The One-Straw Revolution_ An Introduction to Natural Farming - Masanobu Fukuoka [61]
How is it that people think science is beneficial to humanity?
Originally grain was ground into flour in this village by a stone mill which was turned slowly by hand. Then a watermill, which had incomparably greater momentum than the old stone grinder, was built to utilize the power of the river current. Several years ago a dam was constructed to produce hydroelectric power and an electrically powered mill was built.
How do you think this advanced machinery works for the benefit of human beings? In order to grind rice into flour, it is first polished—that is, made into white rice. This means husking the grain, removing the germ and the bran, which are the basis of good health, and keeping the leftovers.** And so the result of this technology is the breaking down of the whole grain into incomplete by-products. If the too easily digestible white rice becomes the daily staple, the diet lacks nutrients, and dietary supplements become necessary. The water wheel and the milling factory are doing the work of the stomach and intestines, and their consequence is to make these organs lazy.
It is the same with fuel. Crude oil is formed when the tissue of ancient plants buried deep in the earth is transformed by great pressure and heat. This substance is dug out of the desert, sent to a port by pipeline, and then transported by boat to Japan and refined into kerosene and oil at a big refinery.
Which do you think is quicker, warmer, and more convenient, burning this kerosene or branches of cedar or pine from in front of the house?*** The fuel is the same plant matter. The oil and kerosene just followed a longer path in getting here.
Now they are saying that the fossil fuels are not enough, and that we need to develop atomic energy. To search out the scarce uranium ore, compress it into radioactive fuel and burn it in a huge nuclear furnace is not as easy as burning dried leaves with a match. Moreover, the hearth fire leaves only ashes, but after a nuclear fire has burned, the radioactive waste remains dangerous for many thousands of years.
The same principle holds in agriculture. Grow a soft, fat rice plant in a flooded field and you get a plant easily attacked by insects and disease. If "improved" seed varieties are used one must rely on the help of chemical insecticides and fertilizer.
On the other hand, if you grow a small, sturdy plant in a healthy environment, these chemicals are unnecessary.
Cultivate a flooded rice field with a plow or tractor and the soil becomes deficient in oxygen, the soil structure is broken down, earthworms and other small animals are destroyed, and the earth becomes hard and lifeless. Once this happens, the field must be turned every year.
But if a method is adopted in which the earth cultivates itself naturally, there is no need for a plow or cultivating machine.
After the living soil is burned clean of organic matter and microorganisms, the use of fast-acting fertilizers becomes necessary. If chemical fertilizer is used the rice grows fast and tall, but so do the weeds. Herbicides are then applied and thought to be beneficial.
But if clover is sown with the grain, and all the straw and organic residues are returned to the surface of the field as mulch, crops can be grown without herbicides, chemical fertilizer or prepared compost.
In farming there is little that cannot be eliminated. Prepared fertilizer, herbicide, insecticide, machinery—all are unnecessary. But if a condition is created in which they become necessary, then the power of science is required.
I have demonstrated in my fields that natural farming produces harvests comparable to those of modern scientific