Unless people can become natural people, there can be neither natural farming nor natural food.

Unless people can become natural people, there can be neither natural farming nor natural food.

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.

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

I believe that a revolution can begin from this one strand of straw. Seen at a glance, this rice straw may appear light and insignificant. Hardly anyone would believe that it could start a revolution. But I have come to realize the weight and power of this straw. For me, this revolution is very real.

The simple hearth of the small farm is the true center of our universe.

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