Masanobu Fukuoka was mainly known for his works advocating natural farming and re-vegetation of desertified lands, and his authoritative book The One-Straw Revolution that introduces his methods for natural farming. To put it simply, his ideas campaign the need to ‘do-nothing’ farming methods that are in contrast with the complexities of modern farming. Looking at the timeline of Masanobu’s campaign, he was among the earliest advocates that question monoculture and other modern farming methods that were introduced during the Green Revolution in the past few decades.

In four short chapters, this pamphlet highlights Masanobu’s philosophies which begin with his calling for natural farming. His arguments with regard to natural farming are sound, with proofs of his personal experience working as a microbiologist in pre-war Japan and his interactions with many people from different parts of the world discussing his and their views on natural farming. He argues that modern perspectives have been corrupted by science and (sometimes) by religious imposters who seek for more profits and powers by imposing unsustainable ideas to laypeople. He says, “I look forward to the day when there is no need for sacred scriptures or sutras. The dragonfly will be the messiah.”

While some of his claims are agreeable to me, I find it quite difficult to agree to his repudiation of science. In the second part Reconsidering Human Knowledge, Masanobu argues, “With increased ‘knowledge’ comes an increased desire for more knowledge, and then people work and work to invent machines to help them achieve even greater knowledge.” While this is true, and I once held similar dystopian view about the future of humanity, I consider there’s a wisdom in scientific approach to solve our problems, while also considering the importance of returning to the natural state of the world in order to sustain the future of humanity. Masanobu’s opinions intrigued me further to think if there’s any endpoint, some non-negotiable limit to how humans can thrive technologically, but still living in harmony with nature.

As the materials on this pamphlet is taken from The Ultimatum of GOD NATURE, first published in Japanese in 1996, there is a 20-year gap between the time when Masanobu first laid out his ideas and the current state of affairs. For instance, more people have become aware of climate change and their consequences to the future of humanity. The term ‘net-zero’ has become more widely understood, and many of us understand the need to reach net-zero by 2050, that we are now on earth on borrowed time. Policymakers in both developed and developing countries now consider climate change as part of the equations in policymaking, with UN Climate Change conference (COP) is held annually since 1995 up until now to discuss agendas on mitigating the climate disasters.

While I don’t 100% buy Masanobu’s ideas, I think it’s a good initiative by Penguin, to publish a series of Penguin Books – Green Ideas comprising 20 short publications to highlight salient points of contemporary philosophers and scientists regarding the climate issues. People of the 21st century are busy, most of us might not have time to read books or we might be doing it in between commuting and catching the next agenda in our schedules, but this short pamphlet and other books in the series might be a ‘wake-up’ call to see what a layperson can do with regards to climate issues.

This is an excerpt from Sowing Seeds in the Desert by Masanbou Fukuoka, a pioneer in sustainable and organic practices who promoted a 'do-nothing' method. Fukuoka's work presses us to radically transform how we view the land, its cultivation and our own sense of self. A great introduction to his work.

While this was a beautiful book on musings and our relationship with nature it was a little bit lacking focus.
I did appreciate the takes on farming and comparisons to big industry.
Still, I am very excited to read the rest of the Green Ideas books.

A beautiful passage:
There has never been a generation like the present where people's hearts are so badly wounded. This is true of every are of society - politics, economics, and culture. It is reflected in the degradation of the environment, which comes about through the material path humanity has chosen. Now we have the ugly sight of industry, government, and the military joining forces in the struggle for ultimate power.

Thank you Penguin Press and Netgalley for the eARC.

I loved, loved, loved this. I am currently dealing with the themes of this book in an art project of mine and so this felt like a message from the past coming to find me. Amazing.

Part of the Penguin Green Ideas, this collection of short texts should be considered as an introduction to Fukuoka's writing. Honestly, not strong enough as a stand alone.

1.5 rounded up

Having recently read and enjoyed another book from the Green Ideas series I was looking forward to picking this up, but I'm sad to report this was a big disappointment.

This reads like a heavily abbreviated version of a full length book by Masanobu Fukuoka (I can't quite find which one!) and in some ways it's difficult to review an excerpt of a longer piece when you're unsure if better context might make a text hang together better, but suffice it to say that this made for a frustrating read for this reader. Fukuoka is known for his 'do nothing' method of farming but I found this essay-length book left me more confused than before I read it as to what he actually stood for -- his ideas and written manifesto for an alternative method of farming felt problematic, unrealistic and outdated; some ideas seemed like they'd cause more harm than good. All the research was anecdotal and not based in actual legitimate scientific studies.

