gandhian spirit.

The earth is a generous provider, says FUKUOKA, but a fragile one. Governments should take heed and act. For healing the land will also heal the human spirit; and the land will heal, he assures us, if we remember that "natural farming exists forever as the wellspring of agriculture."