beccabuse's review
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
4.0
Extremely underrated and unnoticed book in our world today. This book will inspire you to go out and care for the earth, become a farmer, and stop tilling the land. I would recommend to anyone interested in farming, ecology, permaculture and organic farming. Even if you are not interested in these topics, it can open your mindset and take you back to a time that was much simpler. This book shows us how we can "do nothing" with the land; the land will take back and do the work for us to enjoy life.
margardenlady's review
5.0
Fascinating description of a simple lifestyle keyed to the ecology around one. It’s giving me food for thought- translating Japan to northern WI. Lots of interesting ideas about food and food production for humans as part of a natural cycle. 'one should live in a natural environment so that sickness does not appear.'
madtraveler's review
5.0
Recommended to me by a young man in a mountain tribe of Thailand who united his village to grow coffee and other crops in harmony with each other and the land and seasons. This book is about a fellow working for the Japanese department of agriculture, who leaves, disillusioned by modern ag practices, and experiments with growing methods and rotations that turn out to be just as effective as and far simpler than the industrial/commercial methods. This book is one part agriculture, one part philosophy. Food for the soil and soul. Pair it with The Plowman's Folly and see if it doesn't change how you see farming.