On a positive note, the text is presented in an accessible manner and made for a quick read but I'm afraid to say the ideas are not ones that will stick with me. I'm optimistic the third book in the series that I have an ARC of - Man's War Against Nature - will be more my cup of tea.

Masanobu Fukuoka’s short text, The Dragonfly Will Be the Messiah (Green Ideas) is part of a larger body of work titled, Sowing Seeds in the Desert. The premise of this short snippet sounded wonderful (hence why I requested it). However, I struggled to finish reading it.

As someone who can’t keep anything alive, I appreciated Fukuoka’s hands-off approach to farming. I think that some of his research findings are interesting. However, without using a scientific method, readers can’t believe his findings and even Fukuoka notes that the results may not be accurate. His beliefs are phrased as truths without any scientific data or research to back up his ideas. At one point, Fukuoka notes, “Although the climate and other conditions are different, I believe that this basic method will also work in revegetating the deserts.”
I was also curious about the translation as there is some awkward phrasing, such as, “All the confusion, all the agony that had obsessed me disappeared with the morning mist.” Furthermore, there are vague sentences such as this one: “One Sunday, five or six soldiers from the nearby air force unit came to visit on their day off. […] The following morning they disappeared into the southern sky. It still breaks my heart to recall the boyish faces of those young men.” I’m not sure why it broke the author’s heart “to recall the boyish faces of those young men” as it’s not clear from the text.

Although nature lovers may enjoy this text, I worry that Fukuoka romanticizes and oversimplifies nature and the past. If my Japanese was better, I’d read the original in order to determine if the concerns I have are also present in the original text or if it’s the translation.

I may not be the target reader, but there is definitely a reader out there who would love this! I would recommend this short work to readers interested in nature, geography and/or philosophy.

My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Classics for allowing me to read an ARC of this short classic in return for an honest review. I greatly appreciate it!

Masanobu Fukuoka is a famous botanist who for 75 years has been pursuing the theory of non-doing agriculture (The Natural Way of Farming), which in turn is inspired by the Buddhist concept of Mu (without).
This is a kind of history of his thought, from the first revelations before the Second World War to a whole series of practical ideas to put, or rather not put, agriculture in motion, leaving it to nature itself.
Unfortunately, my knowledge of botany is very poor so I can not base on factual data my reaction a little bit of bewilderment and a little bit of disbelief that caused me this little ebook, but let's just say that I would love that what the author wrote was not only very feasible, but absolutely functional.

Masanobu Fukuoka é un botanico molto famoso che da 75 anni porta avanti la teoria dell'agricoltura del non fare, che si ispira a sua volta al concetto buddista del Mu (senza).
Questa é una specie di storia del suo pensiero, dalle prime rivelazioni prima della seconda guerra mondiali a tutta una serie di idee pratica per mettere, anzi non mettere, in moto l'agricoltura lasciando praticamente fare alla natura stessa.
Purtroppo le mie nozioni di botanica sono scarsissime quindi non posso fondare su dati di fatto la mia reazione un po' di sconcerto e un po' di incredulitá che mi ha causato questo piccolo ebook, ma diciamo pure che mi piacerebbe tanto che quanto scritto dall'autore fosse non solo molto praticabile, ma assolutamente funzionante.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

I had such high hopes for this one. Penguin's various Ideas series are lovely little books, even if reading this as a Netgalley ARC meant I wouldn't get the physical satisfaction of the pocketable paperback. The title, obviously; I do love a dragonfly, and I was just recently saying how since they'd made it through the last three great extinctions, they would quite likely dart through our current one too. The author is known for preaching 'Do-Nothing Farming', and as someone who always grumps for a couple of days when the communal garden gets mown, weeded or whatever, discomfiting the bees, that sounds like a movement I can get behind. And he opens with a joyous description of the green epiphany which, back before the Second World War, set him on this path:
"I saw nature directly. It was pure and radiant, what I imagined heaven to be. I saw the mountains and rivers, the grasses and trees, the flowers, the small birds and the butterflies as if for the first time. I felt the throbbing of life, delighted in hearing the songbirds and the sound of rustling leaves. I became as light as the wings of a dragonfly, and felt as if I were flying as high as the mountain peaks."

