MASANOBU FUKUOKA WAS AGAINST NATURAL FARMING WORKSHOPS
- Madhukar Dama
- Jun 3
- 4 min read
Fukuoka’s approach to knowledge was fundamentally different from the modern model of structured teaching. He believed:
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🌱 1. Learning Should Be Through Direct Observation, Not Instruction
> “Don’t ask me what to do. Watch nature. She is the real teacher.”
Fukuoka rejected the idea of technique-based learning.
He saw workshops, seminars, and courses as artificial systems that removed people from direct experience with the land.
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🌾 2. He Opposed Intellectual Farming
He viewed most agricultural education as overly intellectualized and disconnected from reality.
Even when visitors begged for hands-on training, Fukuoka would often respond cryptically or guide them to "observe and feel", rather than instructing step-by-step.
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🧘 3. He Practiced "Non-Teaching"
Like a Zen master, Fukuoka practiced what can be called "non-teaching" — he offered presence and lived example, not curriculum.
Many volunteers were frustrated at first, expecting lectures or technical demonstrations — but Fukuoka offered none.
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✈️ 4. Even During His International Travels, He Refused Structured Sessions
When he traveled to India, Africa, Thailand, and Europe, he was often invited to conduct formal workshops.
He always refused to “teach” or “train” farmers in the standard sense.
Instead, he would walk in the fields, scatter seed balls, and talk about the philosophy of nature.
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🌀 5. His Teaching Was Through Silence and Simplicity
His “workshop,” if any, was the farm itself.
Anyone willing to surrender ego, expectations, and cleverness could absorb something profound.
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QUOTES THAT REVEAL HIS POSITION
> “The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”
— Masanobu Fukuoka
> “I do not particularly like the word ‘workshop.’ I am not a teacher, and there is nothing to teach.”
— As told to Larry Korn (his translator and student)
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SUMMARY
No, Masanobu Fukuoka never conducted workshops in the way the term is commonly used.
He believed that true understanding comes not from instruction but from silent observation and humble living with the land.
His natural farm was both his canvas and his classroom, but he refused to play the role of a teacher, believing instead that Nature was the only true teacher.
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"No Lessons Left to Give"
A huge, layered, slow burn Bukowski-style poem on Masanobu Fukuoka’s refusal to teach
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you come in with shiny notebooks
and city shoes that sink into mud like lies.
you want lessons,
bullet points,
modules,
a certificate at the end,
so you can staple nature to your resume.
but the old man just looks at the wind
and scatters seeds like forgotten prayers.
you’re waiting for him to speak
like professors do,
like gurus do,
like TED Talk prophets do
with headset mics and branded epiphanies.
but all he does is sip tea
and ask if you noticed
how the frogs went silent
right before the first drop of rain.
you think he's senile.
you call it cryptic.
you post on your blog
that the farm is “rustic but unstructured.”
you don't get it.
you never will.
because he’s not here to teach.
he's here to vanish.
into the breath of the soil.
into the cracks of a dry leaf.
into the curve of a rice stalk
bending without breaking.
---
you came for permaculture,
left with calluses on your soul.
you came for tools,
he gave you silence
and a tangle of vines
that whispered everything
you were too loud to hear.
he doesn’t need your approval.
doesn’t want your hashtags.
doesn’t sell anything.
he just watches
the way dew dries
and tells you
you’ve been farming your ego
for too long.
---
he’s not some monk
with lecture notes.
he's an old man
who’s done burying fools
under the illusion of knowledge.
he knows that
“education” is the new fertilizer —
too much of it burns the roots.
he’ll let you follow him
into the citrus orchard,
but he won’t turn around
when you ask
what this plant is called.
he won’t name it.
because names are cages.
and nature runs naked.
---
no, there’s no workshop.
no syllabus.
no tips and tricks.
only a man who broke his back
watching weeds do better
than science ever could.
only a man
who stopped trying to teach
when he realized
that the best students
are the ones
who watch
without asking
what the lesson is.
---
he doesn’t farm crops anymore.
he farms fools like you,
just to see
which ones rot
and which ones
finally sprout
from their own
goddamned silence.
you wanted technique.
he gave you stillness.
you wanted success.
he gave you seeds.
and walked away.
barefoot.
because the world doesn’t need more teachers.
it needs more people
who can shut the hell up
and listen to the trees.
