Many people think that when we practice agriculture, nature is helping us in our efforts to grow food. This is an exclusively human-centered viewpoint... we should instead, realize that we are receiving that which nature decides to give us. A farmer does not grow something in the sense that he or she creates it. That human is only a small part of the whole process by which nature expresses its being. The farmer has very little influence over that process... other than being there and doing his or her small part.

The increasing desolation of nature, the exhaustion of resources, the uneasiness and disintegration of the human spirit, all have been brought about by humanity's trying to accomplish something.

Left alone, the earth maintains its own fertility, in accordance with the orderly cycle of plant and animal life.

One of the most important discoveries I made in those early years was that to succeed at natural farming, you have to get rid of your expectations. Such "products" of the mind are often incorrect or unrealistic . . . and can lead you to think you've made a mistake if they're not met.

The final principle of natural farming is NO PESTICIDES. Nature is in perfect balance when left alone.

If we throw mother nature out the window, she comes back in the door with a pitchfork.

Weeds play an important part in building soil fertility and in balancing the biological community . . .