Alas, it's downhill from there. One potentially promising section starts with Fukuoka's observations of how rice, left to its own devices, will naturally hybridise, even outside its own species – but anything we might have gleaned from that is lost by his conclusion that this shows we simply shouldn't classify plants at all: "We would be better off simply appreciating all the diverse forms nature has provided and not interfering." History is full of apparently love-filled revelation which led to nasty places, and here's another one for the list. Mysticism, founded as it must be on experiences which can only be imperfectly captured by a language not evolved to handle them, can very easily shade into anti-intellectualism, but this is a particularly unabashed example: "Actually, I think people would be better off without words altogether." Talking to another writer about their works, Fukuoka says "I've written mine with the idea that books are not useful at all." When he talks about how each fresh discovery science makes just leaves people with more questions, wanting to know yet more, he seems genuinely to think that's a bad thing. One of several points where I once more lamented that I was reading this as an ebook, but this time because if I'd had a physical copy, I could have thrown it across the room without worrying about knackering my 'phone.

So it continues. At best, the book's middle section offers statements of the bleeding obvious: "Even if we speak of the freedom of capitalism, one cannot wilfully act with unlimited freedom, and not everything can be distributed equally, as communism suggests." Yes, middlemen often screw over both farmers and customers when it comes to the price of food – but now, to the inherent evils of that, we can add the second-order consequence that it might encourage people to seek answers in a philosophy as noxious as this. Because when we're not getting time-worn cliches presented as stunning new information in the manner you'd expect to find on a local newspaper's letters page ("I call it 'the mad course of genetic engineering.'"), we're often being ushered into the territory where hippy twaddle goes from vaguely annoying to outright worrying. Fukuoka pushes back against Darwin with a classic misunderstanding of his theories: "One question I have about this theory is: What basis was used to determine which species are higher or lower, and which are strong or weak?" Yet he manages the remarkable double of apparently being fine with social Darwinism; he's fine with letting pests "thin out the weakest individuals" on his farm, and his scepticism of medicine suggests the same holds for the wider world too. "To speak of creatures as beneficial insects, harmful insects, pathogenic bacteria, or troublesome birds is like saying the right hand is good and the left hand is bad." "The only thing for people to decide is how they can best achieve a death that complies with nature's will." I've no interest in prolonging life when its quality has fled, but this seems to go a long way past that. Even when it comes to re-vegetating deserts, one of the other things with which he's most associated, he seems to go maddeningly back and forth. So far as I can make out, his conclusion is that natural deserts are fine but man-made ones should be re-greened. From which it presumably follows that if some cosmic catastrophe threatened Earth, we should let nature take its course there too, and have all these precious ecosystems wiped out? Or is only Earthbound nature which he counts as nature?

This is, of course, only an excerpt from a longer 1996 work, The Ultimatum Of GOD NATURE (though isn't that a classic green ink title?). Possibly it has been excerpted in such a way as to make the original writer look bad, or perhaps Larry Korn's translation is to blame, though certainly that has never been my experience of the Ideas range in the past. Certainly it sounds as if Fukuoka's practical impact on the world, especially in terms of encouraging sustainable farming, was far more beneficial than you'd expect from reading this. Towards the end one even starts to glimpse how, with sections on pine blight, soil exhaustion and desertification that deplore short-term solutions (chemical spraying, building monumental dams and so forth) in favour of taking a holistic approach and addressing the wider causes. Here we get detailed, plausible, practical information on fixes. But that is precisely to apply the human quest for knowledge, and science, and book-larnin', and all those things the early sections of the book have been deploring, and use them to wise ends – rather than the retreat into quietist mulch which Fukuoka has been advocating.

Fukuoka, who spearheaded the 'do-nothing' farming movement, uses this short collection of essays to call us to reassess and restructure our outlook on farming for a more sustainable future. Delving into the radical changes the world must make to avoid catastrophe and the many layers of misunderstandings and misinformation we'd need to unlearn to really understand. Again drawing on his own history in plant pathology to raise some interesting arguements and not only giving us the science but posing ethical and spiritual queries for the reader to think about. Full of strikingly beautiful prose at points, this invoked a very real connection with a nature - this definitely read more like a thought experiment or manifesto.