the do-nothing farmer needed to be more attentive and sensitive to the land and seasons than a regular farmer. After all, Fukuoka’s ingenious method was hard-won after decades of his own close observations of weather patterns, insects, birds, trees, soil, and the interrelationships among all of these.

can get some idea of the untapped potential of agriculture by reading F. H. King’s fascinating 1911 book, Farmers of Forty Centuries; Or, Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea, and Japan, which explains how these regions sustained enormous populations for millennia on tiny amounts of land, without mechanization, pesticides, or chemical fertilizers.

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“In a forest there is a lot of diversity and yet there is no chemical fertilization, there is no control, there is no use of insecticides or herbicides, and a forest is super productive and resilient,” says Alejandro Hernandez, TNC’s Chiapas coordinator, who has worked on conservation issues with communities in the region for more than 40 years. “W... See more