007 – Masanobu Fukuoka Larry Korn

In this podcast, Paul talks with Larry Korn in Ashland, Oregon. Larry was an intern for Masanobu Fukuoka for several years and did the translation for One Straw Revolution.

Larry begins by talking about the time that Bill Mollison (the inventor of permaculture) first met Fukuoka. He also relays the stories of Fukuoka’s experiences in the USA. Larry said he was quite shocked by agriculture in America and how so many people were so disconnected with nature. He discusses how Fukuoka experienced problems with his family understanding his vision. Like most people at the time, they thought he was pretty crazy and wanted to live just a normal Japanese village life.

Paul and Larry spend some time discussing the differences between natural farming, organic farming, and conventional farming. They touch upon how each of these have radically different relationships with nature. Paul then talks a bit about how Fukuoka and Sepp Holzer’s works are so similar. They then get into the details of growing trees from seeds and how Fukuoka felt about it. Spoiler, he loves it. Larry emphasizes how Fukuoka tried to let nature communicate with him rather than using his human mind to make decisions in agriculture.

Larry conveys Fukuokas position on lawns, apple trees, rice, seed balls, desert, agriculture, building soil, feed the world, organic farming, pruning, Sepp Holzer, burdock, dandelion, daikon radish, buckwheat, mustard, white clover, compost, chop and drop, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, grapes, squash, chickens and much, much more.

You can discuss this podcast on this thread at Permies.

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