The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.

Before researchers become researches they should become philosophers.

There is no time in modern agriculture for a farmer to write a poem or compose a song

Straw mulch, a ground cover of white clover interplanted with the crops, and temporary flooding all provide effective weed control in my fields.

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

As far as my planting program goes, I simply broadcast rye and barley seed on separate fields in the fall . . . while the rice in those areas is still standing. A few weeks after that I harvest the rice, and then spread its straw back over the fields as mulch.

The real path to natural farming requires that a person know what unaltered nature is, so that he or she can instinctively understand what needs to be done - and what must not be done - to work in harmony with its processes.